It took me months to finish watching “The Perks Of Being A Wallflower”, the voice of a generation coming of age movie that Mary Magppie loved and I found unwatchable.
It didn’t help that Logan Lerman, forced to play a sense of loss like a vacant parking lot, was not Timothy Hutton or that Stephen Chbowsky is no Robert Redford. And I don’t mean that Emma Watson makes out with a couple of guys, I mean that Ezra Miller gives a charismatic star turn for the ages.
As the teen homosexual, he burns up the screen with an electric sexiness and a pursed and smart charm. He is a wiseass wiseass but he is sure of himself and of who he really is and he holds the movie together.
Ezra was 18 years old when filming began andhis youth doesn’t effect his acting though it may effect are feelings for him. The Miller character is the most together in the movie, he isn’t conflicted by himself or his sexuality and he anchors the show hard and smart.
But he should be a rock star not an actor. According to Wikipedia: “When he was six, Miller started to train as an opera singer, to help him overcome a speech impediment.[15] He has sung with the Metropolitan Opera.[16] He performed in the U.S. premiere of Philip Glass’s contemporary opera White Raven.” In a dream world, he can use that voice to bring a Morrissey feel to an indie band. If he had been older he would’ve made a good Jeff Buckley. He has that sort of feel to him.
In the midst of a disappointing movie, he consistently made me smile. The face of his generation? Although a child of privilege, Ezra is a super everyman. His next movie is Madame Bovary so it might have to wait a year.