Review: The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

[David N. Butterworth]

THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (2016)
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2017 David N. Butterworth

*** (out of ****)

What a thoroughly fabulous actress Hailee Steinfeld is. She's the heart
and soul of "The Edge of Seventeen," a coming-of-teen-age drama about a
nerdy high schooler who, well... comes of age, a little too hurriedly in the
film's closing moments perhaps but not enough to spoil the experience. We
still come away feeling good and happy for this young woman who has been
struggling with her older, more popular brother hooking up with her best
and only friend. Watching Steinfeld is like watching Emma Stone in the
similarly-schooled "Easy A" and she's as good as Stone was in that film:
front and center, focused, and very funny. Steinfeld is amazingly
confident on screen, whether going head to head with the (seasoned) likes
of Woody Harrelson--refreshingly low-key--and Kyra Sedgwick--typically
harried--or alongside up-and-coming peers Haley Lu Richardson (currently on
show in the schizoid psycho thriller "Split") and "Glee"'s Blake Jenner.
None of this should come as any surprise to anybody who has followed
Steinfeld's career since her feature-film debut in the Coen Brothers' "True
Grit." After all, the young actress--she was just fourteen at the time
that remake was released in 2010--received a Best Supporting Actress for
her work in the film and she sure showed her fellow performers Jeff
Bridges, Josh Brolin, and Matt Damon a thing or two. In "'Seventeen," for
which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, Steinfeld
applies just the right balance of sober smarts, teen angst, irreverent
humor, and pugnacious likability to the role of Nadine and first-time
director Kelly Fremon Craig (who also penned the marvelously pithy
dialogue) gives her a wide enough berth to strut her stuff. And fantastic
stuff it is too. Look for this one to go far.

--
David N. Butterworth
rec.arts.movies.reviews
butterwo...@gmail.com