Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: The Edge of Seventeen

February 13, 2017

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The Edge of Seventeen

The Edge of Seventeen was one of those films that had light Awards Season buzz. Its reviews were 95% positive, but it only managed a couple of major nominations. Worse still for the studio, it bombed in theaters. Is this a film that deserved better during Awards Season? Does it at least deserve a bigger audience on the home market?

The Movie

The film focuses on Nadine, whom we meet when she barges into one of her teacher’s rooms, Mr. Burner, and tells him she going to kill herself. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know he doesn’t react sympathetically.

We then flashback to when Nadine was seven. She was always a difficult child. She claims it was because she realized at a young age that her brother, Darian, was going to be perfect and she was not. She acted out a lot and the only person who could deal with her was her father, Tom. Her mother, Mona, on the other hand... dysfunctional barely describes it. Nadine didn’t have any friends, until she met Krista. Flash forward several years to when Nadine and Krista were 13 years old. The pair were each others’ only friends. Her brother only got more perfect and her mother and her fought even more. Worse still, her father died suddenly and Nadine was there to see it. This sent her into a bit of a spiral.

When we return to the present day, Mona spends a weekend with her new boyfriend and without a parent in the house, Nadine and Krista decide to get a little wild and drink too much. When Nadine wakes up, she goes to find Krista, only to see her in bed with her brother. When Krista and Darian begin dating, Nadine can’t handle it and without her one true friend, she has no one to really talk to.

There’s a lot to recommend here. Nearly every aspect of The Edge of Seventeen works and the number one most important part is Hailee Steinfeld’s performance. Without her anchoring this movie, it could have been a disaster. You get an actor here that can’t maintain the balance between teenage nightmare and sympathetic character and this movie becomes painful to watch. ... Unintentionally painful. There are certainly some cringeworthy moments in the movie, but these are written and performed in a way that makes it feel natural and not in a way that feels cruel to Nadine. I’m not a fan of cringe-humor, because it too often crosses the line into being cruel. Hailee Steinfeld is not the only actor who gives an incredible performance. Her chemistry with Woody Harrelson is certainly another highlight of the film.

One could argue that the film is a little too predictable. There’s an early scene where Nadine is giving Mr. Burner a hard time, and vice versa. After that, one of Nadine’s classmates, Edwin talks to her and you can immediately tell where that subplot is going to end. That’s really my only complaint. There weren’t a lot of surprises in the movie. Then again, this film was meant to connect with people who still remember high school, so it is not surprising that the overall plot arc feels familiar.

The Extras

Sadly, the only extras are five minutes of outtakes and three deleted scenes.

The Verdict

The Edge of Seventeen is an excellent movie that really should have found a larger audience in theaters and frankly it could have earned a few more Awards Season nominations. If it wasn’t already clear Hailee Steinfeld was going to be a star, this film ended any doubt. On the downside, the DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack only has a couple of extras, but it is still worth picking up and even a contender for Pick of the Week.

Filed under: Video Review, The Edge of Seventeen, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Hailee Steinfeld, Eric Keenleyside, Haley Lu Richardson, Ava Cooper, Blake Jenner, Hayden Szeto, Lina Renna, Christian Cooper