The Perks of Being a Wallflower Family Movie Review

movie review rating guide for parents and families

MPAA Rating
PG-13

on appeal for mature thematic material, drug and alcohol use, sexual content including references, and a fight all - involving teens

Genre
Drama, Comedy

Director
Stephen Chbosky

Starring
Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Mae Whitman, Kate Walsh

Studio
Summit Entertainment

Release Date/In Theaters
9/14/2012

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Movie Summary

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, this film highlights the ups and downs of growing up. A tale of love, fear, loss and hope and how friendships develop over the years.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Movie Review for Parents

-by Ginger

The Perks of being a Wallflower is a coming of age movie about an introverted freshman that was taken in by a bunch of older kids, who promise to teach him the ways of the world. The Perks of being a Wallflower is a movie about self-discovery at a tumultuous age. Charlie is a misfit who wants to be a writer. He makes friends in his new school, but the one’s he makes are misfits like him. He does not stand out in the crowd. All of his friends have low self-esteem, but they learn to value themselves for who they are. They discover their strengths and what they have to offer the world. In the end they accept themselves for just the way they are. In The Perks of being a Wallflower movie Charlie experiences his first love, the suicide of a friend and his own mental illness. The Perks of being a Wallflower movie tells it how it is in the real world of teenage follies. However, this family move review must warn you, this movie tells it like it really is for today’s teens. Read on and this Parental Guide to the movies will tell you more.

The Perks of being a Wallflower movie is based on the book, which focuses primarily on teen sexual relationships. However, the focus of the movie was toned down slightly to achieve the PG-13 rating. The movie uses derogatory homosexual references and the F-bomb in a few instances. Other instances of derogatory language appear throughout the movie. The book focuses more on sexual relationships, whereas the movie does the same only with teen smoking, drinking and drugs. The kids in this movie party hard. In one scene a kid is given marijuana as a Christmas gift. This movie also shows the use of more hardcore and dangerous drugs, such as LSD. Is this a good movie for your teens?

Aside from serving as a horrible role model that promotes bad behavior as the accepted norm and what is needed to “fit in”, The Perks of being a Wallflower movie has a very disturbing ending. The kids in the movie are not the norm, they are misfits. They all try to find their own ways to cope, but, as a parent, this is not the movie that I would want my teens to see. This family movie review thinks that they could do better in terms of family night at the movies. The themes in The Perks of being a Wallflower movie are very mature. The question that one must ask is, “Did this movie go too far, or does it tell it like it is?” What do you think?

Read more family movie reviews by Parental Guide.