Review of American Teen (2008) by Chloe D — 12 Mar 2009

Never ever seen a documentary in the cinema before and I LOVED this SO much! It was like a teen flick, but set in reality ... scary to think that American schools are like that ... the popular kids are truly evil and the geeky kids haven't got a clue! Am so so so happy I didn't grow up in America, our high schools were picnics compared to that!

I think the best parts were how the characters changed throughout the film, especially when you began to realise "why" .... I was so upset when it was revealed why the bitch might be a bitch, and so made you think that maybe the mean people in high school were mean for a reason? You never truly know the full story of what's going on in people's lives!

I LOVED Jake the geek, he was so socially backwards - I'd never seen anything like him! His desperation for a girlfriend and the way he kept getting it completely and utterly wrong ... AWWWWWWWWWW! I loved when he went to visit his brother and got drunk!

I think watching it with a British audience possibly made it a different experience altogether, we were giggling away at bits I'm not sure were actually supposed to be funny. American high schools seem SO surreal to us though and it can be hard to imagine living in a world of proms, jocks, band geeks and cheerleaders!

Bits of it appeared a little forced, some of it was possibly a bit staged, but the wonderful bits of captured reality made up for that and it was a truly inspiring and interesting documentary!