The narrative of a quirky teenager with terrible fashion sense, bad social skills, and only one friend who truly understands her, seems like a movie I’ve watched plenty of times before—or at least something along those lines. But “The Edge of Seventeen,” while not ambitious in terms of storytelling, delivers a funny, smart account of one stressed teenager, played wonderfully by Hailee Steinfeld.
Steinfeld's character, Nadine, finds solace in her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). But of course, as most cliché, high school-esque, soap-opera infused narratives go, Nadine finds Krista in bed with her older brother, Darian (Blake Jenner) which flips their friendship on its head. Feeling betrayed for a second time at a party, Nadine disowns Krista and spends the rest of the film in a fit of angst and frustration.
If this movie was to fit the typical melodramatic mold, then I’m sure we’d come to collectively hate the buff, jerky older brother and the backstabbing best friend, but their motives are rationalized, too. All the characters have a sense of empathy and warmth which vitalizes a story that could have easily gone the cold and polarizing route.
Living with her overwhelming mother, Mona (Kyra Sedgwick), and her older brother, Nadine hardly sees eye-to-eye with anyone and spends most of the movie either yelling at or storming off from them. Her mother has problems of her own, like being a single parent and finding love—both, for the most part, to no avail.
But the most interesting and satisfying relationship in this film is between Nadine and her history teacher, Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson). His character combats Nadine’s sharp, witty and rude sense of cynicism with short bursts of truth and rationalization, which brings Nadine’s problems back to Earth. Their bickering is among the film’s strongest moments, and both maintain character so flawlessly.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a true teenage movie without a few love interests for Nadine to pick from. While it’s obvious who she’s going to eventually choose, it’s still entertaining to watch, nonetheless. Certainly, there’s a douchey, smug, leather-jacket wearing bad boy whom she’s had a crush on for years, named Nick (Alexander Calvert). He—fittingly so— tries to take advantage of Nadine, who takes the high-road in an awkward car scene. Alternatively, there is a sweet, smart, and more innocent boy by the name of Erwin (Hayden Szeto), who offers a purer form of love for Nadine, if only she’d see it. I’ll let you try to guess who she ends up with.
And while, yes, there are quite a few clichés in this film, the movie wraps itself up in ways that breakaway from the usual. But I won't mention them. What I will tell you is that this movie has heart, from start to finish. Some of the finer monologues happen toward the end, especially Darian’s, whose pressures of holding his family and conflicting love interest together bear down on him harder than most high school jocks.
“The Edge of Seventeen” is a must see for all ages. It’s funny, intelligent and— dare I say it— cute.
I give “The Edge of Seventeen” a 9/10.
