The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

(In French, On Cable TV, November 2021) Alas, I must classify The Edge of Seventeen in the “films I should not have missed” category. It happens — there are more new movies released every year than anyone can claim to see, and some will slip through the crack. An affectionate look at a seventeen-year-old high-school senior with many problems, it’s a film that navigates a fine line between dark humour and sympathy for its protagonist. Hailee Stenfeld does have a lot to do with how the many aspects of her character end up working well, with some able supporting work from Woody Harrelson as a sarcastic-but-supportive teacher and Kyra Sedgwick as a mother who’s clearly a lot to handle for a teenager with self-esteem issues. Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig navigates some tricky material throughout, but keeps the result largely light and entertaining. Various hijinks (including what’s possibly the most embarrassing text message ever imagined) and subplots make the final victory taste even sweeter. It’s a great script directed decently enough, and the result is among the better teenage movies of the 2010s. I’m sorry I missed it the first time around.