There are people for whom “The Outsiders” (1983) is in their top 10 all-time films. Some rank it No. 1. Like some others are with “The Breakfast Club,” this film about teenage outcasts spoke to them. I saw it when I was 52, not 15, so the impact wasn’t the same. But I can see director Francis Ford Coppola was trying to translate the deep thoughts S.E. Hinton was working through in her novel. Messages about class, about teenage angst – the kinds of things that might resonate deeply with someone. So even thought I didn’t get it, I get it.
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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.
I like Kevin Dillon more than Matt Dillion, and Jennifer Tilly more than Meg Tilly, and Van Johnson more than Ben Johnson, and Ramon Estevez more than Emilio Estevez. Other than that, I liked “Tex,” a 1982 movie about teen angst in Oklahoma. Too bad every teenager can’t solve their problems with a gunshot wound. I would have liked it a lot more had I watched it in 1982, when I was 16. And if I’d been a girl. And if the movie had a plot. And if Matt Dillon had worked with a dialogue coach on his Yankee accent.
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