K-SCORE: 57
Writer / Director: Kelly Fermon Craig
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner
Spoiler Level: Minor
At least this thing doesn’t end with a dramatic trip to prom. In fact, the writer/director seemed to ignore most of the natural narrative pathing of a year in the life of a high school student, for better or worse. That alone makes it a little different from other coming of age movies, but not much. The frustrating thing about The Edge of Seventeen is that it’s entirely character work. Every single conflict is an artificial construct of the mind of Nadine, the protagonist. She has the real problem of having to cope with her father’s death, and then some not real ones like her best friend dating her brother and feeling awkward around the Asian boy who thinks she’s cute. I came away from The Edge of Seventeen perhaps with a little more insight into just how awkward high school girls are, or at least can be, and not much else. Woody Harrelson is great in it, but his high school teacher role is so thin in its construction that it’s more tragic than anything else. Not because the character is tragic - unenthusiastic history teacher, not sad - but because as an inspirational figure in the world of academia it’s so uninspiring. I don’t think you need that much more than authentic characters in order to convey something honestly, but you do need a little more, and it’s in that area that this film falls short. I only wish it were worse so I could make a joke about giving it a K-SCORE of sixteen that was on the edge of seventeen. Will nothing work out for me?!