Edge of Seventeen

Edge of Seventeen

I will preface this review with that it is coming from someone who had rough teenage years so I have some bias. The idea for the film is well thought out and it is filmed very well. Also with it trying to aim at a wide audience it portrays some common difficulties and struggles of a teenager. That being said, I struggled mightily with the film with my background in high school. Hailee Steinfeld plays Nadine, a 17-year-old struggling with her identity in the world with no one to help her, as her one good parent passes away in front of her eyes from a heart attack. While I know this is a difficult time for her and her family, the director portrays Nadine as a complete outsider at school with only one friend. Because of how attractive Steinfeld is, this simply would not be the case in real life. It also doesn't make sense when she acts like she is no one likes her, and then just blows off a classmate who is obviously interested in her because he simply is too much of an "good old man soul". It may sound harsh, but speaking from experience, beggars can't be choosers and yet that is exactly what she is. He is not cool enough for her to be interested in as she lusts after the punk bad boy. This brings us to her dynamic with the other characters in the movie. From the very beginning her brother is portrayed as a selfish sports jock and there is no indication of anything different until the end. Side note, for her brother and best friend to hook up, which is in the trailer so I am not spoiling anything, is a terrible thing for them to do, especially the best friend. She has firsthand experience of how much of a jerk Nadine’s brother is to her and yet she "falls in love with him" after a one night stand. The main bright spots of the film are woody Harrelson and Hayden Szeto. Harrelson plays the down to earth, real talk teacher that Nadine constantly is coming to for advice even though she often doesn't like what she hears. Szeto plays Nadine’s lone admirer at the school who she is often ignoring. I honestly got more of an experience out of what it's like to be a teenager from him than from any other character and he is defiantly a minor side character. Both of these characters bring the much-needed comedy in an otherwise deeply depressing film. Kira Sedgwick plays Nadine’s unstable mother which she does well by making you absolutely hate her and wish she wasn't allowed to have children. The problem is much of the tension between mother and daughter seems manufactured as the filmmakers don't seem to know what kind of relationship they want them to have. Most of the time the relationship seem strained and unfixable only for there to be a sudden mood change that is not explained. Sedgwick is a very flat character with no evident growth. That, I think is the biggest problem with the film. All the characters are flat, have little to know shown growth and then at the end we are just supposed to accept that they have somehow grown. Nadine is the closest character to round as there is in the film, and most of the time she just seems whiny, only changing when forced to see knew evidence that is pulled out of thin air. Putting my personal issues aside I would say the film is average, gives a nice attempt at showing the teenage experience but definitely is not the masterpiece it seems to be trumpeted as. 2 pipes out of 4