Review of The Myth of the American Sleepover (2011) by Jeff H — 18 Aug 2011

Almost flooring is the response that The Myth of the American Sleepover is gettingâ¦thatâ(TM)s the real myth. David Gordon Mitchellâ(TM)s first film presents us with typical suburban Michigan teens. They party, they flirt, they fantasize and apparently have sleepovers. Itâ(TM)s undoubtedly American alright; in fact, the beer-chasing, pillow-tossing teenage experience in this film could be seen as nothing but American, however itâ(TM)s unfortunate that the film narrowly misses what it really wants to be. The concept and many of the ideas are great: typical kids in an average town. No melodrama. Just realism and longing, on a hot, summer night. The teens donâ(TM)t really know what theyâ(TM)re looking for, or know what they expect to get out of their endeavors on this night, and neither does the film. Which in some ways works (the art imitates itâ(TM)s inhabitants). In many other ways, it doesnâ(TM)t.

But why, someone might ask, did it fall on itâ(TM)s face? Simple: horrid acting and even worse dialogue. It would have been a much different film had it made the audience care about any of the characters, yet all we get is bland and more bland, which I know not all American teenagers are. Many of the subtle moments of the characters are actually very well articulated, if it werenâ(TM)t for the awkward people trying to portray them. The attractive girl you see passing by in the supermarket, the boy who wants you to jump in the lake with him, or the slumber parties full of gossip and secrets. Thatâ(TM)s all fine and true, but what there are sequences in this film that just simply donâ(TM)t make sense, and feel very untrue to the modern American teenage way. Itâ(TM)s understandable that the characters are confused, but does that mean we can have plot points that utterly lack comprehension?

I actually enjoyed the quietness of the film, and Mitchellâ(TM)s direction is supremely promising, though his writing will take a while to get where it should be. I admire the way it looked at these characters without a raunchy spin, and just showed them in a realistic light, but that attempt for realism came off as not understanding the teenage experience at all, or the way that I have experienced itâ¦itâ(TM)s as if Mitchell wrote the screenplay without having ever interviewed an actual modern teenager. Much like Winterâ(TM)s Bone, it mistakes realism for blandness, yet this film lacks the innovation and certainly performances of Winterâ(TM)s Bone. The way Myth is filmed shows am impressive naivety and free-spirited take on the story; there was no glossy filming, no sharp editing, cheap lighting, and no studio involvement. Thatâ(TM)s part of what could have made it charming. But, those are all things that can be forgiven knowing it was low-budget and independent. In fact, the lack of money made it even more authentic. But you donâ(TM)t pay for a quality performance or good writing with money, and so itâ(TM)s simply no excuse to lack either of those aspects, in what could have been a great film. C+.