Movie REview
★★★
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN
Written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig. Starring Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick. At Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs. 102 minutes. R (sexual content, language, and drinking — all involving teens).
There’s a sense that the handlers of “The Edge of Seventeen’’ are fumbling a bit for an effective way of presenting Hailee Steinfeld’s coming-of-age indie. They made a good move by swapping out the film’s too-breezy working title, “Besties.’’ But publicity materials are still floating comparisons to John Hughes and “Sixteen Candles’’ to shorthand the mood of adolescent-misfit angst captured by freshman writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig.
The operative word on this one isn’t really “seventeen’’ but “edge.’’ Steinfeld (an Oscar nominee for the Coen brothers’ “True Grit’’) gives an absorbing, sympathetically bristly performance as a girl whose formidable teenage troubles reach critical mass when her lifelong best friend starts dating her brother. This is less a throwback to cutely misunderstood Molly Ringwald than to “My So-Called Life’’ — but with our high-school heroine stuck in a spiral like Claire Danes never knew.
We plunge into the drama midstream, as distraught Nadine (Steinfeld) charges in on her history teacher (Woody Harrelson) at lunch, mock-suicidally ranting about some mortifying personal episode. Quickly establishing the movie’s prickly tone, he answers her cry for help with don’t-wanna-hear-it sarcasm, even throwing in a dig at her quirky fashion sense. An F-bomb, too — not that it stands out next to some of the hard-R dialogue Nadine is prone to spouting. (How ironic that edge-of-17 moviegoers could be in for a hassle at the ticket counter.)
Turns out Nadine has reason to feel lost. Although she’s spent her entire socially awkward existence in the shadow of her all-American brother, Darian (Blake Jenner), she’s also had kindred spirit Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) to help her through, from bad-hair years to family tragedy. When Krista and Darian suddenly become an item, Nadine doesn’t just feel weirded out but betrayed. Her hurt, erratic response is achingly authentic, from nasty sparring with her brittle mom (Kyra Sedgwick) to the mixed signals she sends a sweetly dorky classmate (Hayden Szeto) and a bad-boy crush (Alexander Calvert).
Nadine’s confused searching keeps us engaged even as the story loses sight of its girl-centric predicament for a stretch, and even though Craig could develop her strained sibling dynamic more fully. The exchanges between Steinfeld’s richly drawn character and Harrelson’s reluctant mentor are more consistently revealing. It’s clear why Harrelson and Sedgwick are here, and it’s not for a sunny resolution. Whether unintentionally, by design, or a little of both, the movie is strongest when it’s gut-punching characters rather than going for comedic punch.
★★★
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN
Written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig. Starring Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick. At Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs. 102 minutes. R (sexual content, language, and some drinking — all involving teens).
Tom Russo can be reached at russo2222@gmail.com.
