The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Directed by Stephen Chbosky

(PG-13)

****

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This coming-of-age movie “seems like the work of a much more experienced director” than the rookie who made it, said Ian Buckwalter in TheAtlantic.com. Adapting his own popular young-adult novel, Stephen Chbosky managed to enlist “a pitch-perfect crew of actors” while fully embracing film’s unique ability to convey emotion. Set in 1991, his story follows a misfit freshman taken in by a group of older teens who’ve made peace with their outsider status. “Practically every scene—many of them painful—rings honest and true,” said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. Which is laudable, considering that the film could have been a “cliché-fest.” But let’s not forget that it’s all built on “the lovely delusion” that “outcasts are the hippest kids around,” said Richard Corliss in Time. Elevating this pat tale, Harry Potter alum Emma Watson “makes a smooth matriculation” into her first naturalistic role, and Logan Lerman is “a one-boy cute festival” as the frosh she takes under her wing. Yet “the niftiest perk” has to be Ezra Miller’s turn as their gay pal. He’s the “Auntie Mame of eccentric teens.”