10 Teen Movies That Are Smarter Than You Think

After moving into the big franchise movie space and losing touch with whatever used to keep them grounded, Ezra Miller has gone off the rails, and yet they started out their career turning in consistently funny, weighty, and considered performances that brought the films they were in to life. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a prime example of this, which puts Miller, Emma Watson, and Logan Lerman through the wringer in high school.

Charlie (Lerman) lands hard in his freshman year, suffering all the usual struggles on top of an untreated bout of PTSD, and it’s only thanks to his new friends - seniors Patrick (Miller) and Sam (Watson) - that he makes it through. Patrick is a hellraiser who flunks his classes, while Sam manages to balance academic success and partying, catching Charlie’s eye in the process. And when their wider group’s tangle of hormones and relationships is picked apart, their friendships are tested.

So far, so ordinary. And yet, Wallflower was adapted from Stephen Chbosky’s beloved novel of the same name (by Chbosky himself!), and packs the literary one-two punch most teen cinema is missing. The coming-of-age story steps out of the high school movie comfort zone and tackles suicide, PTSD, and abuse, with the signs of Charlie’s mental health issues deftly embedded in more surface concerns like sexuality, so that when the devastating third act hits, we’re kicking ourselves at not having put it together.

But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a happy ending.