The opening of this film has a 17 years old girl emotionally telling her teacher that she wants to commit suicide, and the teacher proceeds to give her an insensitive response that pokes fun at the situation. That scene perfectly sets the tone for the rest of this movie, which mixes angtsy problems with some clever sense of humor. The dialogue found in this movie is simply one of the main highlights of seeing this, as they are really well written, highly entertaining, and insightful as well. It's not completely original as there are cliche plot moments, but that fact doesn't matter when the story is done this well.
To go along with the fantastic writing, the other main highlight of seeing this movie is the cast. Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Lu Richardson, and Blake Jenner, are all good in this, but there are three particular actors that really stand out the most. Hayden Szeto as the always nervous Asian classmate, Woody Harrelson as the scene stealing flippant teacher, and of course Hailee Steinfeld as our socially awkward and melodramatic main protagonist Nadine. This movie really relied on Steinfeld to be amazing in this, and she is.
The Edge Of Seventeen easily goes down as an instant classic of a coming-of-age movie, and even felt like a deconstruction of the genre at times. I appreciated the fact that it was done in a way that didn't compromise it's vision of a story, as it didn't find it necessary to tone things down for a younger audience.
LOVED IT enjoyedititsokayitsmehitsterrible
