American Teen (2008) Reviews

• They're not so bad after all

  moutonbear252008-08-09

  I always just assume, as I'm dragging my tired ass out of bed, into the shower, out the door, into the subway and up the 22 flights of stairs to my tiny box my boss calls a cubicle that any teenager I pass has no clue about anything at all. I know I'm selling them short but I always see them just standing there, talking about nothing at all and making sure everyone around them can hear what they have to say. They're texting each other and shoving each other and making out obnoxiously up against me on the bus. They annoy me but this is primarily because I wish I had it as easy as they do. The irony is that they do have it so easy but they think they're going through the hardest part of their lives, that once they get out of high school, everything will work out in their favour. There's a reason people are always urging young people not to grow up too soon, y'know. I expected terror. I expected anxiety. I didn't expect these things from the kids in Nanette Burstein's documentary, American TEEN, but rather from myself while having to sit through an in-depth exploration of what it means to be a teenager in middle America these days. I got neither. Instead, I felt sympathy, connection and nostalgia. The promotional material for this Sundance winner for Best Direction in a Documentary suggests that the five teenagers who make up the main subjects follow in the stereotypical footsteps of THE BREAKFAST CLUB. There's Hannah, the rebel (who is really more of an artist than a rebel), Colin, the jock (who defies all preconceived notions of what it means to be a jock), Megan, the princess (who delights in drama and the suffering of others), Jake, the geek (who naturally plays video games and is in the school band) and Mitch, the heartthrob (who barely leaves an impression on the viewer like the others). The reality is that American TEEN is actually a much more tender and understanding exploration of the insecurities that lie behind the images. All five of these kids turned into characters grow more into themselves before our eyes. Burstein followed these five kids and a good number of their friends for the entire 2006 scholastic year at Warsaw Community High School. They had troubles with their parents, with their friends, with where they would go to college and with what the prom theme would be, to name but a few of the daily dramas in their lives. As one would expect from a teenager, they believe the world revolves around them and that their problems are monumental in comparison with anyone else's. What struck me most though is that their problems are not really that different than my problems or those of my friends. Now I haven't been a teenager for many a year but I still struggle with finding a partner, with finding myself. I still wonder where my life will lead, where I fit in. With responsibilities like bills, rent, a job, staying fit and keeping up with Jones', I don't have time to let the drama consume me. These five and the millions of others just like them define themselves by their dramas as they don't know the fragility of life yet. Still, their subtle self-questioning, their longing to belong and their hope for their futures gives me a whole other kind of hope for the future of humanity. American TEEN is an enjoyable, refreshing documentary that will inevitably play differently to all who see it, as everyone had a different adolescent experience. Some have moved on while others still hear the echoes of torment or thrill in their minds. I know I was just as lost as they were at their age but I'm pretty sure I wasn't as loud or vindictive - and, yes, I am aware of how simply making this statement ages me more than is necessary. Thanks to Burstein's finely balanced exposition though, when I see a bunch of kids loitering outside my local corner store, I won't focus solely on the loudness with which they ponder which Jonas brother is the hottest but rather remember the confusion that lives inside them and still lives somewhere within me.

• View from a disinterested East Coast audience member

  jkelt2008-08-10

  I read a few of these posts, and think I might have a different perspective. I live in Washington, D.C., and have never been to Indiana outside of a visit to Bloomington as a child. I went to a public high school in upstate New York, near Syracuse, in the 70's. My friend and I went to the movie to see if and how high school and high school students have changed since we were in school. We were not interested in "Warsaw High" as a institution, nor in learning about Warsaw as a community. And after we left, we talked about the movie and never discussed "Warsaw as a community". We talked about the individual kids. It may help those of you who think the audience is going to draw negative opinions about your community to know that most of the audience doesn't think this was a study of your community - I saw it as a snapshot of a few high school kids from an American town. As I watched, I did wonder about how "typical" high school interactions could be filmed with people wired for sound and with cameras in their face, etc. I knew some of it had to be staged or severely affected by the presence of the camera. The center of the film, for me, was the pressures on, and insecurities of, the kids. I found the individual interviews to be probably the most honest and reliable part of the movie. Jake, Hanna, and the others said some pretty revealing and insightful (and embarrassing) things about themselves; sometimes funny, sometimes touching. And at my age, I know these are kids, as I was once a kid, who will grow up and out of this period of their lives. So I don't see the kids as stuck where they were. Again, it's a snap shot. Kids want to please their Dads by getting in to the right school or getting a scholarship; kids want a boyfriend or a girlfriend; there are cliques; there are jealousies and power trips. Yep, it's high school. That's all I saw. I liked the movie. Sorry if the film crew was rude. But Warsaw, chill out. I have no more or less an opinion of a town I never heard of, and whose name I will forget tomorrow, than before. To a ticket buyer like me, it wasn't really about you; it was touching on the universal American high school experience. Half true, half false; real and also TV and movie generated. The kids all got off to school and are growing up. We should, too. It's all gonna be OK.

• You want to stay with these kids forever

  larry-4112008-03-13

  In the documentary "American Teen," which had its Regional Premiere here at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival on the heels of an auspicious Sundance debut, filmmaker Nanette Burstein chronicles a year in the life of a group of high school students from Warsaw, Indiana. On the face of it, it seems like we've seen this before -- the popular girl, All-American jock, shy pimply geek, and wild child -- growing up and dealing with the overwrought, overblown, magnified time of life that is adolescence in rural America. But this is 2008, and issues that were never raised in the past, or were overlooked -- mental health, self-acceptance, peer pressure and the need to fit in -- take on a new, frightening reality in this day of Columbines and nooses and hatred taken to unheard of levels. The consequences of ignoring what our teens are saying are more frightening than ever before. Yet Burstein's subjects are a refreshing dose of a reality we don't see on television -- yes, these kids are troubled and in need of support, but they also demonstrate an impressive capacity to heal themselves. They are smart, streetwise, and comfortable in their own skin. They are smart, funny, and adorable. They have more to teach us about the importance of being able to laugh at ourselves than we may be willing to admit. Ultimately, they grow on us because we've all been there, if not one then a combination. There are more awww moments than one can count and, in the end, we want to stay there in Warsaw, Indiana.

• Docudrama?

  jdesando2008-08-06

  "In no order of things is adolescence the time of the simple life." Janet Erskine Stuart As a non-television viewing guy, I may have just been introduced to a reality-show type of documentary, American Teen, directed and scripted by the acclaimed Nanette Burstein. That this look into the life of four typical graduating teens at mid-America's Warsaw Community High in Indiana may look like an episode on Real World I have on good advice. That it frequently seems like a docudrama I have on my own counsel. American teen covers all the bases with stock characters: the nerd, the queen, the outsider, the jock, but these are real teens with real challenges such as attracting dates, getting accepted to the right college, meeting dad's expectations-- well, you know the drill if you know teens, be they in Indiana or Los Angeles. Burstein was successful in allowing the legendary producer Robert Evans to tell his unique story in The kid Stays in the Picture. "Unique" doesn't generally apply to American Teen. As I questioned Errol Morris's manipulations in his documentary Standard Operating Procure (2008) (re-enactments, arty images, and sublimating music), so I question Burstein's artful interpretations: animated sequences about the teen's anxieties and dreams and arguably rehearsed or set-up scenes, the most obvious a face-slapping reaction that looks rehearsed if not just plain lucky for the filmmaker to be there to catch it. Similarly, but less dramatically, is a father calmly telling his son to get a basketball scholarship or go into the Army. It's all too pat, or as several critics have said, "slick." Maybe because I had several children who passed through senior high with similar experiences, I am not feeling enlightened by American Teen. A successful doc usually gives insight; this one gives me reservations about the durability of the real documentary.

• A Mockumentary Tribute to John Hughes

  octavalvehandle2008-08-17

  Any enjoyment I may have experienced watching this film was killed by a nagging doubt that what I was watching was authentic. Is it just me ... or does this film smell fishy? Not only is the camera ALWAYS in the right place when key events occur but each shot has degree of polish that would seem to have required a lot of advanced planning. This feels like some sort of mockumentary and I'm amazed it has been so positively reviewed. Is America this naive? Even if this film is real, it doesn't give us any more insight into the world of teen cliques than we got 25 years ago from John Hughes films. With most documentaries, there is are questions about what liberties were taken for the sake of the presentation but "American Teen" goes beyond that. I'm hoping Nanette Burstein will soon say, "By the way, I hope everyone realizes this was a gag." Otherwise, she has lost all credibility with me.