The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This is a film version of the YA epistolary novel of the same name written by Stephen Chbosky. In fact, Chbosky is so protective of his material that he directs the film also. The wallflower in question is a high school freshman named Charlie, who writes "letters" to an anonymous friend that are narrated in the film and explain some of the events. Without them, the film would be hard to follow. The cast is stellar- with Emma Watson really proving she was absolutely the best actor in the Harry Potter series for a reason.  Charlie fears his freshman year until he falls into a group of quirky seniors. It's the early 1990's and the dialogue and jokes and music are faithful to the age. It has a complex enough plot to keep you interested in all of them- and if it has a cop out ending, well, remember that it was a YA novel and YA novels love to bring in all sorts of issues that evidently must interest adolescents. It was very well written, very poignant and very funny in spots. Some of the dialogue is actually hilarious. I would say that a cynic would say "too predictable". But in a way, almost all movies are predictable. It's the content that counts and this movie is very, very good.