Logan Lerman in The Perks of Being a Wallflower | MVP

Ph: John Bramley© 2011 Summit Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved.

In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Logan Lerman delivers an affecting turn as a high-school freshman struggling to deal with the world. Although in his twenties, the actor successfully transports himself to a time when life seems strange and terrifying—a game played by rules no one bothers to share. In his voiceover, taken from director Stephen Chbosky’s source novel, Lerman’s character worries he might “get bad” the way he did after a friend’s suicide; the movie never explains what that means, and thanks to the star’s eggshell affect, we don’t need to know more. There’s an unstudied fragility to his awkward freshman (taken in by fellow outsiders Emma Watson and Ezra Miller) that’s at once deeply moving and slightly alarming. You want to protect him the way you would your own child, or as you wish someone had protected you.

Miller drew a few year-end citations for his more flamboyant supporting turn as a gay senior, but Lerman was mostly overlooked. Even as Perks’ star, he fades into the woodwork. It’s often the quiet ones who have the most to say. (Available on VOD, DVD and Blu-ray Tue 12.)