‘American Teen’ makes the grade
Nanette Burstein’s “American Teen” was filmed over the course of 10 months in an unremarkable American town. Warsaw, Ind. is a rural community of around 30,000 mostly conservative, mostly lower-middle class whites. The documentary follows five seniors as they move through their last two semesters of high school.
E! Online critic Ben Lyons called the film “a modern day ‘Breakfast Club,’” and to a certain extent, the students do resemble the cast of John Hughes’ 1985 film.
There is Jake, sharp and self-aware, but exquisitely nerdy; Megan, who’s pretty and popular but capable of profound cruelty; Hannah, the artsy outsider who dreams of escaping to California; and Mitch and Colin, both charming and popular, both stars on the basketball court.
The danger here is that the students will be seen more as clichés than as individuals. But anyone who has graduated from high school remembers these people all too vividly.
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Jake – the nerd – sums it up well when he says, “Our government teacher says we live in a meritocracy, but at Warsaw [Community High School], it’s more like a caste system.”
What makes “American Teen” well worth its ticket price is the fact that it refuses to be the sort of highly anticipated box office documentary we’re used to. This is not a film driven by ideology or evidence. No people or institutions are portrayed as inherently good or bad. There are no villains, nor are there any victims.
AMERICAN TEEN
Grade: A-
Verdict: A documentary so accurate in portraying the ills and thrills of high school that it refutes what we’ve come to expect of reality entertainment.
The biggest success is that Burstein manages to find a middle between the vacuity and exploitation of MTV’s “The Hills” and the serious, unsmiling documentaries that always have a sociopolitical point.
The film is, more than anything, an engaging and honest look at what it’s like to be in high school; the freedom and frustration of not quite being an adult, the pressure of acceptance by peers and colleges, the relationships and the back stabbings.
It’s impossible to watch without being catapulted into the past, remembering- whether with fear and loathing or pride and satisfaction- what it was like to be a high school senior.
