[rating=9.00]
While there’s no shortage of teen movies in the world, it’s rare when a character like Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) comes along. She’s overly dramatic, borderline obnoxious, and regularly crosses the line with the people in her life. Hell, at one point she tries to blackmail her mother, Mona (Kyra Sedgwick), by telling everyone she plucks hair from her nipples. Yet despite, or perhaps because of, these outbursts, you simply can’t help warming up to her character.
From the opening scene, which perfectly sets up her relationship with her teacher, Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson), we see that Nadine is a handful, and Steinfeld takes to her character like a force of nature. Conversely, Mr. Bruner’s near-silent reactions, punctuated with only his raised eyebrows and occasionally changing expressions, seems to outright disregard Nadine’s problems, but by doing so manages to offer her some kind of perspective in between his heavy sighs.
Their dynamic is exactly what makes The Edge of Seventeen stand out from its teen-movie peers. We see ourselves in Nadine, our perfect, arrogant teenage selves who rolled their eyes at the world, declared ourselves as outsiders destined to spend our lives alone, yet were never really content with who we are. However, we also see ourselves in Mr. Bruner, a reflection of the people we are today, looking back and stopping just shy scoffing at the petulant, misguided arrogance of our youth that we’ll never completely forget. Yet we do our best to disregard just how serious we thought it all was back then.
The story, penned by writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig, who’d written the romantic comedy Post Grad in 2009, but never directed a feature before. Her story follows Nadine as she loses her best friend when she starts dating her older brother, a popular, big-man-on-campus type who she naturally resents. With nowhere to turn, she acts out in a variety of ways — from little things like refusing to go to school, all the way to stealing her mom’s car and taking it on an all-day joyride.
While Craig clearly knows this character, and wields her directorial debut with a clear, decisive confidence, veteran producer James L. Brooks is able to add his signature touch of sentimental realism, and his uncanny ability to give typically frivolous high school drama a real sense of emotional gravity.
Similarly, as Fremon’s script starts by placing Nadine at the center, surrounded by a world that she feels has cast her aside, you soon bear witness to each of these characters as they slowly become fully formed as the story progresses. It’s a film with “no straw characters,” as Brooks explained when I interviewed him and Craig last month during the Austin Film Festival. With Nadine as an effortlessly identifiable lead character, surrounding her with well-rounded, three-dimensional character makes her story all the more personable.
On the surface, it might seem easy to lump The Edge of Seventeen with the slough of teen-centric dramadies that permeate the pop-culture landscape. What sets it apart is the fresh perspective of Craig, coupled with the emotional sensibility of Brooks, which is then filtered through Steinfeld’s tour-de-force performance, culminating in one of the smartest, sharpest, and must-watch movies of the year.
The Edge of Seventeen is now playing in theaters everywhere.
