By Stephanie Caron – Editor-in-Chief 

The award winning moving “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” directed by Stephen Chbosky, follows a socially awkward high school freshman on his journey of making friends and dealing with depression. 

The 2012 movie was based off of the 1999 book “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” written by Stephen Chbosky was the talk of coming of age movie category. Despite the release in 2012, the movie is as popular as ever.

With popular actress and actors: Emma Watson playing Samantha Button, Logan Lerman playing Charlie Kelmeckis, and Ezra Miller playing Patrick Stewart, we follow Charlie as he meets two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who take him under their wing after they find out Charlie lost his best friend to suicide the prior year and had no friends. 

The movie is a chilling reality to the hardships of high school. Moments throughout the movie are light-hearted and joyful but we also see the side of Charlie that he keeps to himself. We see his eternal struggle with flashbacks of his late Aunt Helen who died on his birthday years prior. 

Becoming close to Sam and Patrick introduced Charlie to a whole group of people who were like him, misfits. The movie shows how much of a difference friends can make in someone’s life. It was not until Charlie had lied to one of his friends in the group about his true feelings when his mental health took a major decline. Later it blew up in his face when the tight-knit friend group were playing truth or dare, and the seniors wanted nothing to do with him. 

Though the beginning of the movie was light-hearted and joked around about Charlie’s struggles with his mental health, once he had broken his friends trust the movie takes a dramatic turn. We see Charlie unravel, his depression and PTSD get worse and worse. He finally felt like he belonged somewhere, but now he was alone all over again. 

This movie is beautifully made, and the casting choices were incredible. Everyone should take the time to watch “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” because it shines light on a “taboo” topic that most coming of age movies do not always talk about. It is educational, emotional, and funny. This movie not only can connect to high school students who might be struggling with similar problems but many adults find this movie connects to them as well. 

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” changed the coming-of-age movie category and continues to leave a positive impact on those who can relate to Charlie in any way. It is a memorable film that deserves the hype it receives. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars