American Teen (2008)

Director:

Nanette Burstein

Writer:

Nanette Burstein (writer)

Release Date:

11 October 2008 (Japan)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

A documentary on seniors at a high school in a small Indiana town and their various cliques. |

Plot Keywords:

Animated Sequence | Athlete | Break Up | Geek | School Bus

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Hannah Bailey	...	Herself
Colin Clemens	...	Himself
Geoff Haase	...	Himself
Megan Krizmanich	...	Herself
Mitch Reinholt	...	Himself
Jake Tusing	...	Himself
Ali Wikalinska	...	Herself

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some strong language, sexual material, some drinking and brief smoking-all involving teens.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Japan:PG-12 | USA:PG-13 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Warsaw, Indiana, USA

Company:

57th & Irving Productions

Movie Connections:

References Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Soundtrack:

Africanus

Really just awful...

I couldn't help but watch this film and think how incredibly empty it was. When if anything it should be the opposite.

The makers of American Teen place themselves in the lives of a classes senior year of school. We are to witness the usual cliques of several teens who go through the growing and learning pains of life.

In the end though, the dramatic moments and the loud soundtrack, quick editing, sound bite moments end up making the real people in this film come across as caricatures in their own movie.

The film is bombastic and in your face, when it needs to step away and tone down. When the intimate or poignant moments are described in someones life, it becomes flashy and gimmicky with distracting animations.

When it's suppose to poignant, its 2 sentences and over. You really don't get to know these kids other than what is described in the first 10 minutes of the film.

Scenes are played out of teenage life that everyone can relate to, but with the cameras around, it feels forced and coerced, regardless of whether the incidences are true to life. Someone is dumped by text message on their cellphone, so how do the film-makers capture that in real-time??? You get the sense the viewer is being cheated. A documentary is suppose to let the story unfold by itself, at it's worst American Teen actually becomes "predictable".

The idea of getting into a high school and capturing every detail of intimate moments with the kids, seems to have created a world that almost feels like its scripted when the cameras are around, and overly dramatic, when it doesn't have to be.

All the senior adults in the movie that are related to the kids (parents, teachers) even come across as nothing but pure buffoons who we don't get to know either.

It really does feel like the film-makers project some sort of ideas as to how this one town is a template for every high school in America, when it's really not that simple.

In the end though I wouldn't discourage people from seeing it, but the American teen is way more complicated than this, and the film-makers just haven't got it.