The Perks of Being a Wallflower (12A.)
Directed by Stephen Chbosky.
Starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd, Dylan McDermott and Joan Cusack. 103 mins.
Perks is a whiney, self absorbed teen drama, set in the early 90s, about a whiney, self absorbed outsider, Lerman, who is having tough time adapting to life at High School until he hooks up with some older whiney, self absorbed outsiders, primarily Watson and Miller, and becomes marginally happier with his whiney, self absorbed lot.
Chbosky’s screenplay, adapted from his book, indulges his young characters and their sufferings completely. It is such a bog standard view of teen angst – there’s the Inspiring and Understanding English Teacher (Rudd) who gets our young protagonist (a would-be writer naturally) to read Catcher in the Rye; the quarterback who is a closet homosexual and there are posters of The Smiths everywhere.
For someone who was last seen playing D’Artaganan, Lerman makes a credible sensitive outsider but the pick of the cast is Miller, an unlikely cross between Jimmy Fallon and Richard Ashcroft, who plays the flamboyantly gay Patrick, the third point in the central triangle. He previously impressed playing the older version of the Kevin We Need To Talk About, and gives the film what little zest it has. Watson doesn’t quite fit in; like she was a guest star in a long running series.
Adolescence is a delicate and awkward period in anyone’s life with all those embarrassingly exaggerated emotions. If it is/was a precious time in your life you may well identify strongly, feeling it really captures that time in your life. For most anyone else it will be vaguely repelling listening to these pampered youths fretting over whether they will succeed in getting into that top University and if precisely every single one of their ambitions will be realised.
Directed by Stephen Chbosky.
Starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd, Dylan McDermott and Joan Cusack. 103 mins.
Perks is a whiney, self absorbed teen drama, set in the early 90s, about a whiney, self absorbed outsider, Lerman, who is having tough time adapting to life at High School until he hooks up with some older whiney, self absorbed outsiders, primarily Watson and Miller, and becomes marginally happier with his whiney, self absorbed lot.
Chbosky’s screenplay, adapted from his book, indulges his young characters and their sufferings completely. It is such a bog standard view of teen angst – there’s the Inspiring and Understanding English Teacher (Rudd) who gets our young protagonist (a would-be writer naturally) to read Catcher in the Rye; the quarterback who is a closet homosexual and there are posters of The Smiths everywhere.
For someone who was last seen playing D’Artaganan, Lerman makes a credible sensitive outsider but the pick of the cast is Miller, an unlikely cross between Jimmy Fallon and Richard Ashcroft, who plays the flamboyantly gay Patrick, the third point in the central triangle. He previously impressed playing the older version of the Kevin We Need To Talk About, and gives the film what little zest it has. Watson doesn’t quite fit in; like she was a guest star in a long running series.
Adolescence is a delicate and awkward period in anyone’s life with all those embarrassingly exaggerated emotions. If it is/was a precious time in your life you may well identify strongly, feeling it really captures that time in your life. For most anyone else it will be vaguely repelling listening to these pampered youths fretting over whether they will succeed in getting into that top University and if precisely every single one of their ambitions will be realised.
