THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD)
Release Date: February 14, 2016
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Video: 1.85:1 1080p Widescreen
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English DVS 2.0
THE RATINGS
The Movie Itself - ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Video Quality - ★ ★ ★ ★ ✰
Audio Quality - ★ ★ ★ ★ ✰
Special Features - ★ ½ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall - ★ ★ ★ ★ ✰
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THE FILM ITSELF Our Reviewer's Take
Reviewed by Gavin King
Who hasn't walked into high school, with a heavy bookbag chock-full of binders and pencils, completely weary and wanting to go back to sleep, dreading the "seven crappy hours of our lives (S.C.H.O.O.L.)" soon to come before them each and every day? It's no different for Nadine, the fed-up-with-her-life teenager from the coming-of-age dramadey The Edge of Seventeen, who faces friend break-ups, awkward situations with the guys in her grade, and other high school mishaps that happen to each and every one of us at a point in our freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior lives. The film, directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, tells the story of this teenager and how the struggles of life at this time can impair with a person's attitude and overall look on society. To put it simply, the film is exactly the kind of movie that John Hughes would bring up if he was still alive and continued to make movies. But it's so much more than just that; it's a film that takes a closer and very real look at a teenager's life in high school from the point of view of a seventeen-year-old and explores extremely relatable topics that make the film so enjoyable beyond its comedic moments.
Ever since she was a little girl, Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) has had a pretty pissy life. She's always thought she was under-appreciated by her family, and since the day her father passed away, her once-meh life has transformed to complete torture. At least to her, that is. Luckily, she's still got her elementary school-met friend, Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) at her loyal side, gossiping and ranting on life down the Lakewood High School hallways and having hangouts at their places at nights. Or so that was back then. Now, Krista has started dating Nadine's unbearable older brother, Darian (Blake Jenner), and as soon as she gets the proof, she's furious. Her and Krista have a falling-out that separates the two's friendship for good. She'll go to her history teacher, Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson) after school to talk it out, but she's still in the biggest of emotional potholes. But when Nadine meets a plucky Asian guy named Erwin (Hayden Szeto), she may have just found the key to leading a better life - and a brand new friendship altogether as she continues to battle out her extremes friend-wise and family-wise.
Nadine
Ever since she was a little girl, Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) has had a pretty pissy life. She's always thought she was under-appreciated by her family, and since the day her father passed away, her once-meh life has transformed to complete torture. At least to her, that is. Luckily, she's still got her elementary school-met friend, Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) at her loyal side, gossiping and ranting on life down the Lakewood High School hallways and having hangouts at their places at nights. Or so that was back then. Now, Krista has started dating Nadine's unbearable older brother, Darian (Blake Jenner), and as soon as she gets the proof, she's furious. Her and Krista have a falling-out that separates the two's friendship for good. She'll go to her history teacher, Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson) after school to talk it out, but she's still in the biggest of emotional potholes. But when Nadine meets a plucky Asian guy named Erwin (Hayden Szeto), she may have just found the key to leading a better life - and a brand new friendship altogether as she continues to battle out her extremes friend-wise and family-wise.
The Edge of Seventeen's driving force is Hailee Steinfeld. She's expectedly fantastic in her role, if not even better than expectations. She completely epitomizes the high school junior-itis that many students in the grade face. In fact, her performance is so good, and delivery so strong, that it almost seems like Steinfeld dealt with highly similar experiences to Nadine's portrayal in the movie. She's the gold medalist in what is altogether a terrific coming-of-age tale. It's hard to see anyone else doing her role requirements so well.
Much of the film explores the awkwardness of high school and the real-life conflicts that take place during the days of overloaded assignments and all work and no play. Director Kelly Fremon Craig absolutely nails it. She shows that not only is high school a living hell for some but also the emotionally-faced challenges that come with keeping a long-kept friend, controlling inside-the-soul anger, and being the kind of person you want to be. It's also a film that shows that your true friends are those with an honest, open personality that are kind, intelligent, and heartfelt to you. It may not do it in the most universal of ways - to be frank, one of the film's best strengths is its R-rating - but the raw execution of it is unmistakable and makes for a largely lasting impression above its emotional rage and mental breakdowns that appreciably make up the film in the long run - and certainly appropriately.
An exceptional, well-written screenplay rounds everything out. The film thrives on superb writing that really emphasizes its raw emotion and makes it more robust as things go along. There's excellent attention paid to subtler moments of Nadine's life, like during an opening scene involving Nadine's good old elementary school years when her father was still alive. He tells Nadine that if anyone picks on her during the day, she should "fart into their backpacks". It's a great example of how humor not only enlightens the picture but makes it much more relatable to the audience who had to endure high school life. It's a film that portrays the message that you are not alone when it comes to stress, anxiety, and other issues that may seem to block your happy lifestyle via the trials and tribulations of high school.
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN Blu-ray - Video Quality
The Edge of Seventeen was shot with digital cameras. It's not the most crystal-clear, extremely colorful image in the world, but there's no doubting it gets the job done. Some of the highlights in the color palette come with objects such as Nadine's jacket as noticed in this screenshot to the left. The blue in it is nicely fitting, appreciably natural and fired up with just the right amount of flavor to make it one of the transfer's biggest highlights. However, colors are not limited to clothing styles. Lakewood High School odds and ends, Nadine's blue bed sheet and blanket, and alien Greens in Erwin Kim's short film towards the end of the film are a few good standouts. There's a good abundance of details across the board. Facial pores, clothing fabrics, hot tub water, and high school walls are immediately evident, but so are background elements like trees and grassy terrain that help to better accentuate the environment. Black levels are nicely deep and inky in a party scene which involves serious presence of well-done black level control. There were no serious compression anomalies on sight other than mild noise that slightly seeps into a few darker shots and a brief, heavy orange push to flesh tones in darker scenes. Truth be told here: The Edge of Seventeen isn't something your looking for to be projected onto a Cinemark XD screen in astonishing 4K projection, but those who keep their expectations at a reasonable level for the film's video quality will be pleasantly satisfied.
High school relationships can be awkward.
Much of the film explores the awkwardness of high school and the real-life conflicts that take place during the days of overloaded assignments and all work and no play. Director Kelly Fremon Craig absolutely nails it. She shows that not only is high school a living hell for some but also the emotionally-faced challenges that come with keeping a long-kept friend, controlling inside-the-soul anger, and being the kind of person you want to be. It's also a film that shows that your true friends are those with an honest, open personality that are kind, intelligent, and heartfelt to you. It may not do it in the most universal of ways - to be frank, one of the film's best strengths is its R-rating - but the raw execution of it is unmistakable and makes for a largely lasting impression above its emotional rage and mental breakdowns that appreciably make up the film in the long run - and certainly appropriately.
An exceptional, well-written screenplay rounds everything out. The film thrives on superb writing that really emphasizes its raw emotion and makes it more robust as things go along. There's excellent attention paid to subtler moments of Nadine's life, like during an opening scene involving Nadine's good old elementary school years when her father was still alive. He tells Nadine that if anyone picks on her during the day, she should "fart into their backpacks". It's a great example of how humor not only enlightens the picture but makes it much more relatable to the audience who had to endure high school life. It's a film that portrays the message that you are not alone when it comes to stress, anxiety, and other issues that may seem to block your happy lifestyle via the trials and tribulations of high school.
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN Blu-ray - Video Quality
The Edge of Seventeen was shot with digital cameras. It's not the most crystal-clear, extremely colorful image in the world, but there's no doubting it gets the job done. Some of the highlights in the color palette come with objects such as Nadine's jacket as noticed in this screenshot to the left. The blue in it is nicely fitting, appreciably natural and fired up with just the right amount of flavor to make it one of the transfer's biggest highlights. However, colors are not limited to clothing styles. Lakewood High School odds and ends, Nadine's blue bed sheet and blanket, and alien Greens in Erwin Kim's short film towards the end of the film are a few good standouts. There's a good abundance of details across the board. Facial pores, clothing fabrics, hot tub water, and high school walls are immediately evident, but so are background elements like trees and grassy terrain that help to better accentuate the environment. Black levels are nicely deep and inky in a party scene which involves serious presence of well-done black level control. There were no serious compression anomalies on sight other than mild noise that slightly seeps into a few darker shots and a brief, heavy orange push to flesh tones in darker scenes. Truth be told here: The Edge of Seventeen isn't something your looking for to be projected onto a Cinemark XD screen in astonishing 4K projection, but those who keep their expectations at a reasonable level for the film's video quality will be pleasantly satisfied.
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN Blu-ray - Audio Quality
When audio gurus take a look at the back of the Blu-ray case for The Edge of Seventeen, some may consider the included DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack to be a bit of overkill. If I'm being completely honest, that's a somewhat tough call. The film could do without the added two back channels, but those channels slightly help to create a lightly more immersive environment. This track features a number of moments where's the film many diverse locations are brought to immersive sonic life. For example, take the outside of Lakewood High School about 15 minutes into the film. Listen to the distinct sounds of birds chirping, mild footsteps, and teens chatting. It helps to create a more sonically impressive environmental soundscape, and it's evident throughout a number of other moments in the film, whether in a burger joint, a steaming hot tub, school hallways and classrooms, and many others. Of course, the track is a bit more than just atmospherics. Music is well-saturated throughout the stage. Surround envelopment via the musical cues are surprising and do justice to the artists who created the tunes, as well as the film's unique score. Bass is generally light but comes into play with the aforementioned music primarily. Dialogue is straight-from-the-studio-microphone clear with a naturally front-anchored presence that never becomes too center-heavy or unnaturally exaggerated across the stage just to show off. No, The Edge of Seventeen is not a sound-system pusher. It does however do a terrific job of taking its source elements and transcribing them into a very good listen that will leave listeners happy with the experience.
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN Blu-ray - Special Features
- Gag Reel This is pretty interesting: the movie was originally called Besties before The Edge of Seventeen.
- Deleted Scenes You can select one from the main menu or press the "Play All" option. Deleted scenes include the following: Nadine Asleep in Mr. Bruner's Classroom, Mona's Interior Monologue, and Nadine Needs the Bathroom Key.
- Gag Reel This is pretty interesting: the movie was originally called Besties before The Edge of Seventeen.
- Deleted Scenes You can select one from the main menu or press the "Play All" option. Deleted scenes include the following: Nadine Asleep in Mr. Bruner's Classroom, Mona's Interior Monologue, and Nadine Needs the Bathroom Key.
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN Blu-ray - Overall Recommendation
The Edge of Seventeen is one of the best coming of age films ever made. It's relatable, funny, and real without reverting to irritating and/or overtly obvious sappiness. The film is a surprise from beginning to end especially considering the ranks of sappy cinema whenever it comes to this sort of genre and deserves so much more than its box office receipts gave it. Support this film not only because of its expert lead performance by the talented Hailee Steinfeld but also for its uniquely fresh take that makes for one of cinema's finer entries. Universal's Blu-ray is good, though not great. Video and audio quality are strong, though the supplemental package could have been a lot more, with the recommendation of a commentary a must. Still, the film is fantastic, and this Blu-ray release is well worth it for anyone itching to see the film. Highly recommended.
EXTRA SCREENSHOTS (Right-click and select 'Open image in new tab' to see full size)
