THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN
STX Entertainment
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya
Grade: B
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Written by: Kelly Fremon Craig
Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Hayden Szeto
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 10/18/16
Opens: November 18, 2016
During my 32 years teaching high school I may have run into girls like Nadine Byrd (Hailee Steinfeld) or not. I have no idea what these youngsters did socially, what parties they attended, who they were attracted to, what they did about their likes and dislikes. I certainly did not experience anyone’s darting into my classroom to talk about how she planned to commit suicide. That makes “The Edge of Seventeen” a high-school comedy but not necessarily one that high-schoolers in the audience for this quirky story would relate to. The entire movie is anchored by Ms. Steinfeld (she turns twenty during the month the movie is released), who so dominates by her performance-on-steroids that she is the movie. It helps that as a foil she has Woody Harrelson as Mr. Bruner, the history teacher whose ear she chews off, though her hostile relationship to her handsome brother Darian (Blake Jenner) is more stereotypical and to her mother Mona (Kyra Sedgewick and her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) likewise.
Nadine, with all her energy–the way she walks through the halls of her SoCal Lakewood High School as though she had a purpose– and the style she uses to express herself, she could be called a loser. All the academic success in the world could probably not make her happy. She has only one friend which, given her alienation from mom and bro is sad, but like many extroverts, her loneliness is brought on by herself. Given the good looks the actress inherited from her real-life mother (her bio states that her father is Jewish and her mother Filipino, African-American, German and British Isles) coupled with her character, Nadine’s intelligence, she could have been the most popular girl in her class. Yet like Donald Trump, she is her own worst enemy. In her case she breaks up with her only friend Krista when Krista becomes her brother’s steady date, and insults her favorite teacher by commenting on his baldness and laughing at his salary.
The boys in her life include Erwin Kim (Hayden Szeto), a talented and, as later discovered, a rich boy whose parents own a steamed pool and who may just become her steady. But through her impulsive e-mailing, she encourages another classmate to pick her up, promising all sorts of physical attention that she has little desire or intention to fulfill. As for how she became the way she is, we really don’t know. Her father, Tom (Eric Keenleyside) dotes on her and shares her love for Billy Joel, but when he dies of a heart attack while driving, she is traumatized. Yet even while he was alive, she was a problem child: at the age of seven she had to be dragged out of the car to get her into her school.
Filmed in Vancouver to take the place of Southern California, “The Edge of Seventeen” takes its place among the array of high-school comedies and dramas including “Sixteen Candles.” We can expect quite a bit more from Kelly Fremon Craig. This is her first work as director while for her principal actress, this is Steinfeld’s breakthrough performance.
Unrated. 101 minutes. © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – B
Acting – B+
Technical – B
Overall – B
