Review of The Myth of the American Sleepover (2011) by Nathan M — 11 Dec 2014

As someone who generally appreciates small stories of human connection and can handle a fair share of mumblecore quaintness, this film is just flat out, flat. Maybe I just don't personally relate to these characters, but I have seldom spent time with such a boring batch of straight faced mumblers.

The thing that struck me as most dubious about this film was that the portrayal of these young people felt completely inauthentic. No young person I have met, (or at least VERY few) are as dry, and devoid of emotion outside of whimpering quiet sadness and loneliness than the characters portrayed in this film.

I do not remember the names of any of them, and they had almost no character traits other than a clear desire to be loved and accepted. Adolescence is a time of a emotional irrationality and acting out, yet almost all of the characters in this movie act like depressed middle age people in their humble pursuit of pathetic nothingness.

Also, unless things are wildly different in the area that this film takes place, the activities that these teenagers involve themselves in seem strangely dated, as if your grandfather was talking about what he used to get up to with his friends.

A fucking make out maze? extreme cases of third wheeling, kisses so mechanical and forced that they might as well be under a mistletoe, etc.. This film comes off like some distant, vague, completely impressionistic and unrealistic memory of a childhood that is distorted by the current depression of the old man telling a story.

I did not find this sad, uplifting, funny, engaging, or really anything. I sat there for 90 minutes as a massive wave of curious indifference washed over me. I also found the dialogue to be very questionable at times, as well as the acting; especially by the twins (again, I remember no names).

I apologize if I am wrong about the authenticity of these characters relative to the area and culture, but I got a strong vibe of bullshit from this movie. Not only did this massively disappoint me considering that I am a huge fan of coming of age films such as Dazed and Confused, or more recent films such as The Spectacular Now or Boyhood, but it severely dampened my interest in this director's work.

The Myth Of The American Sleepover feels hollow, unspeakably boring, inauthentic and nearly condescending in it's oh so sweet, subtle sentimentality. I only gave it two stars based on the fact that I was half asleep when I watched it and may have missed something, unfortunately I don't think there's nearly enough here to justify revisiting it.