Running head: ADOLESCENT MOVIE ANALYSIS !

Edge of Seventeen Adolescent Movie Analysis

Andie Thompson

Salt Lake Community Collage

ADOLESCENT MOVIE ANALYSIS !2

Edge Of Seventeen Adolescent Movie Analysis

Summary

The Edge Of Seventeen directed by Kelly Freeman Craig (2016) is a film that follows the

story of Nadine an awkward, impulsive, and dramatic seventeen year old girl who is greatly

unsatisfied with her life. Nadine has always been compared to her seemingly perfect and popular

older brother Darian, and often blames him for her own feelings of inadequacy in her own life.

Although Nadine considers herself and outcast and misunderstood by her peers she has managed

to maintain a life long friendship with her best friend Krista.

Nadine wakes up one morning hungover from a drunken house party that her brother

Darian threw the night before only to accidentally walk in on her best friend Krista and her

brother Darian in bed together engaging in a sexual activity. Nadine is mortified and her

negative feelings quickly escalate when her brother Darian and Best friend Krista decide to make

their relationship more serious and start to date. This leads to the end of Krista and Nadines

Friendship which leaves Nadine feeling more alone, misunderstood, and vulnerable than ever

before.

After managing to get herself into more embarrassing situations including a regrettable

sexual encounter, Nadine finally has a breaking point where she realizes that she cant keep

blaming her own unhappiness on other people and she starts to take responsibility for her own

life and actions. She begins the process by making amends with her best friend and her brother

which leaves Nadine with a stronger and more meaningful relationship with Krista and Darian.
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Analysis

Nadines character reflects Eriksons fifth stage of psychosocial development because she

shows evidence of being in a state of confusion about her own social standing and and value.

Nadine like most of her peers have been granted a psychosocial moratorium during high school

where she can really explore the aspects of her own identity and character all while making lots

of impulsive mistakes and eventually learning from them preparing herself for adulthood

(Santrock, 2010, p.280). The identity crisis Nadine is faced with is the discovery of the romantic

relationship between her Brother Darian and her best friend Krista. The reason this particular

event becomes an identity crisis for Nadine is because she impulsively believes that she has lost

her best friend who she perceives to be the most important relationship in her adolescent life.

Nadine initially handles this crisis very dramatically by acting out in school and at home,

engaging in suicidal ideation, risky sexual behavior with one of her male peers and running

away. At Nadines lowest point she realizes that her previous actions in regards to her crisis have

not ended positively but just made her feel worse. Nadine resolves her crisis by engaging in an

emotional, personal, and constructive conversation with her brother in which she realizes the

importance of communication. Nadine does reach a state of fidelity because she is able to

positively resolve her her crisis and walk away from the experience with a deeper understanding

of herself and others.

According to James Marcias theory of identity status Nadine begins in a state of identity

moratorium because she is presented with a crisis that makes her reevaluate her own self worth
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and values but explores many different ways of dealing with the crisis before it is resolved.

Nadines identity status changes to identity achievement once she successfully resolves her crisis

and commits herself to new values such as; the ability to effectively communicate, honesty, and a

better understanding of what she values in her peers (Santrock, 2010, p. 281).

In the film Nadine does have a love interest who she perceives to be out of her league.

During an impulsive attempt to feel valued after losing her best friend Nadine sends her love

interest a very sexually vulgar text message detailing her own sexual fantasies towards him.

Nadines love interest takes this as an invitation to physically initiate a sexual relationship

between the two of them but Nadine declines once she realizes that this boy wont make her feel

better about losing her best friend.

Nadine has a strained family dynamic. Her father passed away when she was a child and

she has some attachment issues because of his death. Her mother is often not home she is either

always working or going on dates with men she meets on the dating app tinder. Nadine always

feels like she is a disappointment in comparison to her bother Darian who is popular, attractive

and smart. Because of Nadines jealously toward Darian she has never allowed herself to have a

close bond with him and often sees him as a negative figure in her life especially when he dates

her best friend. Darian and Nadine do resolve their conflicts after they have an emotional

conversation about their true feelings about each other.

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References

Ansell, J. (Producer), & Craig, K. C. (Director). (2016). The Edge of Seventeen, United

States: STX Entertainment, Huyai Brothers.

Santrock, J. W. (2010). A topical approach to life-span development (5th ed.). Boston:

McGraw-Hill Higher Education.