Review of American Teen (2008) by Eric H — 27 Sep 2009

Been interested in this for a while, but only just made it up to the top of my Netflix queue. Plus it's got the teen movie thing going for it, which is the other genre I've been immersing myself in for the last few weeks because of the play I'm working on with Alex. The concept is basically doing The Breakfast Club over as a documentary, and that basic idea is interesting if nothing else because the stereotypes in the Breakfast Club feel very based in reality. After watching the documentary, I think perhaps it might be vice versa; reality might be based in the stereotypes. But one way or the other, the stereotypical characters and dramas of high school are very real.

I believe that Nanette Burstein, director of the excellent Robert Evans documentary, The Kid Stays In The Picture, started with the stereotypes and searched through high schools in the heartland of America to find a group that fit those stereotypes. Once she found them, the concept was simply to follow them throughout their senior year of high school. The result is not a particularly earth-shaking narrative, but extremely rewarding in the minute observations of real life. It's a testament to the film's relevance that it's been more than 10 years between when I was in high school and when these kids were in their senior year, but watching it, I still got a distinct feeling of familiarity and connection to my own high school experience.

The play I'm working on consists of five characters that come close to these stereotypes, and from that perspective, I see American Teen as an in-depth look at what makes them stereotypical, and what goes to the construction of that stereotype. It is difficult to divorce yourself from the idea that these are real kids just living their lives. And most often in teen movies, the chief complaint as a viewer is that the stereotypes are so extreme that they don't feel real. But here you're confronted with the reality up front and that's really an immense service to this film.

The funny thing about that is that while it is difficult to deny that these kids are real, it's also often hard to remember that this is a documentary. Documentary form has infiltrated fictional entertainment in so many movies and so many ways that the form of a documentary no longer instinctually says "real." A couple of times through the film, my wife asked me if this was a mock-documentary or a real one. The odd thing about teenagers is that they are so succeptible to images in the media and they are so actively working at defining themselves that they very often do self-perpetuate these stereotypes. So the cliches hold truth partly because the kids themselves believe in them.

The movie generally defines these kids by dividing its time up between two basic aspects of their lives. Their love lives and their ambitions for college (or whatever it is that's coming after high school). And there is something extraordinarily moving about both of these aspects of high school life. Never is romance as sweet and innocent as it is in high school. And never are your ambitions so pure and important to you as they are in high school.

It's a brisk entertainment, and it's interesting to explore some of the supplemental material on the disc that didn't actually make it into the feature. There's some deleted footage that adds dimensions to the characters in the film beyond their stereotypes, but was not included because going beyond the stereotypes dilutes the film's larger point. But once you get to know these characters, viewing the extra material as supplemental footage is pretty rewarding.