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But was it ever that good?
The Perks of Being a Wallflower joins the ranks of young adult coming of age stories that reminds us how joyous - and how horrible - it was to be a teenager. It compares quite favorably with (listed alphabetically so as not show any favoritism):
- Catcher in the Rye
- Charlie Bartlett
- It’s Kind of a Funny Story
- Less than Zero
- That Was Then, This is Now
- The Breakfast Club
- The Outsiders
- Rumble Fish
The movie was directed by Stephen Chbosky, who adapted the screenplay from his 1999 best-selling novel of the same name. Gentle, funny, awkward, and sad, it creates a palpable sense of longing for love, recognition, and inclusion. Perks was set in the 1990s but contains samples of all the indescribable pain and wondrous joy I remember from my teenage years many decades earlier.
Emma Watson, who grew up playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, confirms that she is a skilled actor. She wouldn’t have to be, but she is. I haven’t seen her costars before, but Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller likewise did an impressive job with some difficult material.
Kids have forever wanted to escape their teenage years to finally become adults.
As adults we yearn our whole lives for what we left behind.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower reminds us why.
I do not share anyone's nostalgia for childhood or adolescence. My years growing up were awful because my parents and family were complete idiots. I left home when I turned 18 and never looked back. I paid my own way through college and graduate school, and this achievement includes earning a PhD. No one from my loser family helped me, and I have nothing common with the cheap sentimentality that ripples through our middle class culture over the supposed bittersweet joy of growing up. For me, it is just bitter, and I will not re-visit it. I think all it taught me was to hold grudges, not necessarily a good habit, and, as you can tell, I hold them rather well.
ReplyDeleteIt is about me, and, yes, no one invites me home for the holidays.
ReplyDelete