MYST POST #4

For my fourth MYST post, I watched the movie “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, by Stephen Chbosky. I decided to watch it because it was a rainy day, and my girlfriend really wanted me to see it because it’s her favorite movie. The story follows a boy named Charlie in his freshman year of high school. He doesn’t have many friends, and is a generally shy and antisocial kid until he befriends a group of seniors. As we follow Charlie through his first year of high school, we see adversity arise in many different ways. The story covers topics like depression, suicide, love, homosexuality, and drugs, and ends up being a very real view of a teenager’s life. By following Charlie in his story, it ends up relating to the viewers life as well, which made it a very powerful and touching movie.

One part that was especially memorable to me was the final scene of the movie. After Charlie’s senior friends go away to college, he is left alone again. His depression comes back, and he ends up getting put in a psychiatric hospital for treatment. Everything seems to be spiraling downward into a tragic end, when his two closest friends come back to visit. They take him on a car ride through a tunnel they used to drive through together, and Charlie comes to a moment of realization where he fully appreciates everything he has in his life. The whole story leads up to this point, and the music and filming make it into a really special scene.

I thought one of the best parts of the movie was the music. Because it was made to appeal to teenagers, it used upbeat, modern, music in most of the scenes. In other, more serious scenes, the music also fit really well. In addition, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there actually was some element of cinematography involved. In the scene I mentioned above, as well as in many others, long sight lines and perspective made the characters seem either big or small, depending on the situation. The lighting was also dark during the sad scenes, and really bright during the happy ones. It was nice to see that amount of care put into what would normally just be a standard teen movie. It reminded me of the movie Brick we watched in class, with some film noir elements and dry humor spread throughout. It was actually really successful in terms of artistic style and cinematography, which was a nice surprise.

Overall, I would give The Perks of Being a Wallflower a 10/10. I really, really liked it, which is rare for movies of this type. Even though it’s a typical teenage girl’s movie, I thought it was actually really really well done stylistically. I feel like to give anything less than a 10 would be unfair, because there was simply nothing that this movie did badly. Steven Chbosky’s original story provides a real look at a high-schooler’s life, and I think anyone who watches this movie can relate to, and learn from the messages this movie portrays. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially those in high school, to watch this. Don’t be afraid of the “girly” aura that it might exude, this is a competent exploration of life and what it means to appreciate everything we have. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie.