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PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

"Teenage Self-Pity, Angst, Narcissism, Obsession, and Over-Indulgence"

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What You Need To Know:

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is a comedy drama about a group of quirky teenagers not fitting in with their peers. It focuses on Charlie, a shy freshman entering high school. Charlie becomes friends with two quirky seniors, Patrick and Patrick’s stepsister, Samantha. As their friendship develops, Charlie falls in love with Samantha, uses LSD, drinks alcohol and goes to midnight showings of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. He finds out Patrick is having a secret homosexual affair with the star football player. Viewers find out Charlie has repressed a childhood incident where his beloved Aunt Helen molested him.

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is an exploration of teenage angst, laced with comedy. The actors clearly love with their parts and the story. So, many moviegoers may succumb to their charms. WALLFLOWER promotes a Romantic worldview of feelings over reason. It also makes light of teenage drug abuse and other risky behaviors. Finally, the homosexual references are mindlessly politically correct. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is despicable, shallow filmmaking.

Content:

(RoRoRo, FR, PCPC, HoHo, C, LLL, VV, SS, N, AA, DDD, MM) Very strong Romantic worldview showing teenagers engaged in risky behavior, including doing drugs and standing up in a truckbed without a seatbelt while the truck goes racing down the street, with a false religious conclusion that people can be “infinite” (instead of connecting with the infinite and with eternity by re-establishing a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ) and with strong politically correct content, including a supporting character is a homosexual who gets bullied, plus references to Christmas and a Christian dinner prayer by the protagonist’s father; 15 obscenities (no “f” words), five strong profanities, and six light profanities; fight scene as male high school senior and his friends start to beat up the senior’s secret homosexual boyfriend because his father discovered them kissing, teenage boy’s father starts to beat him up after discovering son has been engaging in homosexual behavior, and woman driving car suddenly gets hit by a large truck; depicted male homosexual kissing by teenagers in two or three scenes, and light references to oral sex, past promiscuous behavior, and past child molestation, plus references to dressing up like a transvestite during ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW screenings, high school freshman dates one senior and pines after another senior, and graduating senior going to college kisses teenage freshman, indicating they may now become boyfriend and girlfriend; upper male nudity and people dressed like transvestites in two or three scenes; underage alcohol use and drunkenness but not very heavy; extreme drug content includes movie makes light of teenage drug use, including stoner character gives freshman high school student a marijuana brownie without freshman knowing its content and this is treated as a joke, plus freshman high schooler takes LSD twice and this is also treated lightly; and, lying, bullying in one scene, brief insults, two teenagers ride standing up (without seatbelts) in open truckbed while truck speeds down road in tunnel, aunt tells little boy not to tell parents about her molestation of him, and teenage partying without adult supervision.

More Detail:

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is a comedy drama about a group of quirky teenagers not fitting in with their high school peers. As such, it has a Romantic, somewhat politically correct worldview that, among other things, promotes teenage homosexuality. It also makes light of its young teenage male protagonist getting high on LSD and a marijuana-laced brownie. The politically correct content making light of teenage substance abuse undermines an attempt to deal seriously with the aftermath of child molestation.

Based on a popular, controversial semi-autobiographical novel, the movie’s story focuses on young Charlie, who’s entering high school as a freshman. Charlie has suffered some mysterious trauma in the last year and may have some even deeper issues. This resulted in a vague series of blackouts the year before, but he says he’s cured of them now. Even so, his experience has left him shy, withdrawn and unsure of himself.

Charlie is befriended by two quirky seniors, Patrick and his stepsister, Samantha. Striving to go to Penn State, Samantha is coming off an earlier teenage flirtation with promiscuity, while Patrick gets a lot of jazz from the football jocks. Patrick and Samantha hang out with an eccentric crowd of other older students.

After a brief introduction to these characters, Charlie finds out that Patrick is having a secret homosexual affair with the star football player. About the same time, he and Samantha go to midnight showings of the homosexual rock opera THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, where Patrick dresses up as the movie’s transsexual transvestite “hero,” Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Then, at one quirky senior party, Charlie is fed a marijuana-laced brownie by the stoner guy in the crowd. The other seniors seem to find this funny.

[SPOILERS FOLLOW] The fun comes crashing down when the football star’s father catches Patrick with his son and starts beating up his son. Patrick is stunned and leaves his friend in the lurch. One day soon afterwards, the boy and his friends start beating up Patrick. Charlie violently and decisively intervenes. Stopping the fight gains newfound respect for Charlie, but he’s had another blackout and doesn’t remember anything. Meanwhile, Charlie pines away for the older Samantha, who’s trapped in another affair, this time with a college boy who’s cheating on her. His unrequited feelings lead him to start dating a girl in the crowd who has a crush on him.

Everything comes to a head when, at another party, Charlie willingly takes a tab of LSD, and the police pick him up the next morning on the streets.

Though based on one author’s own high school experiences in the early 1990s, THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER throws in a hodgepodge of issues of teenage angst, including being nerdy, taking drugs, holding illicit parties, sexual exploration, teenage suicide, and even dealing with childhood molestation. It’s all kind of Romantic and politically correct as well. Worse, the movie seems to make light of giving an innocent victim a marijuana-laced brownie or a young teenager experimenting with LSD and alcohol. Studies show that alcoholism is more likely if one drinks before 16. Furthermore, taking LSD is never a good idea either. Also, there are many cases of young people suffering permanent damage when someone intentionally puts some kind of drug in their food or drink without them knowing about it. One of MOVIEGUIDE®’s editors, for instance, met a man who became very messed up as a teenager and an adult when some jerk put PCP into their coffee at school. Thus, it’s not just the movie’s attitude to homosexuality and bullying that MOVIEGUIDE® finds abhorrent, but also the movie’s Romantic worldview. That worldview is epitomized by its positive affirmation of a couple of the more evil songs in THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, especially the last song, where all the characters, including the women, dress up in transvestite outfits while Dr. Frank-N-Furter intones, “Don’t dream it, be it.” This 1975 movie and this song have corrupted several generations of young people by now. It’s one of the main culprits in today’s Anti-Christian, Anti-American bigotry of sexual promiscuity and exploration, hedonism and government handouts to deadbeats and freeloaders. If you wonder why TV shows like GLEE and MODERN FAMILY are so politically correct and flamboyantly puerile, just look at THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.

To make matters even worse, THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER includes a melodramatic subplot of child molestation. Thus, child molestation becomes the reason for all of the male protagonist’s teenage angst and sometimes erratic behavior. The movie’s treatment of this issue, which is indeed a serious issue, fits in perfectly with its Romantic worldview of liberal/leftist victimology. It also absolves the protagonist of all moral responsibility for his own actions, including his own lack of discipline, not to mention his feelings-based attitudes. No wonder so many young people in the Millennial Generation seem screwed up and are drifting away from the faith of their parents and grandparents.

Finally, one of the pseudo-intellectual revelations in the movie is the feeling that “We are infinite.” This plays into the movie’s Romantic, self-indulgent theology where human beings become like, and perhaps even replace, God. Of course, this is the evil theology that Satan used to seduce Eve in the Book of Genesis in the Holy Bible. In contrast to this false theology, Christianity offers people a truly satisfying, truly liberating connection to the infinite and to eternity by helping them re-establish a personal relationship with the Eternal Transcendent God through Jesus Christ and His Gospel of deliverance from and victory over sin.

All in all, THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is a really dangerous movie that may cause susceptible teenagers to indulge in the risky behaviors of the characters. Those risky behaviors include including drug use, illicit parties with no adult supervision, sexual experimentation, underage drinking, irresponsible and irrational emotional fixations, and (in a couple scenes) standing up in the uncovered flatbed of a truck, without a seatbelt, while the truck flies down the road.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.