Almost anyone can make a teen movie. Unfortunately most people that do produce variations on the same slang-slinging, colour-popping visual accompaniment to a Spotify playlist. It’s depressingly rare for a director to look beyond the teenager as a highly marketable brand and convincingly tap into the mess of insecurities, contradictions and swirling, unfocused surges of anger. Even more unusual is a film that manages to do all this and still be disarmingly funny. Which is why this terrific debut feature is such a refreshing addition to the genre.
In Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), we encounter the most abrasive, needy, solipsistic teen character since Anna Paquin’s lead in Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret. But unlike Lisa in Margaret, Nadine is sympathetic rather than pitiable. With her sharp wit and a verbal maturity which far exceeds her emotional age, Nadine feels like Juno written by an actual teen rather than an ironic hipster.
Using an elegant looping structure, the film starts with a cliffhanger – Nadine announces her intention to kill herself to her long-suffering teacher (Woody Harrelson, a deliciously deadpan foil to Steinfeld’s pinballing stream of consciousness). We then wind back to reveal the circumstances of Nadine’s despair: an unpopular loner with an all-star sports hero for a brother (Blake Jenner), she had one friend: Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). When her brother starts dating Krista, it’s the end of the world for Nadine.
A deftly handled and highly enjoyable package throughout, the film leaves us with two standout discoveries. One is writer and director Kelly Fremon Craig. Her work with the actors coaxes out some cherishable comedic moments, her music choices are spot-on and her writing is a dream. The second is Hayden Szeto, the young Chinese-Canadian actor who plays Erwin, the fellow student who is smitten with Nadine. His performance is a symphony of social anxiety, inarticulate longing and nerdy verbal tics. It’s a wonderfully funny star-making performance.
