The Edge of Seventeen is a film that focuses on Nadine’s life: a seventeen year old girl facing issues adjusting to teenage life, especially after finding out her brother and best friend are together.
The film opens with Nadine talking to her teacher about wanting to kill herself, which we later learn is supposed to be in a humorous and non-serious way, but nevertheless, it still drew us in as an audience.
As the movie goes on, we learn a lot about Nadine’s past, especially her struggle with fitting in. Her dad had always been there to comfort Nadine, while her and her mother had never really seen eye to eye. We learn early on that her and her father were super close, until Nadine sees her father die next to her while driving their car. They didn’t go into too much detail, which they even say they won’t do to “spare us the depressing stuff”, but they touch upon how tough it was losing her father often throughout the film. One of the main reasons the film was so appealing to me was because of how honest it was, and the scenes that mentioned the grief or sadness about their father passing were just that, honest. Many films fail to capture the difficulty of losing someone without it being a major part of the movie, but I felt it was an honest and accurate depiction.
Just as Nadine is struggling with fitting in, she meets a girl named Krista, who will soon come to be her best friend. Nadine and Krista meet early on in the film, and you can tell they spend all of their time together. That is, until one night after drinking at home, Krista ends up sleeping with Nadine’s brother, Darian.
After Nadine walks in on them together, her life begins to, for lack of better terms, go to shit. Since she is mad at her brother, things are difficult at home. And since she isn’t speaking to her best friend, she has no one to talk to at school.
Nadine doesn’t have many friends at school, so she decides to confide in her history teacher. Throughout the film, I thought he was a very interesting character, and had difficulty figuring him out. Personally, he reminded me of the relationships I had with my teachers in high school; someone wiser, with insight into how tough it is growing up.
Nadine also makes friends with a boy in her class, someone kind of unexpected. As the film goes on, we as an audience see how genuine and sweet he is. Something Nadine doesn’t know that much about, considering her family and limited dating life. I personally enjoyed watching the friendship develop into something real, and non-cliché.
From here, we see Nadine make more mistakes, while making some smart decisions as well. My favorite parts were the scenes with raw emotions. The best moments of the film were the scenes of Nadine crying about her insecurities, or the pure embarrassment of sending an accidental and very forward message to her crush. What can I say, it sounds like she’s a teenager.
Overall, I truly believe this is a movie everyone should go out and see. This is a thoughtful and well-written film that accurately depicts what being a teenager is like. Even if Nadine’s problems do not exactly line up with the audiences, they will be able to identify with the main problems that have to do with boys, family, and school. This film makes you think, while being heartfelt and relatable at the same time.
