American Teen

"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 mediocre movie that depicts a series of true life characters in their senior high school year. Unfortunate for the viewer that wants to see a more in-depth understanding as to why the teens behavioral patterns are how they are depicted - the writer/director fail(s) at showing why the most successful teens have the gift of having non-broken "quote on quote" normal families. Not much perspective in to family backgrounds, though hard to do in approx 1.5 hrs of film. I feel for Hanah's character, she seems like a very bright yet confused girl, and Jake was my favorite, perhaps because I felt like him at times in my high-school years, though my circumstance was quite different, being the only Caucasian boy in my school.

Some points missed are a character of a substance abusing person, most schools have them as well ; and teacher-student bonding, which is much more prevalent in closely knit communities like the one in this movie.

Final review: boring at times, too shallow, not enough character depth.

This was the only documentary we had a chance to see this year, and we picked well! I found myself getting so absorbed in the stories of these 4 mid-western teenagers that I forgot temporarily that they were actual people. It is unbelievable that the director was able to catch these kids on camera saying and doing the things they did. One of the characters was so unsympathetic that we wondered why on earth she would act the way she did. I can't help but wish the director had included a "what are they doing now" note at the end. These kids are the same age as my oldest daughter, and perhaps that's why I felt connected to them, but I truly do want to know if they followed through with their plans. We also enjoyed the occasional lapse into animation the film included; some were funny, some were disturbing, but we felt they were well done, if a bit slick. This was by far our favorite movie of the 10 we viewed at Sundance this year. I wish the director had been able to come for Q&A.

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.

I enjoyed it at first but then started thinking about how the odds of this movie being authentic are pretty much 0. Yet another "documentary" director pushing the genre envelope. Countless shots where you think, "well, how convenient was that...what are the odds of her camera being there".

Why not just call it a movie with untrained kids doing the acting based on their experiences. A fantastic movie called Kids (1999) was done in a similar style sans lies & deception. Does she not think her movie can be enjoyed as fiction? This manipulation frustrates me.

I was recently at a documentary festival where the director fessed up to staging a few of the funnier scenes...someone in the audience followed up this revelation with a "why did you do that?". he just shrugged.

i feel that sort of lack of credibility & concern from the director when watching this film.

watch Kids and see how a film "shot in documentary style" should be made. or 7-up/Hoop Dreams if you want reality. don't settle for this middling attempt.