This coming-of-age flick was sadly released in the midst of the holiday movie season which is a bad move 99% of the time. Maybe Seventeen will get a second wind through streaming because I personally feel it belongs in the pantheon of the essential teenager/young adult stories penned by John Hughes…although the majority on my shortlist weren’t done by him (Better Off Dead, Racing With the Moon, She’s All That, The Way Way Back and My Bodyguard are standards).
Set around today (2015-17), the story focuses on Nadine, an awkward 17-year-old teenager who has been disliked by her peers since kindergarten. Making matters worse, her older brother Darian is one of the popular kids and her widowed mother is a fragile mess. One bright spot since second grade is Nadine’s best friend Krista.
Things progress as they do on a daily basis for Nadine until her mother takes a long weekend to see some dentist she met on match.com. Having the house to themselves Nadine and Krista live it up: drinking, dancing, trying on mom’s outfits, etc.; Nadine declared the house is hers so Darian is supposed to get lost. It could’ve stayed that way if Nadine didn’t get drunk, vomit and pass out. While she was sleeping it off, Krista and Darian fall in love. Obviously Nadine is devastated and even makes an ultimatum to Krista, it’s her or Darian. Krista refuses to choose so Nadine decides for them and goes into a spiral of manic behavior on par for many teenagers.
Along the way Nadine tries to control her crush on bad boy Nick and remains apprehensive to the affections/friendship of classmate Erwin. She also excels at tormenting her mother, antagonizing Darian (despite being in the popular crowd, he’s really a good person and is saddled with being the adult due to his mother’s own immediate crises) and dumping on her history teacher, Mr. Bruner, played wonderfully by Woody Harrelson.
Is it funny? Absolutely, namely Mr. Bruner’s stoic responses to Nadine’s diatribes. Plus what teenagers think is “the most important thing” remains a universal point of humor throughout all eras. Sure there’s cell phones and social media in the story but they’re part of the set dressing, not the crux. So I think Seventeen will age well like Weird Science remains funny even though the computers/computer graphics are primitive by today’s standards. Another contributing factor on why the story and execution succeed is the involvement of the legendary James L Brooks as a producer. He wisely let director/writer Kelly Fremon Craig run this so I think he helped out by imparting his wisdom while letting Craig retain her vision. It’s a guess or wish fulfillment.
I didn’t get the chance to see Seventeen during its initial run, I lucked out on it turning up in a second-run theater I’m gaining respect for. As for you my readers/friends, I really recommend this. If you love the three good John Hughes Teen movies (Sixteen Candles, Weird Science and Pretty in Pink), give The Edge of Seventeen a go. You’ll probably laugh at how insignificant your problems back were then too.