While perusing audience reactions to You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah, I saw this film show up a few times as either the superior version or a potential double-feature candidate with it. Now, this film has been on my radar for a while now, coming from the maker of one of my favourite modern coming-of-age films. I recognise that, at this point, it’s getting a bit redundant whenever I bring up looking at a film made by someone who made another film I’ve reviewed, since that’s the bulk of my selections for this month thus far (and spoilers, it’s going to keep going).
But in this case, I felt a real need to check this one out because Edge Of Seventeen and Craig’s work on it specifically is the progenitor for the wave of coming-of-age films for girls that we’ve experienced since. Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, Booksmart, Babyteeth… maybe Cuties depending on who you ask, even You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah; not only has this led to stories that hadn’t really gotten this level of mainstream attention beforehand finally getting it, but the average for this wave has been pretty damn solid. Even the ones that I’m not in total love with have their merits.
And thankfully, Craig is still tapped directly into that well of inspiration that led to her crafting one of the best coming-of-age films I’ve ever reviewed on here, for her adaptation of a book that I only know the name of because it showed up in one of Dr. Cox’s rants on Scrubs.
