Edge of Seventeen

Hey, “Edge of Seventeen” (2016). I saw what you did there. And you did it well. So I’m not going to spend the next 84 words belaboring comparisons to teen films from the 1980s. Suffice to say kids are different these days (and so are parents), but they still deserve good movies about themselves. And this is one. And a wink and a nod at the genre’s forebears signifies respect, not derivativeity. I’m also not going to continue discussing my non-sexual but age-inappropriate crush on Hailee Steinfeld, which began with “True Grit.” Suffice to say I’m glad she’s 20 now.

Begin Again

I thought “Begin Again” (2014) was going to be a romantic comedy that takes place in the music industry. I also thought it might be a dud. Wrong and wrong. There’s romance and comedy, and much more music than I thought, but this film defies convention. It’s almost like a boxing movie, but with the music industry substituting for boxing. Mark Ruffalo is a washed-up former champ who gets his groove back thanks to the inspiration of an up-and-coming bantamweight played by Keira Knightley. There’s lots of familiar faces (Catherine Keener, Mos Def, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld, etc.). Nicely done.

True Grit (2010)

I saw the original “True Grit” when I was a child, many years ago. I do not judge the 2010 version against the 1969 John Wayne version. Each stands well on its own. The newcomer is simply a fine cowboy movie. Colorful characters. Not too long. Doesn’t try to be profound. Two extra things make it great. Hailee Steinfeld plays a confident-beyond-her-years 14-year-old girl that carries the movie by sheer force of will. And the script takes the language of the 1800s and turns it into poetry. It is an exercise in meticulous sentence structuring that brought me great pleasure.