Saturday, January 12, 2013

2012 - IN REVIEW: MOST UNDERRATED





THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

The most underrated film in my eyes of 2012 was “The Perks Of Being A Wallflower”, a delightful little film that was so much more than it appeared.  Before seeing the film, I assumed that it would be just another silly high-school film with little depth, filled with cardboard cutouts as characters and would be clichéd to the extreme.  It is safe to say that I was very wrong with my assumption.  The film which was written and directed by Stephen Chbosky (who adapted his own novel of the same name) is a beautiful piece of cinema that may be as important to today’s generation as the film’s of John Hughes were to mine.  What surprised me most about “The Perks Of Being A Wallflower” was its depth and the number of serious issues that it tackles, but it does so with a lightness of touch that makes the film infinitely enjoyable to watch.  That doesn’t mean that Chbosky tackles these issues in a trivial manner, instead he gives them the respect and honesty that they deserve, but he doesn’t let the film drown within the character’s sadness; amazingly he is able to make the film very entertaining even as we watch our characters go through terrible pain.  The issues that the film and the characters deal with are depression, friendship, dealing with the aftereffects of sexual abuse, love, suicide, sexual identity and the beauty of life itself.  I may have made the film sound very heavy and a bit of a downer, but it is the opposite, as the lack of heavy handedness in regards to these issues allows the film to rise to significant heights as the joy of friendship and life is ultimately celebrated the most.

Performances within the film are superb with everyone working together in this ensemble cast.  Logan Lerman is outstanding as our main character and he does an excellent job of balancing the light and darkness within this demanding and complex role.  The highest praise I can give Emma Watson, is that not once did I think about Hermione Granger, her role from the “Harry Potter” films, once.  With this film, she has left her most famous character behind and has shown just how large a range she has; she is magnificient.  Oh and I loved her hair in this.  Likewise Ezra Miller is miles away from his most well known role from “We Need To Talk About Kevin”.  Gone is the dark and disturbing psychopath, and in return we get the very fun and openly gay Patrick.  It is a very flashy role and Miller nails it, and is the heartbeat (in regards to fun, that is) to this film.  I honestly do not have enough nice things to say about this film; it was a magnificent surprise and is most certainly 2012 most underrated film.  I recommend everyone check it out the first chance they can get.

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