The Edge of Seventeen

Directed By: Kelly Fremon CraigWritten By: Kelly Fremon Craig Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Hayden Szeto, Blake Jenner

The apparent trouble with The Edge of Seventeen is that, given the sort of film we know it to be (a coming of age teen comedy/drama), there are certain inevitabilities it must satisfy, for if it didn’t, it would cease being the movie it strives for. If you’ve seen a high school comedy/drama before, you have more or less seen The Edge of Seventeen. The checkpoints in the narrative are the same (sex, alcohol, school hierarchies), the themes of social angst and broadening one’s empathies are required, and the characters slip nicely into cosy archetypes. But the triumph of Kelly Fremon Craig, who wrote and directed the film, is that she is able to do the inevitable her own way, forging her own unbeaten path on ever beaten territory.

What defines The Edge of Seventeen is the nuanced, naturalistic approach with which its story is observed. The characters speak recognisably, their troubles and resulting reactions ring true. Where Juno had a zinging wittiness, where Clueless championed satire and dramatic irony, The Edge of Seventeen strives for something much closer to the bone, something more grounded and anguished.

The central conflict in the film sees a riff between Hailee Steinfeld’s outcast Nadine, and her sole friend Krista (played by Haley Lu Richardson). The problems start when Krista is bedded by Nadine’s perfect, jock older brother Darian (Blake Jenner), a one-off betrayal for Nadine that quickly becomes a full time betrayal, as Krista and Darian begin dating. The riff leaves Nadine with only two other confidants, her well-meaning but overbearing widowed mother Mona (Kyra Sedgwick), a

nd her unprofessional, seemingly belligerent history teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson).

Woody Harrelson may steal the show with his performance; his uncrackable deadpan features, monotonous Southern drawl, and muted warmth, making him both the film’s most reliable comedic crutch, and an intriguing character in his own right. Harrelson’s verbal spars with Steinfeld bear more than a trace of Emma Stone’s intellectual duels with Thomas Hayden Church in Easy A, but, just as that like-minded 2010 comedy managed, Craig finds success in rendering those around Nadine into entire entities, materialising them into much more than accelerants in the protagonist’s reformation. Each supporting character has their own layers to peel away, each with their own journeys to make.

Hayden Szeto is the film’s other central figure, Craig’s ace in the hole who threatens to steal the day from under Harrelson’s nose. He plays Nadine’s cute admirer Erwin, a painfully awkward but bright nice-guy who is evidently the one for Nadine, but whom Nadine struggles to see as more than pathetic. Szeto’s trick is finding time to unlock an off-kilter charm and charisma between his inarticulate, nerve addled ramblings, making him the perfect offset to the disaffected Nadine.

And there’s Steinfeld herself, excellent as the film’s centrepiece. One could easily imagine Nadine’s self-pitying quickly growing tedious, but Steinfeld is so truthful in her performance, her anxieties are so palpable, that she elicits a greater depth to her character’s wallowing. Particularly noteworthy is Steinfeld’s emotional honesty when the film digs deeper into the darker corners of teenage life. A subversive element to Craig’s drama is how frankly it confronts the morbid

ity of its characters’ struggles, and how effortlessly the film sifts between tones in doing so; breezy and comedic, to tender and bleak in the final act. Steinfeld keeps the story weighted, pained enough to introduce real pathos, sharp enough to keep things amicable. It’s this darkness which also feeds into The Edge of Seventeen’s realism, it’s pull no punches perspective of high-school life which allows the movie to both tip its hat to filmmakers like John Hughes, and gesture away from the blaringly obvious.

Surprisingly, it’s a decidedly un-triumphant film. There is no sweeping narratorial finale to signpost what we’ve learnt, no sweeping, inspirational monologue to complete the journey. Rather, The Edge of Seventeen’s moments of catharsis are subtle and understated, creeping up on you without the heavy footedness of sentimentality. The payoffs are undoubtedly there, but, as is the underpinning feature of the film, they’re more nuanced than crowd pleasing. None of this is to say that Kelly Fremon Craig’s work is a reinvention of its genre, it is difficult to imagine fans gushing over The Edge of Seventeen in thirty years time as they do The Breakfast Club. It is what it inevitably must be, shackled to the formula carved for it by decades of similar coming of age comedy/dramas. But that doesn’t mean it can’t acquire the slack to move in its own way.

Rating:

3.25/4