Movies |
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
directed by Stephen Chbosky
By
Published: Mar 28, 2023
Category:
Drama
Do you remember “Dear Evan Hansen?” It was a monster hit on Broadway, winning 6 Tony Awards and, starting in 2016, filling the Music Box Theatre for almost six years. The set-up was genius: a therapist has his bullied, friendless, 17-year-old patient write letters to himself describing what will be good each day. Something happens, and he’s complicit in a lie that makes him look heroic, and there’s an ending so falsely upbeat that our 13-year-old daughter was offended.
You probably don’t remember “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” This 1999 novel by Stephen Chobsky was also about a friendless high school kid. It became a film in 2012, written and directed by the novelist. I asked our hyper-critical teenager if she recalled it. Most definitely: “The biggest film of the year. Everybody saw it.”
In 2013, “Perks” was on HBO. I was doing something in another room, but I listened to one scene, and then I listened to another, and then I went in and surrendered to the film, and when it was over, I thought, simply, wow.
“Perks” is about Charlie (Logan Lerman), a high school student with heavy baggage and one hope: that he’ll fit in at school and make friends. And he does — with the freaks, notably the flamboyantly gay Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Patrick’s stepsister, Sam (Emma Watson). “Perks” has the usual high school issues: cliques, insecurity, sex, love, loneliness. Oh, and bullying. And homophobia. And, lurking below the surface, mental health. Why is Charlie a wallflower? “You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand. You’re a wallflower.”
Watch the trailer. You’ll see the connection: “Dear Evan Hansen” stands on the shoulders of “Perks of Being a Wallflower.” [To stream the film on Amazon Prime, click here.]
Patrick survives — really: triumphs — through his friendships. He makes a place for himself in his world. And, in the process, he remakes himself. Along the way, he achieves the kind of sensitivity that suggests he may become the writer he hopes to be: “I know there are people who say these things don’t happen, and there are people who forget what it was like to be 16 when they turn 17, and I know these will all be stories someday, and our pictures will all become photographs, and we’ll all become somebody’s mom and dad. but right now these moments are not stories, this is happening, I am here, and I am looking at her and…”
There’s a song in the film that’s especially touching. It’s “Heroes,” a David Bowie classic. In their unheralded teenage lives, it’s a dream: “We could be heroes, just for one day.” Yes, heroes. Sad Charlie. Lonely Sam. Gay Patrick. And, in memory and identification: You. Me.
