The Perks of So Much Buzz

Not everyone is privy to the title The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but those who are can be fierce about their obsession with it. Bring it up in the right room, and you’ll feel as though you brought up something as monumental as The Hunger Games or the Twilight saga. If you’re on the outside looking in, it’s the title of an upcoming movie based on a book of the same title that was released in the early 2000s. It will star Nina Dobrev, Paul Rudd, Emma Watson, Dylan McDermott, and Kate Walsh. Yes, this is an eclectic and talented cast, so they have some big expectations to manage, in addition to the fact that fans of the book are demanding so much of the characters they are portraying. To sum up the plot of a very intricate book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is about an introverted freshman in high school who is taken under the wing of two seniors with very strong personalities. It is perhaps one of the most perennial coming-of-age stories of the past century, and it broaches such topics as sexuality, drug use and existentialism.

I read the book as a sophomore in high school, and it was relatively unknown at the time. I absolutely loved it, and so I encouraged my friends to follow suit, but no one really listened. It wasn’t until I got to college that I met many peers who also owned a copy (or two). Years later, it’s finally going to be released sometime in 2012, and I could not be more excited. Yes, like many other movie fans, I have come to be quite dismayed by the nonstop perpetuity of adaptations to the big screen, but perhaps it’s not as bad we think. Maybe adaptation aren’t all the rage because people aren’t being creative. Perhaps it’s simply because of technology and new schools of movie theory that so many literary favorites are now hitting the big screen. Besides, at the very least, can’t we all agree that it’ll be very interesting to see Emma Watson play someone who’s not a British know-it-all? I have to admit, I was never really a fan of Emma in the role of Hermione (why is she always so MAD?), but I’m open to her in other roles. She’s gonna play Sam in this movie, who seems to fit her personality much more than Hermione. Here’s hoping her natural sense of style shines through, because this character is definitely someone with a fierce sense of fashion.