The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012 Film) Stephen Chbosky

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 172 reviews, with an average rating of 7.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a heartfelt and sincere adaptation that's bolstered by strong lead performances."[47] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[48] On CinemaScore, audience members gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[49]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing in his review, "All of my previous selves still survive somewhere inside of me, and my previous adolescent would have loved The Perks of Being a Wallflower".[50]

The lead cast also earned positive notice. Ian Buckwalter of The Atlantic said, "The primary trio of actors delivers outstanding performances, starting with Watson, who sheds the memory of a decade playing Hermione in the Harry Potter series with an about-face as a flirtatious but insecure free spirit. Miller also plays against their most recent performance, which was as the tightly wound eponymous teenage psychopath in We Need to Talk About Kevin, to deliver a giddy, scene-stealing turn as Patrick. Lerman, best known for the Percy Jackson series, shines as Charlie, a role that demands he be immediately likeable while still holding onto some deep darkness that can't be fully revealed until the end."[51]

John Anderson of Newsday also praised the cast, saying "As Sam, the quasi-bad girl trying to reinvent herself before college, she (Emma Watson) brings honesty and a lack of cliche to a character who might have been a standard-issue student. But equally fine are her co-stars: Ezra Miller, who plays the gay character Patrick as something messy and unusual; Paul Rudd, as their English teacher, is refreshingly thoughtful. And Charlie is portrayed by Lerman as quietly observant, yearning and delicate in a way that will click with audiences regardless of age".[52]

Some critics had a less favorable response to the film, with the main criticism being that the portrayal of teenage issues is idealized and the casting uninspired. The Miami Herald critic Connie Ogle notes that "the suicide of Charlie's best friend, which takes place before the film opens, seems glossed over too quickly" despite the event being Charlie's main character motivation in the film.[53] Jack Wilson of The Age writes, "the script is transparently fake at almost every moment, congratulating the gang on their non-conformity while soft-pedalling any aspect of adolescent behaviour—drug use, sex, profanity—that might upset the American mainstream."[54] Richard Corliss of Time criticized the casting of actors in their twenties to play teenage characters unlike Heathers (1989), another coming-of-age film in which the lead actors were actual teenagers.[55]

MTV, Us Weekly and Complex named The Perks of Being a Wallflower one of the best films of 2012.[56][57][58]

The film also influenced the "Tumblr culture" that was around online when the film was released, with online users posting GIFs of the film's cast and aphorisms on the site during the early 2010s.[59]

Accolades