The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: September 21, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 3, 2012
I adore The Perks of Being a Wallflower for its honest, unsentimental feel, which gets stretched a bit in the revelatory finale, but by then I didn't mind. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliSep 27, 2012
The Perks of Being a Wallflower hurts. It hurts because it depicts the loneliness, anxiety and all-out quivering mess of adolescence in a manner not often seen since John Hughes' heyday. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanSep 19, 2012
The movie is tough-minded: It zeroes in on Patrick's anger at dating a closeted football star, and it doesn't let Charlie off the hook for his cruelty or self-pity. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreSep 19, 2012
The film is also 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 full review
91
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 14, 2012
Touching and brimming with the energy, enthusiasm and tides of teenage love and life, 'Perks' could very well be the next classic of the genre. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 27, 2012
The Perks of Being a Wallflower finds an unexpectedly moving freshness in the old clichés by remaining attentive to the nuances of what happens within and between unhappy teenagers. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSep 26, 2012
It offers the rare pleasure of an author directing his own book, and doing it well. No one who loves the book will complain about the movie, and especially not about its near-ideal casting. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellSep 28, 2012
The movie's perfectly understated, warts-and-all sense of time and place will send any suburban Gen Xer in the audience flashing right back to their less-cautious days, when mix tapes did heavy lifting as calling cards. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinOct 1, 2012
An honest, affection-hooking, coming-of-age drama which proves that there is life beyond Hogwarts for Emma Watson. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 26, 2012
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 full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirSep 20, 2012
If at first I tried to resist these hapless Pennsylvania teens who'd never even heard of David Bowie, for Christ's sake, I was won over completely by the time Patrick and Sam are ready to graduate and Charlie has faced down his demons one more time. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 17, 2012
That's the feeling Stephen Chbosky captures in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, his exquisite adaptation of his best-selling YA novel about a Pittsburgh high-school freshman who doesn't fit in and then all of a sudden does, for a spell. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondSep 15, 2012
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is a sweet surprise, a funny, touching terrific and quite wonderful movie that gets it all right about the joys and heartbreaks of growing up circa 1991. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeySep 27, 2012
Unlike most films about teenagers, the performances are happy-sad-realistic. Lerman, who plays the least expressive of the three principals, does a fine job at suggesting the active inner life of an externally inexpressive youth. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickSep 21, 2012
The acting is first-rate, and remarkably there's no sense that the sometimes tough material (which barely skirts an R rating) has been watered down to make it more palatable for a wider audience. I just wish Chbosky had changed that terrible title for the movie. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 20, 2012
Perks deserves points for going beyond the typical coming-of-age drivel aimed at teens. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 19, 2012
The Perks of Being a Wallflower tweaks the formula just enough to remain fresh and offer something a little new. It's sad, funny, warm, and nostalgic - kind of like high school, really. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeySep 20, 2012
Back in the director's chair for only the second time, the filmmaker, like his main character, is a little unsteady on his feet. But thanks to his stars, the film - like the book - is a smartly observed study of a troubled teen's first year in high school. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 21, 2012
As Sam, the wayward stepsister of Charlie's sardonic friend Patrick (Ezra Miller), Watson doesn't lose her cool, or her warmth, in a role that might easily have devolved into terminal sappiness. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 5, 2012
Too modest to become a worldwide phenomenon, but sensitive teens and their older kin who pine for the '90s may want to take it for a spin on the dance floor. Read full review
63
Washington PostJen ChaneySep 28, 2012
The empathy-generating performances by the charismatic young actors -- particularly the uber-confident Miller and a simultaneously punk-rock cynical and girlishly fragile Mae Whitman -- compensate for any missteps. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedSep 25, 2012
A structurally messy but emotionally effective coming of age movie that gets a lot of it right. High school is an ordeal only the fittest can survive. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 20, 2012
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 full review
60
Total FilmEllen E. JonesSep 21, 2012
Logan Lerman delivers a career-making turn in this sweet, sincere film. It might not be a massive hit, but it will certainly ease a few paths through the awkwardness of adolescence. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 20, 2012
The results are 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 full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanSep 20, 2012
Lerman is suited to the title role in that he plays Charlie as wide-eyed and rather unmemorable. Watson doesn't seem entirely relaxed as an American teen, though she does serve as a lovely first crush. Among the adults making brief but notable appearances is Paul Rudd, as a sympathetic English teacher. Read full review
60
VarietyRob NelsonSep 13, 2012
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 full review
55
NPRMark JenkinsSep 20, 2012
It's populated by characters who are just too good to be plausible. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceySep 28, 2012
As long as Chbosky sticks to the story of surviving high school, Perks has a modest charm. But a melodramatic last-act bombshell about Charlie's troubled past, is jarring – like the giant foot of Godzilla descending to squash tender Bambi. It's a case of too much, too late and, ultimately, from a different kind of movie. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesSep 27, 2012
Chbosky surrounds his hurting characters with the cinematic equivalent of a hug circle – which is sweet, but rather antithetical to tension-building. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKarina LongworthSep 18, 2012
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 full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerSep 13, 2012
A heartfelt but rather generic coming-of-age dramedy. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissSep 13, 2012
Watson makes a smooth matriculation from the England-made Harry Potter epics to this movie's thrifty, six-week Pittsburgh shoot. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearSep 18, 2012
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 full review
40
The GuardianHenry BarnesSep 13, 2012
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a perfect fit for its target audience – the Harry Potter kids who are following Emma Watson through her baby steps towards the stronger stuff. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChris CabinSep 16, 2012
A risible, somewhat revolting piece of pop martyrdom, made for and isolated to the damaged middle class. Read full review
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