Title: The Edge of Seventeen
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner
Runtime: 1 hr 44 min

What It Is: Nadine (Steinfeld) is a little rough around the edges. She is often coarse with classmates and always kind of has been. Her only real friend Krista (Richardson) is now dating her brother, and a few years prior her father had passed away. She has no one outside of her teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson) to confide in. As her life goes on she realizes that perhaps the problem isn’t everyone else but perhaps a little of that is her.

What We Think: What an absolute gem. This is Hailee Steinfeld’s world and we’re just visiting. Here she proves once again why she was nominated for an Oscar so early in her career. Take away films like Pitch Perfect 2, or one of 2015’s worst Barely Lethal. Kelly Fremon Craig goes places with this coming of age that I don’t think I’ve seen done really well without John Hughes. She takes the wheels off of what it means to be rebellious, and how that isn’t necessarily wrong. No one feels fake and the situations unfold naturally. Just refreshing filmmaking. This is a woman to watch for in the chair. I look very forward to what Kelly Fremon Craig does next.

Our Grade: A, On the strength of its lead actress this film burrowed it’s way intently into my top 10 of 2016. Having said that it is quite obvious that I recommend you see this. With all the films heavy in subject and concept toward the end of the year some times it is just nice to see something that is fundamentally great while being technically excellent. See this film wherever and whenever you can you’ll not regret it.