'American Teen' was really good, better than I expected. There were some enduring images: the girl who is yearning to be loved, to the extent that she doesn't care who knows it and will jeopardize her whole future for a boy she's just met. The girl who, in a moment of wild, horny daring, takes a picture of herself topless on her phone and sends it to a boy she likes, and within hours its all over the web and the girl is in tears, socially reviled and the latest target of the school bully. And that bully, an unhappy, nasty, intelligent and hard- working over-achiever who is so far ahead of her friends and whose parents give her so much stuff but pay her so little attention, oh, she has stuck with me. I could imagine her going on to be the richest person in America, as well as the most emotionally immature. She shook me to the core because I'd never seen real, deliberate, bullying, as it took place, as a bully composed a cruel text message or wrote a homophobic graffito, and I felt so sorry for her and despised her so completely at the same time that I feel I'll never forget her.
Parts felt a little set up, as if the director had got there and said 'ok, now do something teenage', but maybe that was just the typical self-consciousness of youth - children act up when they know they're being watched, so it might have been as simple as that - some of them definitely dressed just for the camera, and even avoided doing shameful things in front of the camera. Despite that, there were a lot of places where the honesty of the teens was the most interesting thing - the nervousness of the band geek boy when going to a girl's house for a date was too much for him to cover up, and the relief of the jock guy who won the basketball game - the camera caught some real emotions. It wasn't the most exciting film of all time to be honest; none of the characters' stories were as exciting as Jason Bourne's and I didn't fall in love with anyone in it, so sometimes the pace did plod a little, but that's almost inevitable in a documentary with no set plot. I liked the range of different teens chosen, I was glad they weren't all from the same social group and loved that they weren't all sympathetic characters. I'd like to know where they all are now.
I was really glad I watched this film and I'd recommend it to anyone who's ever been a teenager. There are movies out there that tell us to be scared of teens ('thirteen', 'Requiem for a Dream', hell, even 'Mean Girls'). Then there are so many teen movies that over-emphasize that whole jock, nerd, band-geek cliché of American schools, and it was really interesting to see some people who were real, who weren't quite stereotypes, who were jocks but also poor, or tortured, or geeks but also confident and happy, or popular but also depressed. Everybody was well-rounded and had a chance to make their voice heard and let their personality be seen, warts and all, over the filmed year. Director Nanette Burstein really seemed to be fascinated by her subject. I love a documentary, and this is one of the best I've seen in the past few years.
Parts felt a little set up, as if the director had got there and said 'ok, now do something teenage', but maybe that was just the typical self-consciousness of youth - children act up when they know they're being watched, so it might have been as simple as that - some of them definitely dressed just for the camera, and even avoided doing shameful things in front of the camera. Despite that, there were a lot of places where the honesty of the teens was the most interesting thing - the nervousness of the band geek boy when going to a girl's house for a date was too much for him to cover up, and the relief of the jock guy who won the basketball game - the camera caught some real emotions. It wasn't the most exciting film of all time to be honest; none of the characters' stories were as exciting as Jason Bourne's and I didn't fall in love with anyone in it, so sometimes the pace did plod a little, but that's almost inevitable in a documentary with no set plot. I liked the range of different teens chosen, I was glad they weren't all from the same social group and loved that they weren't all sympathetic characters. I'd like to know where they all are now.
I was really glad I watched this film and I'd recommend it to anyone who's ever been a teenager. There are movies out there that tell us to be scared of teens ('thirteen', 'Requiem for a Dream', hell, even 'Mean Girls'). Then there are so many teen movies that over-emphasize that whole jock, nerd, band-geek cliché of American schools, and it was really interesting to see some people who were real, who weren't quite stereotypes, who were jocks but also poor, or tortured, or geeks but also confident and happy, or popular but also depressed. Everybody was well-rounded and had a chance to make their voice heard and let their personality be seen, warts and all, over the filmed year. Director Nanette Burstein really seemed to be fascinated by her subject. I love a documentary, and this is one of the best I've seen in the past few years.