It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, a movie is worth a million, and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is certainly worth at least that many. Not only did Chbosky direct this film, but he also wrote the epistolary novel that it’s based on.  Starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, and Ezra Miller, Perks of Being a Wallflower takes you down a winding road of adolescent loneliness, confusion, and realistic coming-of-age entertainment.

The movie encompasses the unconventional mind and disturbed life of a boy named Charlie Lerman, who is just entering high school in Pittsburgh in the ’90s, who quickly realizes his role as a shy, unpopular freshman. However, that all changes when he meets Patrick and Sam Miller and Watson, who open up his world to romance, drugs, but most importantly—friends. But just when he is currently living his life more happily, he must remember that his friends are seniors, and will soon be graduating and moving on without him. The challenge he faces is to take what they’ve given him and learn to continue on his pleasant life style—even after they have dispersed from his life. As each friend learns more about the other, they find that despite their age and background differences, there always manages to be a stray piece of similarity within us all.

A movie is nothing without a great story, and Stephen Chbosky provides the viewers with just that. He shows that he can relate to the detriment of adolescence, but also the strength within us all that allows us to overcome it. As many individuals face the struggle of growing pains, most could possibly relate to the manner in which it can often become very easy to develop into a wallflower, and that Charlie is just an impression of us all at our beginning. To be introverted is not to be shamed. Chbosky delves deep inside each viewer and captivates them with his story, which is precisely what makes such an intriguing writer and such a powerful director.