Surprise! The movie about the quiet kid who likes books and socially awkwardly finds his way into a group of weirdos that includes one of the best gay teen performances ever has turned out to be one of my favorite movies of the year!
Surprise! The one where the kid sings Air Supply in a Jesus Christ Super Star T-Shirt!
Surprise! The one where these incredible teenagers hunt all movie just to find that Bowie is the most liberating music of all -- as they burst from the darkened tunnel of teen angst into wind-in-the-hair style revelry -- into starry nighted Bowie-ness. That one.
SUH. Prize.
Yeah, that one, where the kid reads A Separate Peace and carries a 45 of my favorite Beatles song.... I don't know what it was about it ... but somehow, a notch above Zero Dark Thirty and a notch below The Dark Knight Rises, I pick The Perks of Being a Wallflower - one of the best teen films I have seen in years.
In fact, it's probably the best American teen film in ten years -- excluding, of course, the mess of excellent comedies that have rolled out. This movie is not a comedy. There's some great laughs -- GREAT laughs. But this is no comedy. This was a real-ish teen experience that falls somewhere in that Cameron Crowe/John Hughes ballpark. These 80s/90s titans were obviously quite different but Chbosky's movie of his own novel... lands there. It lands in the realm of Ordinary People -- though I will freely admit it is no Ordinary People. It lands in the realm of Breaking Away -- though I will admit it is no Breaking Away
So what is it about The Perks of Being a Wallflower that has those who love it hooked as hard as they were by (500) Days of Summer -- and if you really just said, "Ugh, I didn't like that one either!" just stop reading. This post is not for you.
I knew nothing of the novel except that it was a smash success people told me I should read. However, when I heard that Chbosky was going to make the film himself, I opted to wait. I may read it now -- who knows -- neither here nor there. The point is I walked into the film with zero expectations. I knew there were three exceptional teen actors in the lead roles. I was unprepared for what a monumental trio they would turn out to be and how there is a new kind of iconography in the way that group works. Any teen writer worth his salt is going to say the phrase, "Kind of like Perks of Being a Wallflower," some time in the next year. It's just how it is. We all have Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, and Ezra Miller to thank for that.
Watson and Miller's step-sibling-soul-mates were the incredible guardian angels to swoop in and carry wounded Lerman's character into a world that may not have been the coolest kids in the world -- though Brad did show up at their parties -- but they were excellent spirits who insisted on having liberating experiences. How fitting for Pittsburgh, home of Andy Warhol.
Here these zine printing, mix tape making, Rocky Horror performers found a world of comfort among each other where there wasn't a struggle to climb ranks. There wasn't a sense of who lived on which side of what tracks, and there wasn't a sense of tension arising from anything -- except one's actions and one's past. That was an angle Chbosky played well. We see just enough woundedness in each of the three leads to pull us right into their world. Yes -- truth be told -- I find it hard to believe that any character Emma Watson plays is or was a slut. That was difficult to accept. Not "Danny Zucko lettered in track" difficult -- but it seemed off. Could be I've got Hermione on a pedestal -- a teen should correct me. Miller and Lerman's woes really struck a chord.
The love between this triangle of spirits swallowed me whole. For some, it simply was too wordy. Well... to you I say... some things should be too wordy. Some of us (clearly) are too wordy and they should be represented at all ages. Far too often, teenagers leaning on each other as they weather through years of unrequited love are forgotten. Suddenly you go to the prom - you become popular - you take off those pesky glasses and someone realizes you're a movie star, have been the whole time. Well, that's not Perks. This is a kid who listens to The Smiths while reading Harper Lee getting the balls to sneak onto the dancefloor for a little "Come On Eileen." And it's not only the bravest thing he does -- but the first in a stretch of brave moves by a real scaredy cat. Someone whose life blossomed because of love.
Well, I'll take it.
And I do feel there has simply been too much sappy material since about -- well -- either the end of "Seinfeld" or 9/11. There has been a push for everyone to learn something and get somewhere with their spirit that I feel betrays reality and entertainment. It's particularly annoying in the teen world where there's a time for a feel good movie -- and then there's a time where a movie should set some real expectations. Perks is on the sunny side of "real expectations" with a dash of after school special drama. But, for many people, so is life.
There was a moment this summer where I considered the fact that both Perks of Being a Wallflower and Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom -- which I will write more extensively about after awards season -- could both be nominated. To me, this was a marvel. The stylized French Movie-esque Andersonian love tale that was Moonrise and the more bookish and heartbreaking Perks. Two films about adolescence that grabbed significant audiences. Neither of these films got the awards recognition it deserves -- and I feel the Academy is foolish in this regard.
Moonrise was just as much a faux-indie darling as Beasts of the Southern Wild -- more so, it seemed. Yet Moonrise was locked out to the picture game -- it's significant nomination being for Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola in the original screenplay category. As I will discuss the closer we get to the awards -- this is perfectly fine for Anderson. Guys like Wes and Roman are of the Quentin Tarantino, Jane Campion, Neil Jordon, Sofia Coppola breed -- the award's original screenplay. But to leave it out of a field of ten -- when Winters Bone and An Education were both nominees -- it seems foolish.
I'm going to go so far as to say it seems "ageist." Perks not even landing a screenplay nomination is absurd. Look, this is a worst nightmare year for anyone in the adapted category. EVERYTHING is adapted. You're gonna have to jump -- of the bat -- and swim with Silver Linings, Argo, and Lincoln? Lots of luck. But the truth is -- regardless of that -- if there's one thing Perks was, it was written. There's been a lot of bizarre events this award season. Perhaps this one is screwy Oscar math, too. But my gut tells me it's that movies about young people simply don't get the recognition they deserve. It consequently creates a space where solid moves about youth are a rarity.
Breaking Away took original screenplay, as did Dead Poets. Of course Redford, Hutton, and Sargent all took home Oscars for Ordinary People. But there's a void of these films -- in existence, let alone as award winners. Truth is, they're tough to make -- they're tough to pull off. The same people who love Running on Empty would kill me if I said Life as a House were just as good. It's a tough audience you're playing to. So all I'm saying is when they're well done, they should be celebrated. There's 10 spaces up there. If The Blind Side can get one, Perks OR Moonrise deserves one, too -- especially if you're only nominating NINE!
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