(USA, 102 min.)
Written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick,
Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Hayden Szeto
Programme Galas – Closing Night Selection (World Premiere)
 |
| Courtesy VVS Films. |
Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) learns the truth at seventeen.
Love is for beauty queens, girls with clear-skinned smiles and all that. High
school sucks. It’s miserable, awkward, and frustrating for a girl like Nadine
who struggles to fit in at school in the shadow of her much cooler brother
Darian (Blake Jenner). Darian loves working out so much that muscles ripple out
of his V-necked shirts and make Nadine’s classmates swoon, but Nadine is still
growing out of her Vote for Pedro haircut and finding her own style. Luckily,
though, she has her BFF Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) who could easily have her
pick of any girl in the school to be her wingman. Besties for life, these two
are, in this comedy full of sass and humour.
The girls’ friendship hits a major hurdle, however, when Nadine walks in on Kayla giving her brother a hand-job following a drunken party. These things happen as kids explore the proper ratios for hard liquor and orange crush. But when your best friend starts dating your brother, and Kayla refuses Nadine’s ultimatum that she must choose between siblings, besties become frenemies in a snap.
Nadine’s messy predicament only gets worse when her moody
behaviour alienates her hard-working mother (Kyra Sedgwick) and coldly rebuffs
the one guy at school who clearly digs her (Vancouverite Hayden Szeto). She
keeps digging her hole deeper and burying herself like an ostrich in the sand hoping
that shutting herself away from the crowd is the best armour for surviving high
school.
The film features sharp, dynamic characters across the
spectrum of the ensemble—even the adults have dimensions here—with a
well-rounded cast of newbies and veterans who embrace the gawky messiness of
growing up. Steinfeld (True Grit, Begin Again) is a marvel as Nadine in
her first true lead performance. She’s earnest and funny without a shred of
self-consciousness as Nadine struggles to find her voice in the homogenous sea
of fish at her school. It’s refreshing to see a star act her age and have a lot
of fun doing it too.
Fremon Craig finds actors who tap into the full dimensions
of her supporting characters as Harrelson gives an unexpectedly sweet
performance as Nadine’s curmudgeonly teddy bear of a teacher, while Sedgewick
is a sweet spot of the film as Mona’s frazzled frustration becomes a reflection
of Nadine’s hostility. The strength and fullness of Nadine’s character is a
rare highlight in the canon of teen comedies and arguably reflects the value of
a female voice behind the characters. Just as much as it’s a relief to see
Steinfeld play a character who genuinely seems seventeen, it’s refreshing to
see mom who isn’t just a shrill bitch. Rather, her relationship to Nadine and
Darian in the absence of their father forms the heart of the film. These
characters have details and nuances, like Mona’s flappy upper arms and Nadine’s
tricky unlikability.
While Harrelson and Sedgewick are highlights of the film,
the younger co-stars all bring their own authentic humour to The Edge of Seventeen starting with
Jenner’s boy-next-door appeal that echoes his breakthrough work in Richard
Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!!
and Richardson’s bubbly radiance. Szeto frequently steals the film from
Steinfeld as Nadine’s friend and admirer Erwin. He owns the character’s dorky
charm, and gives the nerd a rare romantic side, especially as Fremon Craig’s
brings the characters together. Nadine’s penchant for word vomit finds a voice
in Erwin’s art and the film culminates with a hilarious animated ditty that
holds our heroine accountable to her own contradictions. The film gives Nadine
a rude awakening to all the life that passes before her eyes as she chooses to
remain angry at the world, rather than see the potential in the misfits.
Nadine’s giant snowball of awkward keeps The Edge of Seventeen rolling with
laughter as writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig offers a rare teen-set comedy
that looks, acts, and sounds like something that could actually happen in a
real high school. Without the fo’ shizzlisms, hamburger phones, masturbatory
apple pies, and crude humour that frequently fuel comedies about the
awkwardness of adolescence, Fremon Craig’s script delivers a winner with its
authentic ears and eyes for teen angst. The
Edge of Seventeen has the heart of a John Hughes comedy and the smarts of Perks of Being a Wallflower and it’s a
refreshing romantic comedy that truly and genuinely surprises. It’s smart
enough, too, to go beyond the confines of a teen movie—it’s an authentic and
observant comedy that just happens to feature teenage characters. Fremon Craig
also has both thumbs on the pulse of contemporary communication between teens
as the film uses smartphones and social media effectively (a rare feat) and
finds the heartfelt humanity and sense of disaster that comes with crafting the
perfect text message.
Seventeen sees a
sharp meeting of the minds in newcomer Fremon Craig and Academy Award winning
producer James L. Brooks (Terms of
Endearment, The Simpsons) as the comedy pulls together the old and the new
for something fresh and funny. With the look at maturity of a classic studio
comedy and the contemporary sensibility of an emerging voice, The Edge of Seventeen is built to last. The Edge of Seventeen deserves to be the
next comedy classic.
The Edge of Seventeen
screens:
-Sunday, Sept. 18 at 12:00 PM at Ryerson Theatre
It opens in theatres November
18 from VVS films.
TIFF runs Sept. 8-18.
Please visit www.tiff.net for more information.
Find more TIFF coverage here.
