QUICK REVIEW: The Edge of Seventeen

Howdy ladies and gents, time for the final of my recent three reviews which comes in the form of Edge of Seventeen, a film I’ve recently been looking forward to thanks to the good word of mouth I’ve been hearing about online. After Moana and Sully I was really curious to see if this film would meet the hype and continue my good streak of films, so how was the film? Well read on and find out!

So the story can be described as the following:

“Life is pretty hard for high school junior Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), who is already at peak awkwardness when her perfect older brother Darian (Blake Jenner) starts dating her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). All at once, Nadine feels more alone than ever, until an unexpected friendship with awkward teen Erwin (Hayden Szeto) gives her a glimmer of hope that things just might not be so terrible after all.“

At first I wasn’t as invested in the story as I would like especially since a lot of what was happening, while interesting, was not as captivating as I had hoped. However, around 2/3’s or 3/4’s this film changed, it got real serious and from there it only got more dramatic and emotional, and by the end I invested on the deepest level. The film deals with a lot of notable and relatable issues that young people face in school like fitting in, awkwardness, family drama, individualism and coming to terms with who you are. And while a lot of Nadine goes through is a little beyond anything I experienced in school, there were elements of her personal struggle that I could relate to and all of the drama feel portrayed in a realistic manner.

When it comes to the cast they were all really good. Hailee Steinfield as Nadine Franklin, wow, that’s all I can say. Steinfield has come a long way since True Grit and I loved her in this film so much, she was magnetic, funny and so endearing. The interesting thing about Nadine is that she’s gone through a lot of difficult circumstances through her life which has shaped her views on life to the point where from an outsiders point of view, she can be hard to approach. She kind of reminds me of a mixture of Daria Morgendorffer and Tracy Beaker; both characters having personal issues or cynical personalities. But no matter how bad she comes across, as we learn over the course of the film, she’s just needs someone to understand her and I really felt that towards the end of the film with this really powerful monologue that almost moved me to tears. And then there’s Woody Harrelson as Mr. Bruner who was just amazing as Nadine’s high school teacher, this guy is just the most chilled out, uncaring and lazy individual and yet he is so engaging and hilarious and his interactions with Nadine are some of the best scenes in the film. Haley Lu Richardson (who for some reason reminds of mix between Hayden Panettiere and Ashley Johnson) was also really good as Krista, while Blake Jenner was great as Darian, as Nadine’s older brother he was decent for a while but definitely became more as the film went on and Jenner had some really strong material towards the latter side of the film. Kyra Sedgwick was also fabulously delightful as Mona and Hayden Szeto as Erwin Kim was just the best, he was the awkward guy hanging around with Nadine and his personality and interactions were totally similar to my own. 😛 Also the film also had an effective use of music as there seemed to be the use of a notable song at just the right moments to enhance the scenes they were used in.

In conclusion Edge of Seventeen was a delightful film and definitely another solid film in the coming of age genre, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the film as much as some of the online film reviewers had suggested, but by the credits I left with a good feeling in my heart. I would definitely recommend it. 🙂

So are you going to see Edge of Seventeen or if you have seen it what do you think of it? Whatever your thoughts are be sure to drop them in the comments section, and with that done that brings this set of reviews to a close. That’s for reading and I’ll see y’all on the next review, peace out! 🙂