Nadine is a type of teenage girl you've never seen before. She's weird. She has dark eyes and sort of curly hair. All the kids at school hate her because she's very mature and kind of mean. She likes old movies and music. She is convinced that she has bigger and more serious problems than any of her peers. In a way, that's true. Her dad died suddenly when she was 13, and her family's sanity and strength took an understandable hit. Nadine is in many moments entirely predictable, and in others complex, burdened, and endearingly strange. The Edge of Seventeen, an R-rated coming-of- age movie full of sass and sweetness, excels at embracing stereotypes and tropes—then immediately destroying them with funny and surprising writing. by Julia Raban