Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick headline this comedy about a teenage girl whose brother starts dating her best friend.

    Brimming with* insecurities and hostilities*, self-deprecating* and, of course, far more attractive than she realizes, Nadine (Steinfeld) decided long ago that she was an outsider and has been wallowing* in self-pity ever since.

    After a first scene in which the high-school junior rushes into the classroom of history teacher Mr. Bruner (Harrelson) to announce her suicide* decision, the movie flashes back a decade*.

    Little Nadine (Lina Renna) is an unhappy child, hating her older brother Darian, who’s the apple of everyone’s eye. Mom (Kyra Sedgwick) doesn’t know what to do with her daughter, but Dad (Eric Keenleyside) is a big softie*.

    Things pick up for Nadine when she meets gentle soul Krista (Ava Grace Cooper) on the school playground. The two are immediately inseparable and remain BFFs as the years go by. Then, Nadine’s father dies suddenly.

    Her friendship with the patient*, positive Krista brightens Nadine’s world view a bit, though she’s still a handful* by the time she hits high school — the kind of kid who corrects her teachers and calls herself an “old soul.”

    At least she has Krista (now played by Haley Lu Richardson), and the two take refuge from the indignities of teenagedom like lots of girls their age: with giggles and gossip, sloppily homemade cocktails and selfies galore*. The turning point comes one night when Krista ends up in the arms of Darian (Blake Jenner), who has grown up to be a golden boy.

    The two fall for each other and begin to date, making Nadine very angry.

    Forced to branch out for the first time, Nadine bonds with Erwin (Hayden Szeto), the boy who sits next to her in class. But Nadine’s got the hots for* the bad boy who works at Petland (Alexander Calvert).

    It’s not always easy to like Nadine. But by the end of the film, she’s at least learned to hold herself to higher standards and accept defeat with grace. In other words, she’s earned our respect — as has the film.