Do you remember growing up? A lot of it sucked, right? Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig’s film “The Edge of Seventeen” captures that feeling of thinking that everyone around you has it all together while you’re a stuck mess.
Hailee Steinfeld stars as Nadine, a high school junior whose best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) begins dating her older, more popular brother Darian (Blake Jenner). It’s a classic coming-of-age setup, but this new trailer feels remarkably fresh.
The film also stars Kyra Sedgwick as Nadine’s well-meaning but completely out-of-touch mother, and Woody Harrelson as Nadine’s sarcastic history teacher.
“The Edge of Seventeen” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. When Women and Hollywood caught up with Craig at TIFF, she said that her advice to female filmmakers really applied to filmmakers of any gender: “There are no small things. Everything matters,” she said. “I find that filmmaking requires brutal precision, little details matter hugely, and a wrong costume or prop or music cue can sink a scene.”
As a female director, Craig has likely faced some struggles along the way, but sees hope. “It seems like opportunities may be opening up more,” she said. “I don’t know what needs to be done exactly to increase those further — I wish I did. My hope, though, is that the more the world sees women doing it successfully, the more opportunities open up, creating a sort of snowballing forward momentum. I hope in some small way this film contributes to that.”
“The Edge of Seventeen” will hit theaters on November 18.
