Review of American Teen (2008) by Nathan K — 22 Aug 2008

Don't be turned off by the advertising, the film doesn't really seperate the people into as many stereotypes as you would think and it is much much deeper. The Breakfast Club is just "in" right now and "totally vintage" so the advertising plays it up while the film doesn't really at all.

Now having said that some of the events in this film were obviously staged but not in a bad way. In a world of instant messages it is hard to capture every single important text or IM and that clearly shows here as almost every scene excluding a few specific ones that involves texting or IMing was filmed later on just so they would have something to show for the really important messages.

Also as natural with a movie like this, you will notice(more towards the beginning) that a lot of the teens seem to be turning it up for the camera. For every slightly uneasy moment like that though(even though I completely understand it really isn't that bad) there is a heartbreakingly real moment that reminds you that these are indeed not just characters from a movie.

Be it the "Queen Bitch" who rules the school talking about her sister committing suicide, the "Rebel" going into a deep depression when her boyfriend of two years breaks up with her, or even the "Jock" crying his eyes out in the locker room after losing a game.

It is all very touching. The film edges towards an R rating with 3 un-bleeped(they bleep them in some scenes) uses of the word fuck and footage of underage drinking and smoking. I really wish they would have gone all out, as it appears they edge around some of the more R-rated material.

So overall American Teen has a horrible marketing campaign and a few unrealistic scenes but is an endearing and very real documentary, there is guaranteed to be at least one thing that happened to you in high school that happened in this movie, and it is hard not to be inspired by what these kids do.