6B — Thursday, March 23, 2017
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Daily
Arts
Writers
Will
Stewart and Becky Portman
discuss mental health in the
coming-of-age comedy “Perks
of Being a Wallflower.” The
movie
focuses
on
Charlie,
a
high
school
freshman
suffering
from
depression
and anxiety after his best
friend’s suicide and aunt’s
death.
After
befriending
a
group of free-spirited seniors,
Charlie begins to find his true
self. “Perks,” based on the
bestselling YA novel, is one
of the most defining teenage
movies documenting mental
health. Stewart and Portman,
however, differ in how they
view this portrayal.
Hipster teens doing weird
stuff: What’s new?
High
school
stereotypes
exist in movies because there
is some truth behind them.
Every school will have its
fair share of cocky jocks,
band-geeks
and
alternative
theater types. If anything,
this pseudo-hierarchal order
of popularity is built into our
culture.
But
these
groups,
in reality, are never quite as
predictable as movies depict
them to be. Sometimes, there’ll
be that straggler impossible
to pinpoint in one group, who
seamlessly blends in and out
of each social circle like a
charisma-chameleon. Or, the
band geek wins Homecoming
King
instead
of
the
star
quarterback,
and
everyone
freaks out and questions the
meaning of life. “In Perks of
Being a Wallflower,” these
cliches
are
challenged,
especially the role of the
handsome and athletic football
star who also happens to be
gay.
Still, in most high school
movies, the alternative theatre
kids fulfill the role of just
about every possible cliché.
They listen to sad music, do
drugs and, most importantly,
are either severely anxious or
depressed. Here, the problem
isn’t the depiction of adolescent
mental
health
issues,
but
rather always characterizing
the same type of student as
having “problems.” But, the
truth is: not only alternative,
edgy, “hipster” kids suffer
from depression in high school.
And, not every cliché hipster is
depressed in the first place.
Mental health cannot be
assumed within each social
group based on preconceived
notions.
Certainly
the
aforementioned
“hipster”
enjoys their fair share of ’80s
post-punk and has probably
listened to “The Queen is
Dead” by The Smiths 100
times,
but
depression
and
anxiety are not unique only to
them. Every year, thousands
of
teens
with
depression
are undiagnosed and left to
suffer alone. It’s essential that
filmmakers and authors of YA
fiction realize that other kinds
of students are depressed,
too. Maybe it’s more fun for
viewers to watch the tortured
artistic type, but depicting
only one kind of student as
predictably depressed paints
an
unrealistic,
dangerous
picture of mental health.
— Will Stewart
We
all
want
to
find
distractions
from
the
humdrum
of
our
boring,
mediocre lives. For some, it
is music, or maybe sports or
perhaps
even
experimental
performance
art.
Whatever
the distraction, we all want
something to keep us busy. For
the rag tag team of friends in
“Perks of Being a Wallflower,”
their distraction is reckless,
sometimes
destructive,
behavior.
First
we
have
Patrick, the unapologetically
flamboyant
stepbrother
of
the
ever-complicated,
ever-
experienced Sam. Then we
have the overbearing bossiness
of Mary Elizabeth and the
quiet, mousey Alice. Thrown
into the mix is our dopey,
adorable loner, Charlie, who
has been through some intense,
ambiguous shit. When they
come together, this odd group
of friends find distractions
in their existence with the
panache of the authors and
artists of “Midnight in Paris.”
Their nights are filled with
adventure, they are down for
anything and they probably
smoke more weed than Snoop
Dogg. There is something so
relatable and authentic about
their interactions. They use
substances, experiences and
friendship to numb the outside
pressures of High School life.
No one’s life is perfect. Sam
does not know how to accept
love, Patrick performs through
his life to make the bad stuff go
away, Charlie pushes away his
past trauma till it almost kills
him and even the stereotypical
quarterback, Brad, is in the
closet about his feelings for
Patrick. What “Perks” does is
give voice to those who cannot
voice themselves. We see the
problems on screen that we
can identify with, happening
to characters we care about.
This group of friends is hodge
podge of their own issues, but
they deal with them together,
doing whatever they can to get
through. Seeing characters’
struggles that we can relate to
gives depth and authenticity to
an otherwise silenced topic.
— Rebecca Portman
How
they
talk
about
mental health
“Perks
of
Being
a
Wallflower”
’s
protagonist,
Charlie, describes his own
depression
and
anxiety
as
“being bad.” When he talks
about avoiding these feelings,
he says things like “if I get
bad again.” Of course, anxiety
is not good, but just because
someone suffers from it does
not mean they’re “bad.”
Charlie’s lack of empathy
may make people feel like it’s
entirely their fault for their
mental health. But, “Perks of
Being a Wallflower” is not to
blame for this issue. Rather,
the American culture that
perpetuates vicious ideas —
like seeing a therapist is a
sign of weakness — is the true
culprit. The whole concept
of
stomping
down
those
less fortunate than oneself
is inherently American (I’ll
leave this to be discussed by
those much smarter and more
qualified than myself). The
movie shows a bleak reality for
too many people trapped in a
vicious cycle of negative self
talk and deep insecurity.
“Perks” does a fantastic job
of creating a well-rounded
character who also happens
to suffer from severe anxiety.
Movie characters like Charlie
are capable of improving the
social climate, especially when
exposed to younger audiences.
However, when he actually
begins having panic attacks,
the screen goes black and skips
ahead a few moments. Viewers
don’t actually see him during
his most intense moments of
anxiety, which I think is a
huge loss. The purpose of the
screen blacking out attempts
to visually recreate Charlie’s
perspective
during
these
moments, but it feels like the
director is tip-toeing around
potential controversy.
— Will Stewart
Mental illness does not exist
in a vacuum; it exists in lives,
in people, in individuals. We,
as viewers, might see mental
illness as a disease that can be
cured with a stint in the psych
ward or some medication, but
mental illness is an ongoing
struggle. Many films do not
attempt
to
capture
coping
with mental illness as a daily
endeavor, but “Perks” manages
to tell the story of Charlie’s
struggle through a lens of
moving forward.
While
films
like
“Girl,
Interrupted” and “It’s Kind
of
a
Funny
Story”
depict
the
actual
institution
and
experience of dealing with the
worst of mental illness, “Perks”
delves into Charlie’s life after
WILL STEWART
Daily Arts Writer
SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT
Emma Watson and Ezra Miller in ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’
‘Perks,’ YA film reworks &
adolescent mental health
Arts writers Will Stewart and Rebecca Portman discuss “Perks,”
and the strengths and pitfalls of cinematic portrayal mental health
A life in Cudi and Smith:
Me, music, mental health
Search “music and mental
health” on Google – I know,
I’m
an
incredibly
skilled
researcher – and a lot of
positive physical correlations
between the body and music
come up. It turns out tunes
can decrease the intensity
of pain, increase endurance
while exercising, improve poor
sleeping
patterns,
prevent
insomnia, enhance blood flow
and so on. Basically, if you’re
ever wondering why you can
run that extra .25 miles on the
treadmill when Nikki Minaj’s
“Anaconda” comes on, it’s got
something to do with music,
the triggering of dopamine and
some neurons firing.
There are some positive
mental
benefits,
too.
Ever
heard someone say, “Listening
to Mozart makes you smarter”
and been like, “Well, that’s total
bullshit”? Well, it’s actually not
total bullshit. According to our
good ‘ol friend science, there’s
this thing called the Mozart
Effect,
which
posits
that
listening to Mozart’s music,
or any classical piece, induces
a
short-term
improvement
in certain mental tasks. That
means “Piano Sonata No.12 In
F, K.332:2. Adagio” will get you
hype as fuck for that Ethics of
Marketing paper you forgot to
write until three hours before
it was due. Talking long term,
music is also known to reduce
stress and anxiety, improve
cognitive performance, elevate
mood,
help
performance
in
high-pressure
situations
and
relieve
symptoms
of
depression.
But me, music and mental
health have always had sort of
a volatile relationship.
—
I’m 13, and Kid Cudi has
just released Man on the Moon:
The End of Day. XXL’s already
included the rapper in its 2009
Freshman Class, and no one
can stop singing his infectious
single “Day ‘N’ Nite” — but
Man on the Moon elevated his
status as sad, stoner rapper to
an unprecedented level.
Everyone remembers where
they were the first time they
heard “Soundtrack 2 My Life;”
that shit just stays with you. I
was sitting in Austin Ortwein’s
living room pretending to like
the taste of Hpnotiq, because
for some reason the bright
blue,
almost
radioactive-
looking alcohol was all my
friends’ older siblings could
get their hands on for us. So,
there I sat, sippin’, as Cudder
belted out, “I got some issues
that nobody can see / And all of
these emotions are pouring out
of me” – I know you can hear it
now – and at that moment I felt
like everything made sense. A
cliché, no doubt; but as a white,
upper-middle class female who
felt she had nothing to really
be sad about, and yet, still felt
pretty sad, it was significant.
Go read the Pitchfork review
of the album, and they’ll say
that Cudi’s a walking cliché, a
wannabe sad, deep stoner. But
maybe that’s the point; maybe
that’s what a lot of us needed
then. At least that’s what I
needed then.
That album, as well as his
sophomore release Man on the
Moon II: Legend of Mr Rager,
went on to soundtrack much of
my high school experience; Kid
Cudi got sadder, and so did I.
—
I’m 16, and I’ve only just
heard Elliott Smith crooning
the muted ballad “Between
the Bars” over a scene in Good
Will Hunting for the first time.
The
Portland-based
indie
rocker would go on to lose an
Oscar to Celine Dion for one
of his songs in the movie – of
course Titanic’s “My Heart
Will Go On” fucking won – but
that wasn’t really what he was
about, anyways. Melodic and
melancholic, Smith’s music is
some of the most powerful to
come out of the post-grunge
era of the late ’90s. But where
there is grunge, there is also
drug-use and alcohol-abuse,
and Smith was notorious for
his — a theme that would
characterize his life and death
and music.
Smith
was
shooting
up
heroine; I was drinking. A
lot. My best friend in high
school almost died of alcohol
poisoning on a hot Las Vegas
night in the middle of July after
drinking
straight
Everclear
inside some abandoned home
in some gated community of a
name I don’t remember. At the
hospital near my house, I had
to talk to the police and the
doctors and her parents and my
parents, all while borderline
incoherent myself. Behavior
along these lines continued
throughout my adolescence,
as did confrontations about it
with my parents.
So you can understand why
“Between the Bars” – which
begins with “Drink up baby
/ Stay up all night / With the
things you could do / You won’t
but you might / The potential
you’ll be that you’ll never see” –
struck a chord. It was incredibly
painful to disappoint your
parents and yourself and not
understanding why you kept
doing things that disappointed
your parents and yourself. It
was incredibly confusing to
feel like you were ruining your
coming-of-age-narrative as it
was being written.
I have a memory of being
sprawled out across my bed,
teary-eyes fixed on my dark
blue
ceiling,
feeling
like
everything was collapsing, like
I’d ruined my chances of doing
anything important, of being
anyone important.
—
Now I’m 21 and comfortably
seeing a therapist, while Kid
Cudi is in rehab for drug and
alcohol-related
depression,
and Elliott Smith is dead of
apparent suicide. I’ve realized
I used music as a companion to
my sadness, a friend to sit with
while I sulked; they used it as
an outlet of expression for their
depression. I figured my shit
out; I’m not sure they ever did.
But
their
influence
left
lasting impressions. Kid Cudi
ended up helping me curate
my budding musical interests,
what
would
become
broad
affinities for everything from
Young Thug to Yo La Tengo.
Elliott
Smith’s
“Between
the Bars” ended up being
the subject of my Common
Application essay — which is
what ended up getting me into
Michigan.
And that, to me, is incredibly
indicative of the dynamism of
music, it’s power to play both
the catalyst and the cure. Isn’t
it strange, that dichotomy? It
has the ability to both induce
depression and pull you out of
it. Thankfully, for me, it did the
latter.
RACHEL KERR
Daily Arts Writer
G.O.O.D. MUSIC
Kid Cudi, on stage
REBECCA PORTMAN
Daily Arts Writer
tragedy (losing his friend to
suicide, coming to terms with
his childhood trauma, etc.) and
moving on. “Perks” illustrates
Charlie’s
reintroduction
into
daily life after an incident
merely dubbed as “bad” whose
ambiguity furthers and fuels
Charlie’s rocky road to recovery.
That is the realness of it though,
that mental illness is not just felt
in mental wards of white-walled
hospitals, it is felt in suburban
Pittsburgh, it is felt on college
campuses like ours.
Charlie is a case of PTSD,
reliving
traumatic
memories
in his mind, in constant fear of
being guilty and responsible for
a tragic event. As his mind does
loops around the recollections of
his past, he himself spirals into
blackouts. As the camera spins at
odd angles and the screen fades
to black, the viewer is just as
surprised as Charlie when they
find out what happened. The
void Charlie experiences during
his blackouts is to be filled with
the imagination of the viewer.
This allows for the audience
to empathize with Charlie and
his emotional trauma on a more
intimate level.
— Rebecca Portman
Conclusions
“Perks of Being a Wallflower”
is a heartfelt and inspiring high
school movie. I don’t really think
it says as much as it could about
teenage depression and anxiety,
but the movie’s real intentions
are to show self discovery, love
and friendship.
— Will Stewart
“Perks of Being a Wallflower”
is an endearing and honest
portrait of a fresh-faced teen
struggling with major emotional
trauma amidst trying to make
friends, get through high school
and tell the girl he loves how he
truly feels. I think that “Perks”
does a great job of highlighting
the often overlooked aspects of
mental illness and reinforces
the fact that mental illness does
not define you.
— Rebecca Portman
We all want to
find distractions
from the
humdrum of our
boring, mediocre
lives
But where there
is grunge, there is
also drug-use and
alcohol-abuse
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
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