The Perks of Being a Wallflower

First Hit:  Despite the clichés of roles, it was easy to suspend belief and enjoy this film.

Entering high school can be traumatic as well as exciting.

I remember my first day, walking and gazing at 3 senior girls who were beautiful beyond belief and as I was walking and gazing, I turned to see where I was headed and I immediately ran into a metal pole – yes they all saw and laughed. I was embarrassed and tried to hide for a week while I licked my wounds.

Despite the good-looking main wallflower characters, it was the pain that each brought from within that made the film work for me. Charlie (played by Logan Lerman) is the main character from which we take this journey. He’s got problems which are not laid out to the audience when the film starts.

He talks of trying to find just one friend. The people he knows of through his older sister and a couple of childhood friends refuse to acknowledge his existence when in school. Maybe it is because he spent time in a mental hospital after his Aunt died – but we don’t know yet.

Charlie happens to meet up with Patrick (Ezra Miller) who is gay, having an affair with Brad (played by Johnny Simmons) - a football player, but Patrick sees Charlie's pain and reaches out to him. He introduces him to his step-sister Sam (Emma Watson) and their friends and they accept him.

For the first time in his life he feels at home and his internal demons subside for a moment. But his ghosts start coming back with memories of his aunt. The sub-plots with Emma and her choice in boys to date, his sister Candace (played by Nina Dobrev) and why she would let her boyfriend hit her we’re all engaging.

Lerman was very good as the guy trying to discover why he is so lost. Miller was truly outstanding as the vocal gay student who is trying to keep busy and his life together. Simmons, was good and convincing as the very confused gay football player. Watson was superb as Lerman’s heartthrob who also was trying to receive the love she deserves. Dobrev was strong as Lerman’s sister who was supportive when it really mattered while learning her own lessons. Stephen Chbosky both wrote and directed this film with a pretty good feel for the internal anguish of young teens.

Overall:  This was an enjoyable film but not a great one.

City Island

First Hit: Wonderfully written and acted film that’s filled with lies and truth.

I’ll believe that you are who you say you are, if you believe that I am who I say I am. This is general tacit agreement we humans have with each other.

That statement captures the first two thirds of this film. This is the film "Greenberg" wanted to be, introspective, well acted and funny. The Rizzo family is in full bloom in this picture.

Vince (played by Andy Garcia) is a want to be actor who has a long career as a corrections officer. He also has a son from a previous relationship which his family doesn’t know about. He is married to Joyce (played by Julianna Margulies) who is angry and is a telephone receptionist.

Their children Vinni (played by Ezra Miller) and Vivian (played by Dominik Garcia-Lorido) have their own secrets. He has an obesity fetish and hers is that she is a stripper and not in college as her parents think. They live in The Bronx but on a little island called City Island which has its own peculiar characterization.

The family is loud and their over dinner conversations are a riot of jabs and barbs. Everyone smokes cigarettes and everybody conceals their habit from one another. Vince says he is going out to play poker when in-fact he is taking acting lessons. He doesn’t tell Joyce about his lessons because he thinks she’ll laugh at him and thinks he’s a fool for trying.

Joyce is suspicious that Vince is really having an affair instead of playing poker and because no one talks to each other honestly, the illusion grows. Vivian is stripping because she lost her scholarship in college for smoking pot on campus. She’s trying to make enough money to go back to school.

Lastly Vince discovers his first son Tony (played by Steven Strait); the son no one knows about, happens to be in his prison. He gets him released under his supervision and takes him home to meet the family he doesn't know about. 

As the film reaches its chaotic climax, the laughs, truths, and realizations are vivid, well characterized and felt by the audience.

Garcia is absolutely great. This is the best I’ve ever seen him. Margulies is good as Garcia’s spousal foil. Strait is solid as the lost son. Miller and Garcia-Lorido fill their roles very well and keep the story alive and moving. Raymond De Felitta wrote and directed this film with perfect little touches which laid down the ground work so that each character was fully fleshed through scenes of interesting conversations and actions.

Overall:  This was a wonderful film about the truth setting people free.