American Teen

This movie is getting all kinds of praise for the realistic portrayal of teen age life in the wake of stuff like The Hills. However, there are also many people on-line claiming the whole thing is staged and fake, much like The Hills. I cannot comment on such things because I tend to believe most documentaries have staged moments in them, or moments heightened for dramatic effect, I think a movie is supposed to be good storytelling above all else and if things have to be recreated to capture good story telling, well that is fine by me.

A few years ago a woman, Natalie Burstein, set out to make a documentary about real high school life. She wanted to make it wholly American so she wanted to go to the Midwest. She wanted ethnic diversity but had trouble finding that. She e-mailed all kinds of high school and students and finally settled on a little town in Indiana and she found her 4 subjects. She found 4 students with interesting lives that differed and she probably had to make sure she found 4 kids who would be good on camera. Colin, Megan, Geoff and Hannah are the four kids we take our journey with.

Colin is the star of the basketball team, which is the big sport at the school. He is not particularly good looking, but he gets the girls because he is the star athlete. His dad spends his days as an Elvis impersonator. Colin's biggest issue in the movie is getting into college. He can only go to college if he gets a basketball scholarship, but his senior year in basketball is not going so well. He dreams of playing for a big NCAA division 1 school and so he is trying to win all of his games by himself. It isn't until he can learn to play with the team that he can possibly be successful. Colin is a nice quiet kid who loves his dad, but is letting the stress get to him. He has probably the least screen time of the 4 because he just isn't magnetic a personality.

Megan is the villain of this story. She is your typical hot cheerleader/student body president/evil bitch. She has a male best friend who hooks up with one of her friends all hell breaks loose. The girl sends a topless picture to Megan's best friends and soon the entire school has the picture. Megan bitches about losing her friends, but she treats them like shit. She is not a very nice person, but she has trouble as well. She is worried she will not get into Notre Dame like all of her brothers before her. She also has a family tragedy that comes out just in time to kind of redeem her.

Geoff is the band geek of the story. He is a sweet kid with braces and terrible acne and he is dying for a girl friend. Throughout the movie we see him try and overcome his image issues and get a date. He loves Zelda and is aware that no one thinks about him. He is a tragic figure and I think the one most people will relate to. He does get a few girls during the course of the movie, which does kind of call into question the motives of the girls. He goes 3 years without a girl then in his senior year he had 3? I hope the girls weren't out to be on screen, because he is a sweet kid.

Hannah is the real star of the movie. She is an outcast artist, who wrestles with manic depression. Her mother is a manic depressive and she cannot live with her. Hannah begins the story as super happy but a break up sends her in a downward spiral and she doesn't spend much time in school for a while. The whole thing is cringe inducing and you find yourself hoping she will overcome her issues and get back to school. She is a beautiful young lady but doesn't believe in herself in that aspect. She is dying to get away from small Midwest life and desires to be in California.

Who knows what the real point of the movie is, but it does show a pretty accurate portrayal of teenage life. I think everyone can relate to aspects of the story, either in terms of school or friends or even family life. Some of these kids are too pressured for school and some have to deal with peer pressure. The kids don't really interact with each other, as they run in different circles, but the one time Hannah and Megan are seen together, it is really uncomfortable. I think the movie found the right kids and it doesn't a pretty good job of allowing us to get to know them. My only real complaint about the film is the animated sequences they use. Often times they cut to these bizarre sequences when the students are at the most vulnerable. The director either didn't trust the kids or trust the audience enough to just put the cameras on the kids and let them talk it out. I would have been so much more engaged if I could see Hannah talking about her she thinks everyone hates her as opposed to watching a weird claymation like sequence.

In a world where teens have blogs and vlogs and are obsessed with wanting to be famous, this is the perfect documentary. It is almost a time capsule of how things are now. We live in a society that believes little should be private anymore; it is a world where we have access to so much of each other and to people we do not know. American Teen captures that. I am not sure it is as provocative as it could have been and at times I wondered why this was on the big screen, but overall I laughed and worried with the kids and I silently cheered for the good things that happened.

Final Grade: B-