Review of The Edge of Seventeen (2016) by Brandon W — 23 Nov 2016

The Edge of Seventeen is directed and written by Kelly Fremon Craig in her directorial debut, and it stars Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrison, and Kyra Sedgwick in a coming-of-age dramedy about an awkward student that has to deal with high school stuff and has no friends except for her best friend, who is dating her brother.

I was about to review Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them first, but there were some time problems and I have to watch that later. I went in into this hoping that I didn't regret spending money on this when I could've just spend it on my childhood films, and luckily, I didn't waste upon this.

I like the story upon this that shows the student's experience in high school, and I was surprised to see that it wasn't based on a book. It's been a while that I've seen Hailee Steinfeld in a main role since True Grit, and in my opinion, she gives one of her best performances since True Grit, or ever.

She just gives a believable performance as a antsy girl that has to deal with situations that she didn't ask for, and some of her moments that I found very relatable to myself to the point that I wasn't thinking that she's playing a character, and was thinking of her as a human being.

There's a lot of stuff in here that I think, I'm like that person, my friend is so like that, or sadly I'm like that, which is thanks to script by the director that probably have a lot of experience with the modern high school attitude that it has.

The characters are very memorable, and they are all likable. When they aren't so, you can understand why they're like that, and you just can't get mad at that. There's a lot of funny stuff, but the funniest for me, is Woody Harrelson's character.

Not only is he great in it, his character says and does stuff that no teacher does and ends up being fired, and it's hilarious and awesome while not making him feel more of a comic relief, but as a person.

When watching the film and how much I was enjoying it, I thought of the best coming-of-age and one of my favorite films The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In terms of comparisons, there's not much similarities to it as they are two completely different films, and Edge of Seventeen is not quite as depressingly mature as Perks of Being a Wallflower, although there are a fair share of depressing moments that are adult.

If there's only one flaw I can think of, it's that there's an aspect in there that I did find predictable, but it wasn't entirely predictable as it didn't end the way I thought it would, and it's a very minor one.

The Edge of Seventeen is one of my favorite coming-of-age films, and I'm still going to give this rating as it's a very high one for me, and I've enjoyed and relate to it very much that it hurts, but in a good way.