Date Released: 2016
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Actors/ Characters: Hailee Steinfeld/ Nadine, Haley Lu Richardson/ Krista, Blake Jenner/ Darian, Hayden Szeto/ Erwin, Woody Harrelson/ Mr. Bruner
Summary: High-school life gets even more unbearable for Nadine when her best friend, Krista, starts dating her older brother.
Review
Honestly, this movie took me by surprise. My friends asked me if I wanted to go out one Saturday night to watch The Edge of Seventeen and I said alright. I didn't really know what this film was about only that it was starring Hailee Steinfield and it was a teen movie. But when I left the cinema I was stunned at how relatable and honest this film was. I felt like all my inner monologue was spilling out onto the screen in the form of film and it was incredible. This is a film I would highly recommend if your feeling down, it is just nice to know that someone else out there is feeling exactly the same things you do.
As I mentioned this film is highly truthful and relatable. A lot of teen films I have seen and related to have been made maybe ten, twenty years ago and for once it was nice to watch a modern depiction of teenage life that wasn't centered around gossiping girls and outcasts trying to be noticed by there high school crush. Again the narrative and the writing of this film was gritty and raw in nature, it didn't glamourise teenage life or make it unbelievable like Mean Girls.
The no-nonsense writing of the film made it incredibly comical particularly with scenes including Nadine and/or Mr Bruner. I loved whenever these two characters were together Mr Bruner was so straight forward and unforgiving to Nadine and her teen drama. I loved how brutal the comedy was as it was refreshing and different to the humour used in most coming of age films. The savageness of the speech again made the film as a whole much more genuine.
The characters and the actors that played them in the film were spot on. I was genuinely impressed with the performance of Hailee Steinfield, I did not realise that she had acted in many films prior and her performance as an actress thoroughly impressed me. Nadine reminded me so much of myself, she was flawed in a way that was honest and genuine. It was evident that she could help the way she was lashing out and she was struggling with all the stresses of her age which I could heavily relate to. I loved Mr Burner also and would go as far to say he was my favourite character. He added so much comedy to the film with his timing and hilarious, yet brutal, one liners. I think his character was definitely the most interesting to watch because of his depth as a person.
How could I forget, Erwin. I loved Erwin so much, he was sweet, overlooked and adorably awkward. The scene in his swimming pool was brilliant and probably one of my favourite in the film. I loved how even though he was a stereotypical trope of teen films he subverted the convention slightly by taking no shit from Nadine when she was mean to him. In the end when they got together I was so happy and I loved how the ending mirrored the start of the film flipping the situation round so that Nadine was now being included into a social group.
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