American Teen is a documentary that is far more truthful and fascinating than any reality show going, as it follows the lives of several Warsaw Indiana High School students through their senior year.
There are stereotypes and surprises, incredibly touching moments and some horrific cruelty. Yes, high school has not changed, it may be the 21st century, but you will recognize yourself and your friends in these young people and what is important in their lives.
One can’t help but wonder at the degree of self-consciousness the student subjects of this documentary must have felt. Knowing the penchant for drama exhibited by teenagers of our acquaintance, and the public’s appetite for reality show tantrums and confessions, I was prepared to see in American Teen a lot of people behaving badly and every sad or sorry word and action caught on film.
To the credit of Nanette Burstein and her production crew, this documentary was far from the travesty I was expecting. Somehow, these kids were able to keep it real, which must have been something with cameras and crew witnessing and recording the ups and downs of adolescents growing towards maturity.
Yes there are some horrifically embarrassing moments that make you cringe for all involved. The self-deprecating speeches of one youngster when seen against his intensely romantic nature make one what to scream and tell him to not despair, there is good life after High School. There is a level of meanness and cruelty to a girl whose less than dressed photo, meant only for a boyfriend is emailed with lightening speed around the school.
Yes it was a stupid thing for her to do in the first place, making one realize that Grandma’s old adage “Fool’s names and fool’s [er, um, other parts] faces are always seen in public places” wasn’t far from wrong. But these are kids, and that child didn’t deserve the brutality towards her psyche that her classmates delivered, especially since it could have been any one of them in her place.
The complete polar opposite is the degree of loyalty and tenderness shown by some class members to their friends, something that goes beyond the association friendships of the various groups. Princess or misfit, school ruling jock or geeky outsider, all of these young people share the common element of this being a deciding time in their lives.
As we follow this growing up process, we see the mistake they make and the victories they win, and through it all you just want to grab each one of them and tell them that this is High School, not the rest of their lives. Things can and will change, and the intensity of the suffering that they now feel will in just a few years seem to have been a great waste of time.
American Teen is presented on single disc in widescreen format with a running time of 101 minutes. Special features included on the disc are Pop Quiz: Cast Interviews, which were a little disappointing. It would be nice to have heard more about the “after-lives” of the main subjects, but the interviews were simple question and answer and mostly did not add much to the information.
Hannah’s Blogs in which she spoke on a variety of topics are an interesting peek into the mind of a maturing girl, who is rebelling against what she sees as mundane in her existence.
As with most teens, these discussions are primarily self centered all about “me” offerings of attitudes and thoughts. Included on the disc are character trailers from the film, and deleted scenes.
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