Showing posts with label Stephen Chbosky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephen Chbosky. Show all posts

Monday, November 27, 2017

Wonder

After spending most of his young life in home schooling, a boy (Jacob Tremblay) with severe facial deformities adjusts to life in middle school while his overprotective parents (Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson) cope with his traumatizing trials, and his overlooked sister (Izabela Vidovic) undergoes her own rites of initiation at her private city school. Stephen Chbosky's adaptation of R.J. Palacio's bestselling novel is appealing, well-conceived, and likely to please but (expectedly) overly and cheaply sentimental.
** 1/2 out of ****

Friday, March 8, 2013

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

An intelligent, reticent, and slightly disturbed freshman (Logan Lerman) is befriended by two senior step siblings (Emma Watson, Ezra Miller) who introduce him to their outsider's world of parties, dances, diners, and late night Rocky Horror Picture Show screenings before being whisked away to college. I became interested in this film after learning that Stephen Chbosky had been handed the reins to direct the adaptation of his 1999 novel. So I checked out the novel, which I thought was excellent, and watched the film which adds some detail (but naturally leaves much out) and in some ways makes a nice companion to the book but largely fails to capture its alternately funny and somber tone. I often carp about people judging films by their books, but I have to do it here: despite turning in pretty good performances, Lerman, Miller, and even Watson (who I thought would be ideal) are miscast, and with Chbosky overseeing his own adaptation, I feel comfortable in saying that the movie doesn't quite do the book justice. On a sidenote, I am grateful to know what happens at a late night Rocky Horror recreation without ever having to find out for myself.