By MELISSA KELLEY
WCPL Cataloging Supervisor

More times than not, movies about high school miss the mark. Whether it’s the actors, the stories, or just the overall feeling of inaccuracy, it just rarely feels authentic. When I think of “Perks of being a Wallflower” I think perfection! Everything about this movie is spot on. The acting, directing, soundtrack, the story, the writing – everything!

Take the best things about the 1980’s and 1990’s: making mix tapes for people you like, going to dances, having a first crush, dealing with insecurities and shyness, knowing deep secrets about the popular people in school and then combine all of the dramatic scenes with very powerful performances, and you have a film that is absolutely fabulous!

“Perks” takes place in 1991, and centers around a group of friends who are in high school in Pittsburgh. All of them are seniors except one, Charlie (Logan Lerman), who as an incoming freshman is already counting down the days to graduation(1384). Charlie starts high school with no friends, a messed up past and struggles with mental illness.

He then meets Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Stone) a couple of sibling seniors who befriends and welcomes him into their group of friends. From there Charlie starts to experience quite a few firsts in his life, kiss, girlfriend, first high, etc. The acting is superb especially Emma Watson, who proves she’s not just Hermione Granger (I was impressed) I was also impressed that Stephen Chbosky not only wrote the novel, but the screenplay as well and even directed the film! (What a talent)

In terms of high school movies I would put this right by “Breakfast Club” because “Perks” depicts the loneliness, anxiety and all-out mess of adolescence so perfectly.

So what was this movie trying to say to all of us? Charlie said it best when he said “I know we’ll all become somebody-we’ll all become old photographs and we’ll all become somebody’s mom and dad. Right now these moments are not stories, this is happening … and in this moment I swear we are infinite.” And it did happen to us and our parents and it is happening right now to our children and we all are infinite.

So if you are feeling a bit nostalgic why not come into the Warsaw Community Public Library and make it a movie night!