The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 2012 American coming-of-age romantic drama film written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, and based on his 1999 novel.

Logan Lerman stars as a teenager named Charlie who writes to an unnamed friend, and these epistles chronicle his trials, tribulations, and triumphs as he goes through his freshman year of high school.

The film depicts his struggles with his, unbeknownst to him, post-traumatic stress disorder, as he goes through his journey in high school making new friends, portrayed by Emma Watson and Ezra Miller.

The film's ensemble cast also includes Mae Whitman, Kate Walsh, Dylan McDermott, Joan Cusack, Nina Dobrev, and Paul Rudd in supporting roles.

[2][5][6][7] The Perks of Being a Wallflower had its world premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2012, to a standing ovation.

The film was well received by critics, who praised Chbosky's screenplay and direction, the performances of Lerman, Watson and Miller, soundtrack, execution of its topics, and emotional weight.

Uneasy about beginning his freshman year of high school, he is shy and only manages to make friends with his English teacher.

Sam needs to improve her SAT scores to have a better chance of being accepted into Penn State University, so Charlie offers to tutor her.

At a regular The Rocky Horror Picture Show performance, Sam asks Charlie to fill in for her boyfriend, Craig.

Their friend Mary Elizabeth is impressed and asks him to the Sadie Hawkins dance, and they enter an unsatisfactory relationship.

At a party, when Charlie is dared to kiss the prettiest girl in the room, he chooses Sam, upsetting both her and Mary Elizabeth.

They confide in each other and kiss, but when Sam touches Charlie's thigh, he experiences a flashback of his Aunt Helen, which he passes off.

Charlie eyes a kitchen knife as they burst through the door and awakens in a hospital, where psychiatrist Dr. Burton brings out his repressed memories, revealing that his aunt sexually abused him as a child.

The three revisit the tunnel, having identified the song (Heroes by David Bowie), and Charlie and Sam share a kiss.

After discovering, from her agent, that no one in Hollywood wanted to fund the movie due to its subject matter, Emma Watson flew out to Los Angeles to pitch the film and met with multiple studio executives from all the major film studios such as Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, etc.

In January 2011 after Watson met with and pitched the film to Erik Feig, he gave the greenlight, which led to Summit acquiring the distribution rights.

And since these songs have meant a lot to me, I just wanted you to have them as a soundtrack for whatever you need them to be for your life.”[38][39] The Perks of Being a Wallflower had its world premiere[40] at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2012, to a standing ovation.

The filmmakers appealed, and the MPAA changed it to PG-13 for "mature thematic material, drug and alcohol use, sexual content including references, and a fight—all involving teens".

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.

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.

[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.