The Edge Of Seventeen: The Greatest Coming of age Film (In my Opinion)

Surprisingly, not too many people know about this movie, ever since the moment I came across it, I knew it would instantly be in my top 5 favorite movies of all time, and now here we are a few years later and it's arguably in my top 2 favorite. There's many reasons why I love "The Edge Of Seventeen" and of course one of the reasons is because of how much I can relate to it on a personal level, I stumbled upon this movie during a pretty dark period of my life, I was a young Teen (Still am, but am about to be in my 20's a year from now) who was struggling with self esteem issues and mild depression. I felt isolated from the rest of the world including my family, and watching this movie made me tear up because I related to Nadine, she was going through what I was going through and what a lot of teens go through. I dealt with an asshole brother, with fake friends, I grew up without one of my parent's in my life as well. This movie just touched me on a personal level that I still can relate to till this. It's funny, I probably relate to this movie now more than ever and I'm almost in my 20's. What makes this movie so special to me is that it also was the main inspiration for my Feature-Length Screenplay, I saw this movie and decided I wanted to write a coming of age movie that captured the struggles of a Teenager just like this movie did, something personal for many people, I probably won't get into much detail about that, but just wanted to let that be known.

I have came across other Coming of age movies in my life before, but none of them touch me to the level that this one did. I don't even really know how to explain it, this movie just gets to me, I'm a big fan of movies that are grounded and tell personal stories, and this is one of the best at doing that. It's just one of those films I'll never grow tired of, the more I watch it, the better it gets, the more I relate to it. I've cried from movies before, but this one made me cry because of how much I felt it, I felt for Nadine, she was depressed and felt so lonely, just like I have for most of my life, and that just got to me. Other movies have made me cry because there's a sad scene or something in that sense, you know, like a scene that made everyone cry, but that wasn't the case for this movie with me. I know not everyone who's seen this movie is a fan of it, I've seen some reviews saying it's not all that great and stuff like that, but I just fail to see where those people are coming from, no I'm not saying I don't respect their opinion, of course I do, but I just don't see why they don't think this is a great movie, I just can't see why. Maybe they never went through what Nadine went through? I don't know, all I know is that this movie impacted my life in such a big way, and it's a movie I always re watch whenever I'm feeling sad or down. It's not my favorite movie actually, it seems like it would be, but surprisingly it's not. But it will always have a special place in my heart.

I realized I haven't talked about how amazing the acting and the writing is in this movie. This Movie is the Movie that made Hailee Steinfeld become my favorite actress, her performance was just brilliant, I couldn't imagine someone else being cast as Nadine, she was perfect for the role. The writing is also what makes this such a great Movie, there's many scenes I can use as an example but possibly my favorite scene from the entire Film is near the end when Nadine tells her Brother Darian how she's always felt about herself, that moment really gets to me as it's how I've felt about myself for most of my life, especially now. Kelly Freemon Craig surely showed what she is capable of with this one. I still believe to this day that this is Hailee Steinfeld's best performance, she's starred in many roles after this one such as Bumblebee, Dickinson, Pitch Perfect 3, and most recently, Hawkeye, but I just don't think any of her performances in those projects were as good as this one (Obviously not saying they weren't great). Maybe some of it is favoritism since this is the movie that made her not only my favorite actress but also my favorite celebrity, but I've put that to the side many times, and this is still her greatest performance in my eyes. I think this movie is surely one that should be talked about more often, I don't think it gets the recognition it deserves at all. It's a Film that just makes me feel something, every time I watch it. At first this movie was at that number 4 spot in my top 5 favorite films, but after what I have recently been going through I believe it's made it's way to that number 2 or 3 spot simply because of how much I find myself relating to it more than ever right now. I don't see any coming of age film surpassing this one for me, no matter how many more come out in the future, I just don't see it happening, who knows though, maybe I'll be wrong, but this one just captured so perfectly what it's like being a young teenager who deals with self esteem issues everyday. I've been re watching it more than usual lately and I think there is a reason for that. I think everyone has those movies that they think about from time to time fairly often, for me that's this one, well one of them, but it's really rare that a Movie does that to me, so props to Kelly Freemon Craig and everyone else who was involved in making this film that I will forever hold close to my heart. I sure hope in the future we do get more movies like this one, coming of age is probably my favorite genre.

I don't really talk about this enough, but I love the Film's ending so much. After everything Nadine went through... her losing her Father, her Best Friend dating her asshole Brother, Her mom not treating her good, her liking a boy only to find out he was a total jerk, her dealing with loneliness and depression, has finally found some peace with herself. That just warms my heart so much, it reminds of of the time I went through depression and finally after years found a bit of peace withing myself. Nadine's life was a pretty harsh one as we see through out the entire film, but you could see how much that really helped her grow and even mature a bit in the end, with her accepting the relationship between Krista and Darian. It's really just a beautiful and heartwarming ending that made me really happy. It was really nice seeing Nadine have I guess somewhat of a happy ending. Nadine was not to blame for her actions in my opinion, she dealt with a lot, but it was nice seeing her become better in the end and it really put a smile on my face. I know it might sound silly, but part of me kinda would like to see a sequel of this movie just to see how Nadine has been doing since then, but obviously I'm pretty sure that will never happen, just a small thought though.

Anyways, with that out of the way now, I'm glad you have read my first Movie review on this website! I was thinking of which Film I should do my first review on and this one was just the one that I wanted to say how much it meant to me for such a long time now, so I saw this as the perfect opportunity. Remember, I will post all my film reviews on the "Films" section of this website, so click on there for all things Movies, take care!