Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love…
No one is gaslighted, but at the end of the movie/book, the protagonist recalls traumatic memories that had been suppressed about someone he looked up to.
Domestic violence between a father and son referenced and spoken about in direct correlation with homophobia
One teen slaps their partner semi-offscreen - the cut is made so that the blow is not seen, but it is heard, and we see a character's reaction to watching it, and the aftermath of the strike
Not in the traditional sense, but a character is held back by other characters so they can't intervene in a fight, and a different character is held still so another character can hit them.
There's a scene where Charlie has a flashback to when he found his Aunt Helen crying & he turns her hand around to find scars on her wrist & a knife next to her
Sam kisses Charlie because she wants his first kiss to be by “someone who loves him” (she was r*ped at a young age) while she is dating Craig, but Craig ends up cheating on her later.
One character is questioning his sexuality. It is unclear what his sexuality actually is, but he has a girlfriend and kisses someone else who is a guy.
At the end of the movie Charlie ends up having a breakdown which results in him getting hospitalized. In the scene he talks to the doctor about the problems he sees around him. It's also referenced at the beginning that he was hospitalized the year before
it’s also implied charlie is thinking about hurting himself near the end of the movie during his breakdown, the camera pans to a knife on a cutting board but nothing is explicitly shown
There is a character that is referenced a few times to have died by suicide, and Charlie tries later in the film. Kinda graphic, but he makes a full recovery.
Mary Elizabeth talks openly about being buddhist; Brad's father is openly religious and this is given as the root of his homophobia; Charlie goes to church in the film 3 times.
It is implied, but not specifically shown that a male character was abused by a female relative when he was younger. He repressed the abuse but eventually remembers and his family becomes aware..
charlie losing his virginity to his aunt helen is extremely implied; brad and patrick lose their virginity to eachother. it isn't shown on screen but is talked about