Since Dennis Miller hosted the very first MTV Movie Awards back in 1992, the music channel’s annual award ceremony has been something of a fun dalliance into a world where the artistic merit of a movie is less important than its popular clout. This year marks a couple of big changes for the format: not only did the award show change its official name — it is now known as the MTV Movie & TV Awards — it also has become arguably the most inclusive award show to date, honoring titles like Moonlight, Get Out, and Jane the Virgin alongside its stalwart categories like Best Kiss and Best Villain.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them may not have Harry Potter in its title, but the first entry in J.K. Rowling and David Yates’ spin-off series did Harry Potter numbers, dominating the box office and dethroning Doctor Strange from its position at the top of the charts. The film’s success came at the expense of the other newcomers, with The Edge of Seventeen and Bleed For This both stumbling in the bottom half of the top 1
Ever since Tina Fey blessed us with Mean Girls, we’ve been hopelessly waiting for a worthy successor — a film just as hilariously honest and cleverly perceptive about the teenage girl coming-of-age experience, or something like it. The Edge of Seventeen is that film, a gloriously real story that feels as timeless as the great teen comedies of John Hughes, and as blissfully painful as My So-Called Life. It’s the kind of movie that only comes around once every decade or so, but it’s well worth the wait.
The “high school experience,” such as it is, is a popular environment for adult filmmakers to try and make sense of the world of the youths of today. There’s as much if not more drama, intrigue, and romance than a Shakespeare play, and yet very few are able to do the setting the justice it deserves. Enter Hailee Steinfeld’s The Edge of Seventeen, which just released a new Red-Band trailer and looks like the perfect blend of honest, funny, and weird.