The Edge of Seventeen Review
I’ll start by saying this: there is always a soft spot in my heart for coming-of-age movies. So of course the 80’s John Hughes classics like Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985) and Ferries Bueller’s Day Off (1986) are some of my all-time favorites, and more recently films like The Spectacular Now (2013) and Mistress America (2015) have topped my list for best film of the year. Now we have The Edge of Seventeen, and while I don’t quite think it’s as good as those two recent ones, it certainly fits in and is among the best films I’ve seen this year. Lead by a brilliant performance from Hailee Steinfeld, Edge of Seventeen rarely disappoints and is more than your average teen comedy.
So the basic story is it’s the end of the world for Nadine, played by Steinfeld. Her mother has always seemed to favor her brother over her, her father is out of the picture, and soon after the film starts, her only solace in the world, best friend Krista, is now dating her brother. As things go on, she tries to reach out to anybody who can help her, including her history teacher played by Woody Harrelson, and a friendly boy in her class, but it always seems to go wrong, especially when she sends a text message to her crush that gets pretty explicit. For those who have seen the trailer, you know what I’m talking about.
So of course there are a couple of traits from the John Hughes films that make appearances, so it’s not ground-breaking, but since we don’t get one of these every two or three months, it’s always refreshing to see these kind of stories. As I said earlier, Steinfeld just plain steals the show as Nadine. Of course she’s been Oscar-nominated before for True Grit (2010), but she’s matured a lot since then, and even then a lot of people thought she was very mature. Since then I haven’t really kept track of her career, but I had an inkling back in 2010 that she would be around for a while. Sure, she’s not a household name yet, but since then her singing career has picked up and as long as she keeps slugging away with great performances like this, she’ll get there yet. Woody Harrelson also gives a nice performance, and the rest of the cast, including Blake Jenner as the brother, Kyra Sedgwick as the mother, Haley Lu Richardson as the former best friend, and Hayden Szeto as the friendly classmate all are excellent, and their characters always rise above the stereotype that they appear to be. We all get to see them start somewhere and end somewhere, or a trait or detail is revealed that makes us look at them completely different.
This is the first time Kelly Fremon Craig has directed, and she does an excellent job. Already she has a great handle on how to bring great performances out of her actors, how to write a movie scene, and how to make us care about some at times unlikeable characters. For a first time director, that’s a challenge. There are times when Nadine is clearly being stuck up and could easily find a way out of her problems by admitting something or changing something, but she’s just so darn stubborn. Yet at the same time I never hated her and always hoped that the next scene she would realize what she did or didn’t do to fix her problem. Plus the film is just plain funny. Almost every character gets a belly laugh, with the clear winner of course being Steinfeld, who admits she is an old soul, making references to old movies and listening to old music. I have to say that was extremely fresh to see, and for once I can actually relate to a character in this way. When I was in high school I was also referencing 70’s and 80’s music and listening to it while everyone else was pumping to Miley Cyrus or whoever. And like Nadine, I can’t stand emojies and wish that not everybody would snapchat their every last moment of the day to those of us who just don’t care.
So yeah, there are a few predictable moments here and there where the coming-of-age stories come around and you can guess what’s going to happen. While there’s always fresh enough dialogue to keep the energy of the picture up, you can’t deny that not every moment of the film is truly original. And for me, the film might have been just a bit better if it was like, five minutes shorter. Sure, at 100 minutes as it is now it’s one of the year’s best, but I almost feel like a couple of moments here and there are stretched a bit. However, this doesn’t become a crushing blow to the film. Like I said, the energy never dwindles and Steinfeld and the rest know how to entertain even in the more cliched moments of the genre as they occur.
So yes, I’d say everybody yearning for the next great coming-of-age story can check this one out, and of course any teen feeling down about their struggles, personal or professional who can get into R-rated movies should love this. I also think that comedy fans will dig this. Again, there are a couple of spots where you say, “I saw that coming”, but there isn’t enough been-there, done-that for me to complain too much. The Edge of Seventeen will make you remember the best and worst times of high school, and perhaps, for those of us that have been all the way through it, remind us that yes, it does suck sometimes, but you got through it, and all tragedies can be overcome. As one door closes, another opens. I say open the door to this film and enjoy.
My rating: 10/10.
