Comic turn

You don't have to be a teenager - or even young - to enjoy The Edge of Seventeen. In her debut feature, director Kelly Fremon Craig has maintained a sharply intelligent, no-nonsense approach to the late teens, before adulthood and its challenges displace their joys and sorrows. This movie will have special resonance for those who remember the teen hits of the 1980s, when names like John Hughes (director) and Molly Ringwald (female lead) were on everybody's lips, especially lips of a certain age. I'm not sure how well the teen movies of that period have aged, but on the evidence of Craig's new film I’d say the genre, if Seventeen is typical, has come a long way since the 1980s. Not only is there a startling increase in four-letter-word incidence and a predictable preoccupation with social media (especially non-stop texting), but there is also a tough-mindedness in dealing with the coming-of-age theme that I don’t remember from the days when Ringwald was queen. Though there is plenty of wit in Craig's screenplay and direction, the film also canvasses, without didacticism, some of the more painful rites of passage that "seventeen" may have to deal with. And she wastes no time in establishing this theme or, indeed, the wit with which she will enliven it. The youthful protagonist, Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), strides into a classroom and announces to the teacher, Mr Bruner (Woody Harrelson), seated at his desk: "I’m going to kill myself." She felt she should tell someone about her plan, she adds, to which Bruner replies that he was just writing a suicide note of his own because he'd rather face "the dark emptiness than deal with badly dressed students." On film, the black comedy of this opening exchange is highly effective.