Name a better duo than: this blog and coming-of-age films. You can’t! I know I know I have an addiction when it comes to films like these. I can’t help it!

 

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This film has everything you could possibly love about coming-of-age films. It has teen angst we can all relate to, it has comedy, and most importantly: invokes emotions. What I love about this film is that even from it’s trailer it doesn’t try to woo you with a fancy climax. It’s not action packed and it most certainly doesn’t rely on flashy scenes to grab your attention. Everything in this film, sequence after sequence, feels natural. The scenes come one after another. It’s a slow burner but it FEELS like a good slow burner. The dialogue is superb and it almost feels like a part of a real girl’s life. The awkwardness, the edgy one liners, and the moments of hopelessness feels all too real. This film speaks for the ordinary teenage girl.

 

Nadine, the main character, is a 17 year old girl who never particularly felt special. She was just ordinary. Average. Mundane. Dull. Introverted and antisocial. And by some miracle manages to befriend a nice girl named Krista. Throughout the film, there’s moments Nadine feels inferior. Inferior to everyone around her. Her brother, her schoolmates, and her own best friend. The thing is that Nadine uses sarcasm and wit to hide her insecurities, but they always come to the surface in moments of anguish.

 

It doesn’t help that while Nadine is navigating her angsty teenage years full of drama and unrequited crushes on the local hot bad boy Nick at school, she also has to deal with the passing of her father. His death leaves an emptiness in her family. Her mother, being eccentric as can be, is trying her best to cope. Her brother, seemingly unbothered and greatly adjusted, has Nadine routinely bitter and seething. She constantly compares herself to him and feels like a walking disappointment in comparison. It doesn’t help that her own mother tells her that she is a disappointment, thus triggering Nadine even.

 

Nadine loses her rock: the one good thing in her life (as she so aptly describes it). She loses her best friend, Krista to her brother. She catches the two sleeping together and she’s devastated and disgusted. She screams at her brother to stay away from her best friend. Later on Nadine, Krista, and Nadine’s brother Darian go to a party and Nadine watches as Krista sidelines her for Darian and some popular girls. Nadine feels upset because she feels like she’s no longer important to Krista. That she’s merely this irrelevant thing at the back of Krista’s mind. Once Krista and Darian start dating, Nadine brings up an ultimatum to Krista. That Krista must choose either Nadine or Darian. Krista, unfortunately, chooses Nadine’s brother over her own best friend Nadine.

 

I suppose this sets off Nadine’s brashness. She becomes even more depressed than usual. Because not only has she lost her father, but her best friend as well. She feels lonely. Her mother never understood her and her brother Darian doesn’t show much interest in her. Nadine feels hopeless and lonely. Slowly, however, she makes a friend. Erwin, and as awkward and dorky as he is, she adores him all the same.

 

Nadine has epiphanies when she learns from her mistakes. She learns that the hot bad boy Nick that she was obsessed with is actually massively rude and the perfect dream boy for her was actually her dorky nerdy friend Erwin. She learns that deep down her brother, Darian, is struggling to be “normal” and tries his best for his family, and she learns her best friend, Krista, never meant to hurt her when she fell in love with Darian. Nadine has the mentality that she’s the only person in misery. In her words she tearily says:

 

“I think some deranged part of me likes thinking I’m the only one with real problems. Like that makes me special. You know, ever since we were little, I would get this feeling like…like I’m floating outside my body, looking down at myself. And I hate what I see. How I’m acting, the way I sound. And I don’t know how to change it. And I’m so scared…that the feeling is never gonna go away.”

 

I believe this film is an accurate portrayal of what it’s like to be in this headspace. This specific headspace for those who grew up feeling like they weren’t good enough and don’t know how to get better. It’s so relatable and just refreshing to see a character who isn’t perfect but is TRYING their best. It’s such a feel good movie and I was left feeling exposed and vulnerable too. I got attached to Nadine as a character and it felt good watching her emotional journey come to fruition and watching her improve. Watching all the puzzle pieces in her life suddenly get fixed felt so utterly satisfying. This film leaves you feeling like there is hope for everyone. Because even someone as hopeless as Nadine had hope.