Perks and recreation

In theaters Friday: Jack the Giant Slayer, The Last Exorcism 2, Stoker
New on Blu-ray: The Master

I still don’t get how these characters can be so familiar with The Smiths’ album cuts, but remain in the dark on one of David Bowie’s biggest hits, but if the spirited and winning coming of age drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower is, at times, too clever by half, it is not in vain.

Based on his own, critically acclaimed novel, Stephen Chbosky writes and directs this 1990s-set heart-tugging drama about a troubled 16-year-old struggling to adjust to life in high school after a terrible personal tragedy. At first ostracized by his more popular peers, Logan Lerman’s Charlie falls sideways into a clique of free-spirited seniors who take the creative, wannabe-writer under their social wings and into a world of kindly and quirky misfits.

Straddling the accepted edge of darkness for a movie about teenagers, Perks is a smart examination of youth social structure and the crucial role friendships and healthy communication play in dealing with both overt, immediate grief as well as more long-buried pains.

Joining Lerman at the heart of the story is Emma Watson who easily stretches past the wizardly confines of Hermoine Granger and brings a cracked tenderness to a role that could have easily come off as another bland, teen fantasy pixie.

Lerman himself, only really previously seen in the fantastical, kid-friendly Percy Jackson series, grows up a lot here, carrying a stunning array of emotions like a backpack loaded with books and assignments. He handles each with ease, creating one of the year’s most genuinely empathetic and likeable characters. Big things are ahead for Lerman, too, as he’ll be seen leading Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb’s Graduate-esque drama The Only Living Boy in New York later this year, and also appear in Darren Aronofsky’s ambitious Biblical epic Noah, one of the most hotly anticipated film’s of 2014.

Rounding out the lead trio is Californication actor Ezra Miller, who plays a comedically warmhearted senior harboring a big secret. Throughout, Miller is a revelation in his own hyperactive, Johnny Depp Jr. sort of way. Nina Dobrev, Kate Walsh and Dylan McDermott co-star.

Though the school in the film can seem, on occasion, to be cartoonishly cruel, the extremes serve the underlying themes of abuse, refuge and self-improvement well. With a soundtrack that includes choice cuts from Sonic Youth, New Order, Pavement and more, the film works equally well as a nostalgia trip for those of us who first donned a cap and gown in the 1990s. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is available now on Blu-ray. Watch the trailer below: