Review of American Teen (2008) by Sean W — 04 May 2009
According to this documentary, high school soap operas and teen movies have had it right from the start. This isn't a gritty expose of some secret way of life. It's just American high school as we've all come to expect it.
Cool alternative girl, geek, jock and the princess are our main characters. They're just self-conscious teens worrying about which colleges they'll get into and if they'll have a date for prom.
It's all very samey, but also entertaining. The film also has a cruel sense of humour directed towards lovable loser, Jake. He's represented in fantasy gaming sequences, where the animators have kindly decided to give him acne.
He also has some choice chat-up lines concerning "failing at life". American Teen also tries a bit hard to mess with us with it's manipulative techniques. It's only after representing her as a bitch, that we hear about Megan's sister that committed suicide.
Yet we hear about Hannah's mother suffering from manic depression, straight from the off. Nice and simple entertainment, but a strange and unexciting topic for a documentary.
This review of American Teen (2008) was written by Sean W on 04 May 2009.
American Teen has generally received positive reviews.
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