Look, love it or hate it, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) is pretty pretentious. Most of the main characters are the teenage archetype of “everyone else in this school is lame because they like main stream things”, and the movie produces quite a few eye roll inducing moments as these character wax poetic. But, even with all the eye rolling and audible scoffs, I liked the movie. The only problem is, most of what I like about the movie takes place in the last forty or so minutes of the movie. So, its all spoilers. Just know, it is emotional gut punch after emotional gut punch. But, there are some non-spoiler stuff that I did like about the movie. Well, three things. The first is Paul Rudd. Paul Rudd plays the main character’s teacher and he is great. The second is this interaction between the main character and his dad:

Charlie: Dad, can I have 30 dollars?

Father: 20 dollars? What do you need 10 dollars for?

I just found that to be really funny. So, I’m including it here. The third is the soundtrack. As pretentious as the characters are about their music tastes, they do have really good taste. Or at least I think they do… I don’t know. I’m always a sucker for David Bowie’s “Heroes” and any movie that has the guts to have characters unironically listen to “Come on Eileen” instantly earns my respect.

So, if you can sit through the eye rolls, there is a pretty good movie here. It is streaming in the U.S. on Netflix now. Enjoy.

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