Starring Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner and Hayden Szeto. Written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig. Budget $9 million. Running time 99 minutes. Cert 15.
Hailee Steinfeld is 17-year old Nadine Franklin heroine of this 'coming of age' movie who is still struggling with the death of her father three years previously and trying to come to terms with impending adult hood. Her friendship group extends to one single solitary confident, Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) who has been her loyal friend since 2nd grade. However, when Krista starts a relationship with Nadine's older brother, Darian (Blake Jenner) - school jock and all round good guy she feels like she's hit rock bottom and decides to try and take control of her life with hilarious and truly cringeworthy results. Seeking constant guidance from her long-suffering english teacher, Mr Bruner (Woody Harrelson), Hailee decides to let the boy of her dreams know her feelings with a truly inappropriate text message while ignoring the nice guy in her class who genuinely seems to like her.
Offering nothing new to this particular genre, this was nevertheless an extremely funny and rather moving movie. Hailee Steinfeld is a very likeable star and her nature ease in front of the camera easily rises this generic movie to something rather enjoyable and entertaining and despite the fact it has the classic third act redemption for our heroine you'll still find yourself smiling and feeling warm inside.
Maybe not ground breaking, but nevertheless a satisfying and, at times, very funny little film with a great little soundtrack to boot, plus some lovely performances and chemistry, particularly between Harrelson and Steinfeld. Perhaps it helped seeing this with my own 17 year-old daughter but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
8/10
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