It's not often you run into a film that makes you feel 16 years old again — and kinda good about it. An ode to the awkward years (or to the people who went through them) when each day was a nerve-racking ordeal involving high school hierarchies, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" softly takes your hand and tells you everything is going to be OK. Thank you, I needed that.

This is a rare film where the author of the original novel and the filmmaker are one and the same person. Stephen Chbosky's 1999 best-seller was a prime target for Hollywood and indie producers alike. When a number of schools in the United States banned "Perks" from reading lists and syllabuses for being too libertine, that just added fuel to the fire.

Chbosky protected "Perks" from the raging winds, quietly laid the groundwork to swing his own adaptation and gathered an impeccable cast, consisting of "Harry Potter" graduate Emma Watson and the darkly handsome Ezra Miller ("We Need to Talk About Kevin"). Logan Lerman makes up the final corner of the triangle. Chbosky's script strikes a delicate balance of energy between these three central characters.