Capturing Teenage Angst accordingly: Lady Bird & The Edge of Seventeen

So, over the generations film has tirelessly tried, sometimes successfully but most times not so fortunate , to capture or try to define, within understanding, what it is to be a teenager. I mean their psyche, what they are thinking? Why they behave the way they do? Why they see the world the way they do? Which is usually a me against the world mentality.

I have recently watched two films which have really gotten me to think about my own teenage experience, now being a young adult I question, do these films do it justice? Do they capture the teenage experience accordingly?

I first watched The Edge of Seventeen some time last year and found a correlation to my own teenage experience. Not so much the dialogue or over-dramatizations of the films protagonist Nadine played by Hailee Steinfeld, but rather the feelings of otherness, loneliness and at times feeling like I was the only one awake, in this socially constructed world of high school and further on society. I felt disorganized and fractured in the world and watching Nadine manoeuvre herself through family life and high school not only felt familiar but thrilling and exciting, like watching myself on film or something.

Lady Bird was another experience that was very similar to what The Edge of Seventeen allowed me to experience. Where Nadine in a sense has come to terms with her place in the social hierarchy of high school, Lady Bird or Christine is aware of her social standing and chooses to act in a way that gives her more control over the people in her life and therefore her life itself. Whereas Nadine learns to act by the end of the film and accept, maturingly, herself and those around her as they all go through being a teenager and just human, Lady Bird learns that her actions have repercussions and consequences. She learns that people have a choice whether or not they want to act and how they want to react, a great example is her mother.

Often what I have found is that films that try to capture the nuances and experiences of teenage-hood, fail to do so for many reasons such as, horrible dialogue and stereotypical characters (that nobody really identifies with). But films that push that boundary, choosing not to look at teenage experiences as incoherent or insignificant, in comparison to adulthood,  often succeed in showing the complexity of this life stage. Movies like Mean Girls and Superbad are great examples, showing that the teenage years can be as daunting, stressful and harsh on ones identity and that developing into an adult is no easy task but rather one learned through trial and errors.

Overall, I enjoyed both films. I loved the comedy from The Edge of Seventeen and appreciated the dialogue and realistic portrayal of characters in Lady Bird.