'The Edge of Seventeen' is the latest coming of age story about a 17 year-old high school girl, Nadine (Haliee Steinfeld). Her life sucks. Nadine's dad dies. Her best friend, and only friend, dates her brother. Nadine doesn't feel like she can connect with anyone. She finds herself venting to her history teacher, Mr. Burner (Woody Harrelson), because she needs to express her feelings somehow. High school is hell for her.
Haliee Steinfeld isn't just a good child actress anymore. She is a great talent that many studios should look into within the future. Hailee holds her own for most of the movie and she gives a remarkable performance. Woody Harrelson played an interesting character. Anyone who willingly listened to their girlfriends vent about their problems can definitely relate to Woody's character. There were some moments where his responses would come off as unrealistic. However, it felt like it was the screenwriter's intention to do that focus more on the message later on in the film. Also, Blake Jenner did a great job playing Nadine's older brother. What I liked most about his character was that he didn't play the typical jerk older brother that we see in many movies. He was reasonable. Sure, him dating his sister's best friend was a jerky thing to do. But later on, you realize that he's not some jerk just dating his sister's best friend. Him and her best friend are happy together. They're welcoming Nadine to join their activities. They care about her. Nadine just doesn't want to believe that and I can understand where she's coming from. I liked how you can understand every character in the movie. There isn't a character that's just thrown in there to be some plot device to get to the main act. Even when it seems like it in one scene, and you'll know which one I'm talking about when you watch the film, you still understand why it's happening. By the way, that scene perfectly displays a mistake that many people make.
'The Edge of Seventeen' is a smart coming of age story. The best decision for the film was to make it R rated. High school students are vulgar. It would be wrong to sugar coat it in order to generate more box office returns.
What surprised me the most from this movie was how funny it was. 'The Edge of Seventeen' is by far one of the funniest films of the year. The comedy inserted isn't jarring at all. Actually, most of it was unexpected which made me laugh even harder. Sure, there some comedic moments that felt a little too unrealistic, but I couldn't help but laugh.
Paul Feig should gives this film a watch and pay close attention to how the male characters are portrayed. In the new Ghostbusters film, every man is either a coward, jerk, or wimpy. In 'Edge of Seventeen,' every man had reasonable actions regardless of how nice or mean they were. And none of them were dumb!
The soundtrack in this film couldn't have fit more perfectly. I am actually going to consider purchasing the soundtrack. The Warner Brothers executives should also give this film a watch. Maybe they'll learn how to properly insert pop songs without ruining the scenes unlike their previous attempt with Suicide Squad.
'The Edge of Seventeen' was one of the biggest surprises of 2016, for me. I knew it would be pretty good considering it has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It may not be as great as 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower', but it's pretty close. 'The Edge of Seventeen' would make a great date movie. If you don't have a date, no worries. You'll still have a good time.
