"The Perks Of Being A Wallflower"
2012
PG-13
Produced by: John Malkovich, Lianne Halfon, Russell Smith
Directed by: Stephen Chbosky
Written by: Stephen Chbosky
Starring: Logan Lerman, Dylan McDermott, Kate Walsh
Summit Entertainment

3.36/5 Stars
Consensus: While it has its great moments the film is ultimately depressing and hits way too many buttons that are way too close to home. Sappy acting and poor directing made the film suffer a great deal, but its worth at least one watch and has several redeeming qualities including a great script and other powerful moments that are engaging and emotional.

Plot: We follow a quite and shy freshman by the alias of "Charlie" (Logan Lerman) as he begins high school. Charlie is friendless and suffers from depression, he is taken under the wings of upper-class men "Patrick" (Ezra Miller) and his step sister "Sam" (Emma Watson). Charlie develops feelings for Sam and eventually must learn to cope with his troubled past with the help of both her and Patrick.

Directing: Although it has its good moments, its clear author and director Stephen Chbosky is a relative new comer and just getting his feet wet. Overall he did a good job, especially for an entry level director, but there were parts of the film that were seriously lacking, specifically the main character seemed very wooden and didn't seem to understand his relationship with the other characters terribly well. This could be in part because he is a relatively new actor, but it didn't seem like a ton of time was given to directing him either. Again there were parts that were well done, its by no means totally awful, it could have used more attention to detail however. ***1/2

Acting: Emma Watson is as splendid as ever, as is Ezra Miller, but everyone else is horrendously sappy and Hallmark-esq. Its extremely tacky and unappealing. The entire cast seems to be picked from a soap opera or recruited right from high school theater. This is notably bad when compared to Miller and Watson who are stellar together, and (Watson) clearly has already had much experience with film acting. This was probably the low point of the film, and in their defense, high school drama films are difficult to pull off without much sappiness, since the entire situation is sappy to begin with. So is the nature of high school and the drama that is incurred there.  Because of this it makes the acting entirely bearable, but still unappealing in the end. Watson isn't even at her best, Miller could have benefited from better directing, but still does a great job, and everyone else is trying so hard to be good they come off like they are trying really hard to be good, and not doing a super good job at it.... **1/2

Editing: This aspect was extremely well done and well placed, especially several upsetting, but well placed and important scenes, wherein Charlie has flashbacks to his early childhood. The semi-linear editing mixed with flashbacks and voice-over narrative were effective and one of the key things that brought life to the film. Another well done scene, wherein Charlie gets into a fight in school, but blacks out, is also well done. We see the footage the initially gets blacked out, from the fight, later on as Charlie has a mental breakdown and flashbacks to his early childhood. Possibly the best element of this film was the well done editing. ****1/2

Art Direction: It looks and feels like the early 90s in Pennsylvania. Nothing is too stand out-ish, the Rocky Horror Picture bits are especially well done costuming. But nothing is so breathtaking or gorgeous we stop and say "wow the art direction in this film is so good!" it passes though. ***1/2

Cinematography: Like the art direction, nothing especially stands out. One thing that was bothersome was how hard they tried to make the film look like a super indie film. Although it technically is, it is also based off a novel many consider a modern classic, and it ironically becomes generic when you TRY to make your film look indie and low-budget. It lacked a lot of appeal in that aspect. For the most part it followed suit of the acting, very sit-com-ish and nothing super spectacular. ***

Screenplay: Ironically the actors are given very good dialogue and prose. This was another extremely good aspect of the film, its just unfortunate that the actors weren't given a better director to help them deliver the great lines they were given. You'd expect this from a novelist like Chbosky, he did a great job interperting his novel into a film, if he hadn't directed the thing as well it might be even better. Or even if he had co-directed. The best line in the movie, and the most emotional, "in that moment, I swear we are infinite" the dialogue and prose is very tragic and poetic and extremely well written dialogue that makes sense and fits each character. So its a problem of poor directing mingled with inexperienced, but potentially good actors with a great script. *****

CGI/Special Effects: There was a cool scene where a character does acid and everything blends together and time gets trippy. Outside of that we are gratefully without CGI!!! Hurray for indie films and indie budgets!!!! *****