Review of The Edge of Seventeen (2016) by Jason T — 02 Dec 2016

Kelly Craig's "edge of seventeen", ostensibly a mashup of John Hughes sensitive 80's teen pics and the comedy-drama of producer James L. Brooks, probably has more in common with the relatively tough minded teen films of the aughts like "perks of being a wallflower".

Kelly is an admittedly ardent Hughes fangirl, but she manages to beat him at his own game, writing a complex protagonist (who recalls Evan Rachel Wood's character in "thirteen" with a bit of "welcome to the dollhouse's" Dawn Weiner for good measure) and managing to capture all the narcissism and fascistic sensibilities that engulf the lonely adolescent female, barely afloat in a sea of social media and missed communication.

If the picture falls soft in the final act, it's forgivable, because Hailee Steinfeld always convinces us of how her character's misanthropy hides a bruised, desperate soul, all the more poignant because of her unexceptional family life and and the film's understanding that exclusion, not overt cruelty, is what really stings.

Far from the white winged dove, Kelly navigates the razor's edge between the cozy teen films of the past and the uncertain and haunted millennial angst of the present.