Movie Review: The Edge Of Seventeen (2016)

A high school drama and comedy, The Edge Of Seventeen deftly delves into the world of teenagers where every emotion and setback is heightened.

Seventeen year old high school student Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) announces to her laid back teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson) she is about to kill herself. In flashback, Nadine is revealed to have been an introverted child, while her older brother Darian was easygoing and popular. Nadine suffered a shock when she lost her father early in life, and never got along with her self-obsessed mother Mona (Kyra Sedgwick). But in elementary school she finally found happiness through a long-lasting friendship with classmate Krista.

Now in high school, Nadine still finds it difficult to fit in, and her one true friendship is severely tested when Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) and the hunky Darian (Blake Jenner) start a relationship. Nadine has a crush on cool kid Nick (Alexander Calvert), who probably does not know she exists. Classmate Erwin (Hayden Szeto) appears interested in Nadine, but is equally awkward and tentative. With Mona's insensitivity amplifying a really bad week, the world seems to close in on Nadine.

Written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig and co-produced by James L. Brooks, The Edge Of Seventeen breathes fresh life into teen coming-of-age high school film. More drama than comedy, Fremon Craig strides into serious terrain for young adults, where friendships are sacrosanct, crises escalate in a hurry and viable options appear limited in the heat generated by raging hormones.

The film is light on its feet despite the weighty subject matter. Fremon Craig is able to represent and emphasize with her characters while still poking gentle fun at the hypersensitive teen world. The scenes are brisk, the dialogue sharp and bright, and the film avoids melodrama even when Nadine's world is at its darkest.

A stripped down Hailee Steinfeld effortlessly carries the film on her shoulders, playing Nadine as a teen overwhelmed by living in her brother's long shadow, still missing her father, feeling invisible when it comes to the dishy boys, and confounded by an egocentric mother (with Kyra Sedgwick delivering some career-best work). Nadine perceives Krista's relationship with Darian as the worst kind of betrayal, triggering a rapid downward spiral towards self-inflicted humiliation and despair.

To soften the often somber tone, The Edge Of Seventeen does seek out moments of wit and humour, and most of these are delivered courtesy of Mr. Bruner. In a performance so intentionally lackadaisical he often threatens to disappear into his teacher's chair, Woody Harrelson as Bruner offers a counterpoint to all of Nadine's angst, at once comforting and exasperating. Without ever lecturing or hectoring, Bruner absorbs Nadine's turmoil and nonchalantly nudges her towards exploring a new thought stream.

Nadine will have to find her own way out of the doldrums. The Edge Of Seventeen exposes the seemingly crushing pressures of growing up and fitting in, and the teenager's extraordinary resiliency and capacity to cope and finally unravel the puzzle of growing up.

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Movie Review: Singles (1992)

A romantic comedy set at the peak of Seattle's grunge scene, Singles captures a unique moment in time and music, but is an otherwise unremarkable story of typical relationships among young adults.

The film focuses on the love lives of twentysomething friends living in and around a Seattle apartment rental block. Linda (Kyra Sedgwick) is an environmental activist. After getting burned by an affair with a duplicitous foreign student, she meets Steve (Campbell Scott), an engineer with the department of transportation also smarting from a recent breakup. They start a relationship that will have its fair share of unexpected ups and downs.

Meanwhile Steve's neighbour Janet (Bridget Fonda) is obsessed with musician Cliff (Matt Dillon), a member of the grunge band Citizen Dick. She wants to be dedicated to him, but Cliff is unsure he wants to commit to anyone, as his mediocre band struggles for a breakthrough. Also looking for a mate is Debbie (Sheila Kelley), who is friends with Steve and Janet. She decides to go the video dating route, and creates a video to try and find the perfect match.

Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, Singles is more about mood, feel and music and less about plot and characters. The film is a celebration of a Seattle's unexpected moment in the spotlight of the music world, when grunge erupted as the sound of the day and bands went from underground to global stardom within months. The film features the music of Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone and Mudhoney among others, and band members, mostly before their fame, appear in supporting roles.

As for the relationship stories, they are simple and routine. Crowe's writing is not sharp enough to highlight any of the personalities, and the characters do not move beyond pleasant, generally inoffensive and only vaguely interesting. There is nothing wrong with the romance, comedy and frequent fourth wall breaks; there just isn't anything too compelling on offer, either. Crowe does earn points for keeping his characters deglamorized and refreshingly real, in keeping with grunge's no-frills blue collar aesthetic.

The ensemble cast does what is required, both Kyra Sedgwick and Bridget Fonda playing up the cutesy angle, while Campbell Scott downs in blandness. Matt Dillon as the generally clueless band leader of a mediocre band could have emerged with most distinction, but is given relatively little to do. His band Citizen Dick is a reminder that even in Seattle of 1992, that there were some grunge bands too crap to break out. Bill Pullman (a plastic surgeon), Tom Skerritt (Seattle's Mayor), Jeremy Piven (a store check-out clerk), Eric Stoltz (a random street mime), Victor Garber and Paul Giamatti all appear in small roles.

In addition to the music, Singles is most famous for possibly being the inspiration for the television series Friends. Regardless, the film is like a familiar friend: fun to hang out with, but not necessarily a sizzling experience.

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Movie Review: Born On The Fourth Of July (1989)

The story of Vietnam war veteran turned peace activist Ron Kovic, Born On The Fourth Of July asks all the right questions about a sordid conflict and the reasons for war. Director Oliver Stone carves a compelling human drama that encapsulates the struggle of a nation to understand its role in the world.

Coming of age in the 1960s, Kovic (Tom Cruise) was captivated by President Kennedy's call for youth to serve their country, and entranced by the recruitment Marines (including Tom Berenger in a one-scene role) who swung by his High School in Massapequa, New York. Idealistic and patriotic, Kovic buys the fable about the need to stop the communist threat and enlists at the earliest opportunity.

By 1967 Kovic is on his second tour of duty in Vietnam, where he witnesses US troops slaughtering innocent villagers, and in a chaotic gunfight, he inadvertently kills a fellow marine. Caught in a fire fight on open ground, Kovic is shot through the spine and heroically saved by a fellow soldier under fire. He endures a harrowing recuperation at a filthy veteran's hospital before returning home, permanently paralysed from the waist down.

Emotionally traumatized, Kovic is still initially loudly supportive of the war, and spends time feeling sorry for himself in Mexico, where he meets other disabled veterans including the ornery Charlie (Willem Dafoe). But gradually, and with help from childhood sweetheart Donna (Kyra Sedgwick), the anti-war sentiment begins to resonate, and he embarks on a remarkable transformation into an impassioned leader of the anti-war protest movement.

Tom Cruise gives one of his most accomplished performances as Ron Kovic, carrying the film single-handedly and deservedly earning an Academy Award nomination. From the bright-eyed, short-haired teenager eager to be among the first wave of marines landing on the shores of Vietnam to the jaded, damaged, depressed, angry, long-haired, guilt-stricken and wheelchair-bound anti-war protester, Cruise captures Kovic's evolution and what it means to survive the war but lose part of the body and all of the innocence.

Oliver Stone co-wrote the screenplay with Kovic, and they take their time with the story, Born On The Fourth Of July dragging a bit at 145 minutes. The hospital and Mexico passages overstay their welcome well after making their point, and both could have benefited from sharper editing. Otherwise, Stone is respectful of the strength of the material, and along with cinematographer Robert Richardson paints some beautiful tableaux, both in idyllic Massapequa and the tragedy-laden Vietnamese landscape.

While Kovic's journey is certainly epic, Born On The Fourth Of July as a movie suffers from the lack of any other major counterweight characters. Berenger and Dafoe add little other than curiosity by reuniting with their Platoon director. Sedgwick is game but has the slightest of roles, while the likes of Frank Whaley as Kovic's friend and Raymond J. Barry as Mr. Kovic drift in and out of the story leaving only local impressions.

As much as Born On The Fourth Of July is the story of one man, it is also a reflection of a country undergoing a remarkable transformation in one decade. From a position of invincibility to a humiliating defeat, and from blind patriotism to more thoughtful questioning of foreign policy, Ron Kovic holds up a mirror to the United States, and the view is one of both horror and hope.

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