The Perks of Being a Wallflower 2012

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: It's all frightfully familiar - as if teens sitting around the campfire need to be told the same story every night - until the last 15 mins., when this Cocoa Puffs movie reveals an underlayer of arsenic. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: Somehow, these imperfections fit. Somehow, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" shouldn't be flawless. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: I found the ultimate 'statement' of Wallflower to be a humane and encouraging one that the movie manages to deliver without getting overly precious. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Likable, unsurprising and principally a showcase for the pretty young cast, notably Mr. Miller, who brings texture to his witty if sensitive gay quipster. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's nostalgia with an emphasis on nostos, pain. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It is the remarkable Logan Lerman who negotiates his journey to Charlie's self-discovery with so much dignity and vulnerability that he steals every scene and carries the picture. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: While there are humorous and poignant moments, this angst-filled story of tender kisses, awkward dances, friends drifting apart, kindly English teachers, unrequited crushes and drug-addled partying has a nagging sense of deja vu. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," may not do anything groundbreaking, but it tells a familiar story in small, thoughtful ways. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Here's how to make sure your novel arrives on screen with its soul intact: adapt and direct it yourself. Read more

Alison Willmore, AV Club: An earnest, big-hearted ode to friends as support and salvation, and to the talismanic quality a favorite song, treasured hang-out, or shared tradition can take on for a teenager. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: There is an honesty to "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," a genuineness of experience that makes the movie soar when it just as easily could have stumbled. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" finds an unexpectedly moving freshness in the old cliches by remaining attentive to the nuances of what happens within and between unhappy teenagers. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: This big-screen adaptation, written and directed by Chbosky, doesn't advance the source material, though it preserves the book's sensitive tone and affectionate characterizations. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's an earnest indie about a troubled teen, Charlie (Logan Lerman), and his various troubled confederates -- but it does demonstrate that Watson can stand on her own. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: This is clearly a labor of love that was nurtured and sculpted from the beginning. The result is a film that feels exhilarating, fragile, funny and real. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A graceful and beguiling drama adapted from Stephen Chbosky's 1999 novel ... Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: The Perks of Being a Wallflower" captures the phenomenon of high school with all the tenderness and horror it deserves. Read more

Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter: Heartfelt but rather generic. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Thanks to [Chbosky's] stars, the film - like the book - is a smartly observed study of a troubled teen's first year in high school. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: High school can be hell, but Stephen Chbosky's engaging new film argues that anyone can get by with a little help from their friends. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Regardless of the viewer's proximity to his or her own high school experience, "Perks" seems to get it right, precisely because it's not about a specific time or place. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: An occasionally funny, sometimes grim and all-in-all fairly adult look at privileged kids with sometimes awful lives, marred by abuse, drugs, depression, bullying and homophobia. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: It's populated by characters who are just too good to be plausible. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Screenwriter/director Chbosky deserves credit for insisting on adapting a story he knows best, and he takes a heartfelt, if hardly visionary, approach. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower'' is the sort of lower- budget personal film you hardly see being released by a major distributor anymore, except during awards season. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: As a director, Chbosky mirrors his central character's emotional state. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's sad, funny, warm, and nostalgic - kind of like high school, really. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: All of my previous selves still survive somewhere inside of me, and my previous adolescent would have loved "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Perks deserves points for going beyond the typical coming-of-age drivel aimed at teens. Logan Lerman excels as Charlie and Emma Watson makes a dream girl to die for, but the movie is stolen, head to tail, by Ezra Miller. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Fact is, much as you and I might want to protest that we were cooler than these kids, wherever and whenever we did our growing up, we probably weren't. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Stephen Chbosky's script is insightful about the exhilaration of soul-piercing first love, and the misery of being swept into a relationship with someone who's forceful, determined and utterly wrong for you. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Sensitive teens and their older kin who pine for the '90s may want to take it for a spin on the dance floor. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, The Atlantic: Perks seems like the work of a much more experienced director, maintaining fidelity to the source material without sacrificing any cinematic qualities, triggering genuine sentimentality and nostalgia through interaction between sound and image. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Well-soaked in the familiar brine of teen sensitivity. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Verbal play and smartass-ery weaves through Wallflower, but it's of the predictable variety rather than the wryly observant commentary we'd hope for, like when a bored teen drawls: "That works on so many levels." Read more

Guy Lodge, Time Out: Watson holds her own with a character more annoying on paper than in reality, but it's the boys who most impress ... Read more

David Fear, Time Out: You can feel Chbosky's blood, sweat and tears oozing out of this highly personal project, but that holy trinity of fluids isn't enough to wash away the sense that you've seen this before-many, many, many times. Read more

Rob Nelson, Variety: First-time writer-director Stephen Chbosky adapts his young-adult bestseller with far more passion than skill, which suits familiar scenes of adolescent awkwardness aptly enough. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Chbosky plays this CW serial stuff for maximum earnestness, stressing the teenage tendency to assume that every new thing they're feeling is unprecedented in human history, keeping the tone just-moist-eyed throughout. Read more

Jen Chaney, Washington Post: This somewhat disjointed but refreshingly earnest movie ultimately establishes itself as a charmer. Read more