'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' messy, shocking, occasionally beautiful

When you're in high school, it feels like the whole world is against you. In writer/director Stephen Chbosky's high school-set film, the whole world may actually be against Charlie (Logan Lerman), whose freshman year of high school should be listed in the dictionary under 'Murphy's Law'.

Plagued by memories of two significant deaths as well as general social anxiety, Charlie takes a passive approach to ninth grade.