GRADE • A

DVD • There's an earnest longing in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" that most teen dramas are too cool to show.

It's the early '90s, and freshman Charlie (Logan Lerman) falls in with his school's outcast seniors, chiefly the flamboyant Patrick (Ezra Miller) and his half-sister Sam (Emma Watson). In his new tribe, Charlie encounters alcohol and Ecstasy, first love, heartbreak and "Rocky Horror" — but is still beset by his troubled past, with disturbing memories of his Aunt Helen (Melanie Lynskey).

Writer-director Stephen Chbosky, adapting his own 1999 novel, employs his cast perfectly to capture the thousand little tragedies and triumphs of teen life, when all seems possible and every moment is life-or-death. —

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