Based on its title, one might expect 2012’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower to offer a documentary about musician Jakob Dylan. Instead, it provides a drama related to high school life.

Set in the early 1990s, teenager Charlie (Logan Lerman) begins high school. There the shy, subdued youngster deals with bullies and harassment right off the bat.

At a football game, Charlie meets senior Patrick (Ezra Miller), an extrovert with a big personality. Despite the age difference, they become friends, and this group includes Patrick’s stepsister Sam (Emma Watson). Though these relationships help bring Charlie out of his shell, he nonetheless still contends with some skeletons in his closet.

With Perks, screenwriter Stephen Chbosky adapted the novel by author Stephen Chbosky. Director Stephen Chbosky committed it to film.

This process doesn’t stand as unprecedented. However, it does seem highly unusual, as few novelists get to shepherd their books all the way to the movie screen.

Perhaps Chbosky could’ve used additional involvement. Perks feels like the creation of someone who did whatever he wanted without other perspectives to give him necessary advice.

This leads to a weird, self-indulgent combination of every high school movie cliché one can imagine. Chobsky used his own life as inspiration for the story, but it seems tough to swallow that his experiences came with so many stock teen characters.

You name a problem and you’ll find it here. We get suicide, bullying, depression, eating disorders, closeted homosexuality, kleptomania, sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, child molestation, various family tragedies – the whole magilla!

If Perks came with any real depth, these choices might seem less problematic. However, it stays on the superficial side and never finds actual substance.

Patrick and Sam combine to become Manic Pixie Dream Friends. They never feel like actual people, as they instead act as perfect amalgams of the quirky free spirits Charlie needs to come out of his shell.

Hoo boy, do these roles irritate! As played by Miller and Watson, they come across as fantasies, and annoying ones at that.

Lerman does fine as our lead. However, at 20, he clearly seems too old to play a high school freshman – and he feels too old.

We do find a good cast. In addition to those mentioned, we find Paul Rudd, Dermot Mulroney, Melanie Lynskey, Johnny Simmons, and others.

They can’t redeem this grating mess. Perks becomes a package of clichés with few positive properties.

Footnote: David Bowie’s “’Heroes’” plays an important part in the movie, though bizarrely, these hipster music nerds don’t know it. This makes no sense but the film treats the song like it’s some total obscurity.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into a generally good but not great image.

Granted, I suspect the Blu-ray replicated the source as intended. I got the impression the filmmakers wanted to deliver a somewhat “worn” look to the film to fit the period setting.

In any case, this meant sharpness that was mostly satisfying. The movie rarely felt particularly precise, it still came with fairly accurate delineation.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects appeared, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also remained absent.

Colors leaned toward a fairly heavy amber/orange vibe, one that seemed oddly ugly. Again, this seemed intentional, but it didn’t give us appealing hues, even if the disc replicated them as desired.

Blacks could feel a bit crushed, but they usually brought reasonable depth, and shadows showed positive clarity. This was a more than watchable image but not a particularly attractive one.

Don’t expect a lot of zing from the low-key DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Perks. The soundscape emphasized music and ambience much of the time.

Even “big” scenes – like parties or football games – lacked a lot of real involvement. The soundfield seemed adequate but not especially impactful.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared natural and distinctive. Music boasted nice range and punch.

As noted, effects lacked much to do, but they felt accurate and clear. This wound up as a decent track that largely suited the material.

As we shift to extras, we locate two separate audio commentaries. The first comes from writer/director Stephen Chbosky. He provides a running, screen-specific look at story/characters and autobiographical elements, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, period details, editing, and related domains.

With an honest, empathetic tone, Chbosky provides a strong commentary. He mixes production notes with other insights to turn this into an engaging and informative chat.

Note that Chbosky explains why Charlie doesn’t know Bowie’s “’Heroes’” but his defense of this concept doesn’t satisfy. The movie’s problem stems from the notion Charlie’s older hipster pals don’t know the song, and that continues to stretch credulity.

For the second commentary, we find Chbosky and actors Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Johnny Simmons, Mae Whitman and Erin Wilhemi. All sit together for this running, screen-specific discussion of sets and locations, story and characters, cast and performances, influences, music and connected topics.

Don’t expect much from this meandering track. Most of the useful info already appears in Chbosky’s conversation, so this becomes little more than a giddy discussion of how much everyone loves the film. A few new nuggets emerge but not enough to turn this into a quality commentary.

A featurette called Best Summer Ever spans five minutes. It brings notes from Chbosky, Watson, Miller, Lerman, Whitman, and Wilhelmi.

“Ever” examines the cast and their experiences. A few insights emerge but most of this feels fluffy.

12 Deleted Scenes occupy a total of 23 minutes, 11 seconds. For the most part, these include either extensions of existing moments or scenes that add a bit of development to characters.

Most seem fairly superfluous, though a couple work better. In particular, it seems good to get a flashback look at Charlie’s dead friend Michael.

We can watch these with or without commentary from Chbosky. He relates notes about the sequences and why he cut them, so he adds good information.

Three examples of Dailies arrive as well, and these span a total of seven minutes, four seconds. These offer raw shots for three scenes.

None of these seem vaguely crucial. Nonetheless, they offer some entertainment value.

Like the “Deleted Scenes”, we can also view the “Dailies” with or without commentary from Chbosky. He gives us useful background about the clips.

The disc opens with ads for Warm Bodies, Step Up: Revolution, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 Extended Edition. We also get the trailer for Perks.

More a collection of high school clichés than a real story, The Perks of Being a Wallflower quickly turns tedious and annoying. The characters never feel real and they make this a meandering, obnoxious affair. The Blu-ray comes with generally positive picture and audio as well as a good mix of bonus materials. The movie ends up as a melodramatic dud.