Review of American Teen (2008) by Karri W — 23 Aug 2008

I think the basic theme of this movie was that no matter who you are, as a teen, you feel similar pressures, highs and lows, and excitement about the future. Even if you think no one understands or identifies with you, there are others out there.

Senior year was an excellent time point to follow these students around -- anything beyond that, and you wouldn't a majority of people who share the same experience (since people do lots of different things, at differing ages, once they reach adulthood).

Anything younger would not have been as pivotal or dramatic, plus younger teens would not have the same level of perspective. Hannah seemed to be the crowd favorite, probably because she was mostly depicted a victim (despite the fact that if most of us knew someone like her in high school, we didn't necessarily pay a lot of attention to her).

She said during the prom scene that she didn't care what people thought and lived that way, yet she spent almost a month out of school due to a bad breakup? Not something you'd expect from someone who was supposed to be a rebellious, gutsy type.

If we want to give an award for guts, Megan's maligned friend Erica gets the award for still going to school after what Megan did to her (simply because her two best friends were flirting with each other).

Jake was actually my favorite because he said terribly awkward things, yet he was trying to put himself out there, instead of just hiding in his room all the time. Colin's dad cracked me up -- there were plenty of funny moments.

It's hard to have any sympathy for Megan, thanks to the really cruel and unnecessary things she did. This movie isn't really "reality" though -- there were too many cinematic elements (possibly some scenes were reenacted?).