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DVD cover for The Edge of Seventeen
DVD cover for The Edge of Seventeen

The Edge of Seventeen,

directed by Kelly Fremon Craig

(R, 1 hour, 38 minutes)

Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) is relentlessly appealing in this smart, clever and insightful comedic drama as Nadine, an awkward, abrupt and none-too-popular high school junior who lives in the shadow of her sports superstar older brother Darian (Blake Jenner). Even worse, Blake starts dating Nadine’s best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson), leaving Nadine feeling more isolated and lonely than ever.

There’s little help to be found from her overwrought mother Mona (Kyra Sedgwick), who tends to behave more like an adolescent than an adult.

Then she finds a friend in thoughtful fellow student Erwin (Hayden Szeto), as well as support from unconventional and wry, insightful teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson).

Sugar-coating is in short supply here; the film recognizes the cruelty and anger inherent in growing up that prove to be useful weapons in maintaining the insulating power of self-absorption.

The Eagle Huntress (G, 1 hour, 27 minutes) Set in the Mongolian steppe, this is a unique, mesmerizing documentary about 13-year-old Aisholpan Nurgaiv, who’s dead-set determined to become the first female in 12 generations of her Kazakh family to join its revered ranks of eagle hunters. Feminist, indeed. Narrated by Daisy Ridley; directed by Otto Bell.

The Alchemist Cookbook (not rated, 1 hour, 22 minutes) An edgy drama/horror tale, reminiscent of spooky early underground films, in which mentally unstable Sean (Tyler Hickson), who doesn’t seem to fit into the world around him, isolates himself in a trailer in the woods to experiment with chemistry, which leads him to black magic, which leads to risky outcomes involving the supernatural. With Amari Cheatom; directed by Joel Potrykus.

King Cobra (not rated, 1 hour, 31 minutes) Realistic, well performed, but not all that compelling, this satirical melodrama tells of a loner of a gay pornography producer who discovers a moneymaking new star, then becomes targeted by other pornographers who are determined to get their hands on the lucrative merchandise. With Christian Slater, James Franco, Alicia Silverstone, Molly Ringwald; directed by Justin Kelly.

Arrival (PG-13, 1 hour, 56 minutes) Amy Adams stars in this ambitious, brainy and well-reviewed science-fiction drama concerning linguist Louise Banks, who’s recruited to head a team tasked with the urgent need to figure out how to communicate with the occupants of huge egg-shaped spaceships that suddenly show up across the earth. With Michael Stuhlbarg, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker; directed by Denis Villeneuve.

Almost Christmas (PG-13, 2 hours) Another uninspired but decently performed and occasionally charming holiday comedy, this time from writer/director David E. Talbert, in which a fed-up patriarch asks his argumentative family to give him the Christmas gift of five days of peaceful co-existence. With Danny Glover, Kimberly Elise, Romany Malco, Mo’Nique, John Michael Higgins.

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