You’re 14. You’re a guy. You got thrown into your local production of Rocky Horror. If you’re not familiar with this phenomenon, let me describe the 80s in brief – college campuses would play a Friday or Saturday Midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and self-appointed echo thespian college kids would act out the film in front of the screen as it was going on. So, suppose you are part of this production. You’re Rocky. This particular part requires you to strip significantly. You’re wearin’ gold lamé undies on stage. This is your entire outfit. And then the script calls for you to feel up Emma Watson, currently down to her bra. How do not get wood? Somebody please explain that one to me.
The fella here is freshman Charlie (Logan Lerman), mascot to the senior “fuck this” crowd. Assuming a “fuck this” crowd has an alpha, that title is shared by step-sibs Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Watson). It’s not quite known why they acquire a mascot, but they do. Charlie wasn’t doing anything anyway. Seriously. Nothing. You’ll find few kids so ill-at-ease in high school. All he can do is count the days until he graduates, starting at 1,385. Oh my. You’re in for a tough ride, kid.
Openly gay Patrick is the kind of guy who deliberately flunks shop. You know: the kind of rebel we love in movies but hate in real life. And his classmates hate him, too. It’s nice for The Perks of Being a Wallflower to acknowledge that. Sam is the pretty girl who always picks the wrong guy. You want to hate her, but sometimes she picks you, 
too. Their little club of Rocky Horrors has exactly the same care for the masses as the honey badger [See: youtube]. Perks strings together several nice rebellion scenes without really telling a story. We like it when innocent Charlie downs a laced brownie and the seniors toy with him like cats batting around a mouse. We like it when Hermione falls in love with David Bowie’s “Heroes” (although, to be truthful, I much preferred the revisitation in Moulin Rouge!) We like it when Sam kisses Charlie. We like it when Patrick kisses Charlie. I liked all these scenes; I just couldn’t tell you the plot or that the movie was saying anything other than, “life sucks, but you gotta keep living.” Maybe it doesn’t need to.
I suppose there’s only gonna be one Breakfast Club. No matter what you do, no tale of teen defiance in the face of daily life oppression will ever quite hit that chord. But I love the attempts. The Perks of Being a Wallflower has value along these lines. It will never be a classic, but it might merit that “did you see it? No? You should, man! You should.” I think it will also serve as a lightning bolt for career starts. Logan Lerman, so forgettable as Lightning Thief Percy, is suddenly a potential star. Emma Watson needed this role badly to break successfully from Hermione. I daresay she succeeded. I think Ezra Miller, quarterback Johnny Simmons, and 80s-hair girlfriend Mae Whitman all have promising futures. You might look back on Perks one day and say, “hey, they were all here.” Kind of the exact opposite of the Breakfast Club, where the story held true, but the actors all faded. We shall see.
Freshman Charlie kept self company
When a senior said, “come be with me”
Adventures they had
And made Charlie glad
But that still won’t net him Hermione
Rated PG-13, 113 Minutes
D: Stephen Chbosky
W: Stephen Chbosky, based on his book
Genre: Tales of a high school failure
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Nerds!
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Jocks
