When approaching any coming of age film, it is easy for the writer/director to forget the hardships that came with growing up and instead create a nostalgic, clichéd and sometimes downright dull movie.
So you’d be right in feeling dubious about Perks of Being a Wallflower. But luckily Stephen Chbosky’s film avoids those pitfalls which so many other films have fallen victim to, producing a sincere account of adolescence, which truly lives up to the cult novel that inspired it.
Set in the early 90s, the film follows freshman Charlie (Lerman), who is dealing with the suicide of his best friend, and desperately trying to fit in. Luckily for him he meets the flamboyantly gay Patrick (Erza Miller) and his step sister Sam (Watson) who quickly include him in their group of ‘misfit toys’.
With strong performances from Logan Lerman, Erza Miller and Emma Watson, who proves that she can do more than just say ‘wingardium leviosa’, plus an engrossing soundtrack, there is little to fault.
Overall, Perks of Being a Wallflower joins the ranks of other superior coming of age films such as Juno, and ups the standard for future film makers looking to explore their adolescence.