Mental Health Awareness Month 3

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well.

Unfortunately, I missed a post last week due to my hectic schedule. However, I have good news! I will upload two blogposts this week!

This week, my little sister and I were looking for films to watch to cure our boredom. We were looking for a great coming-of-age film.

We came across the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I explained to her that back in my Tumblr days, that film was very popular and there were a lot of gifs and memes for it, however, I never had the chance to watch it. So, thanks to HBO Max, we put it on! Now I’m going to briefly discuss the film and some of my opinions regarding the film, so beware of SPOILER ALERTS.

Firstly, I want to say, the film lived up to the hype that I’ve heard about for many years. It is indeed a GREAT film. Now, I’m not one to sit well with bullying and actively watching someone bully someone, so the first couple minutes of the film made me uneasy, but I grew to love it, and Charlie, the main character.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower follows Charlie, a socially awkward teenage boy, meeting his two new friends as they discover friendship, love, and their own individual interests. However, Charlie is a freshman and his two new friends are both seniors leaving for college and this soon messes with Charlie’s mental health.

The film was funny and heartwarming, until I found myself on the edge of my bed, shedding an uncontrollable amount of tears the last 10 minutes.

Although I do believe Aunt Helen completely messed him up, I found myself relating to how Charlie felt when he was breaking down. That moment in your life where you’re breathing uncontrollably and you don’t know what else to do. Where you feel like your whole world is crashing down and you want to crash with it. It was to the point where his sister had to call the police over to their house in fears that he would harm himself. Luckily, he was okay and he was able to talk to someone, something I have stressed in my last two blogposts. Please, speak to someone about your emotions and how you feel. Do not keep that all bottled inside. Charlie kept it in for years, not telling his family. It hurt to see him carry that about and go through all that pain. He was not completely healed, but he was gradually getting better after speaking to someone about it.

Another scene that stuck with me was the scene where Sam, Mary Elizabeth, and Patrick were no longer speaking to him and he was literally flustered as he was trying to make things right with them. It hurt me. To beg for a friendship, and to attempt to fix things, only for the person to say they want nothing to do with you. It hurts, it sucks, but there's nothing else you can do about it. Luckily, Charlie was able to stick up for his friends and retain his friendship. Most people do not have that opportunity.

I enjoyed the different themes of the film that made it relatable. The film touched upon academics, friendships, sexuality, SATs, college, drugs, and music. These are important topics that most coming-of-age films do not talk about. I especially loved the tunnel scene because for some reason, it even made me feel infinite.

Lastly, I want to commend the cast for the way they were able to recreate the novel. I may not have read it, but I was able to still relate to the characters emotions and feelings. I understood how they felt. I felt it with them. Plus, the actor who plays Charlie, Love Lerman, made him to be a charming character with a smile that could light up the entire room.

I would rate the film a 10/10 and would highly recommend it if you haven't seen it before. If you have, feel free to comment to share some thoughts you had about the film.

I hope you are all okay and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

I love you all

-Kay