In Theaters Aug 22 2008 @ 06:00 am
REVIEW: American Teen
Directed By: Nanette Burstein
Written By: Nanette Burstein
Starring: Hannah Bailey, Colin Clemens, Megan Krizmanich, Mitch Reinholt, Jake Tusing
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some strong language, sexual material, some drinking and brief smoking-all involving teens
Watching soul-crushing films is rough – writing about them is even worse. And there are a lot of bad films out there (I know, shocking). But, as a film critic, when you have the chance to champion a wonderful, cinematic underdog – a film your readers have likely never heard of and will likely never purchase tickets for – it easily makes up for the ten Martin Lawrence vehicles that preceded it. American Teen is one of those films, a documentary full of charm and wit and grace that smoothly functions on multiple levels – as entertainment, as human drama, as social commentary – and is guaranteed to resonate with anyone who’s put foot inside an American high school.
Notice anything similar?
The film focuses on five teenagers beginning their senior year at Warsaw Community High School in Indiana. The introduction to each teen feels like something out of Not Another Teen Movie: we’re given The Jock, The Heartthrob, The Geek, The Princess, and The Rebel, and each of them is as clichéd as the last 2 1/2 decades of teen films have built them up to be (the marketing department even brazenly copied The Breakfast Club’s iconic one-sheet). This is a conscious decision by director Nanette Burstein (The Kid Stays in the Picture), who purposefully builds up stereotypes so she can deftly demolish them later in the film.
As the teens go through the expected motions of senior life – relationships, gossip, family pressures, college applications, prom, the Big Game – they open up like Russian nesting dolls, each stereotypical high school situation revealing more depth and nuance to them than previously expected. By the end of the film, each has transitioned from cliché to flesh ‘n blood human, and characters you thought irredeemable (such as popular diva Megan) display surprising vulnerability.
Mitch Reinholt, the 'heartthrob.'
The film’s success in developing character owes as much, if not more, to Burstein’s consummate skill as a storyteller as it does to the kids themselves. She possesses an instinctive ability to construct narrative within the restrictive confines of the documentary form, and the result is on par with the great docs of recent memory (including Seth Gordon’s King of Kong and Chris Smith’s American Movie). Although numerous sequences have been staged and reenacted after the fact (including a painful breakup by text message), Burstein effortlessly weaves these somewhat artificial beats around the genuine in-the-moment ones, never once giving the audience pause to question the veracity of what they are seeing. Whereas teen ‘reality’ programming such as The Hills employs a legion of Big Brother-like scripters, controlling hookups and breakups with Machiavellian ease (you can practically hear the producers off screen saying, “No, no, break up with him this way…”), Burstein never jeopardizes the integrity of her film. She is, quite frankly, a brilliant documentarian.
Hannah Bailey, the 'rebel.'
The innate attraction to a film such as this is vicariously reliving the triumphs and sorrows of our own youth through the characters on screen. Even the marketing department grasped this, querying, “Who were you?” in the film’s theatrical trailer. I was personally taken aback to hear Hannah Bailey (the ‘rebel’), the undeniable centerpiece of the film, repeating things suspiciously similar to my own thoughts and desires. And not only her opinions mirror my own, but also the trajectory of her life. Pulling up roots for college, she tracks halfway across the country to San Francisco, completely on her own, with family over 2000 miles away. When I left for college, I left my parents nearly 8000 miles away on another continent, experiencing the same fears of separation and thrills of independence that Hailey does. Not only that but she also aspires to filmmaking, a profession I’ve dreamt about since I was 19. With such striking parallels, I was completely won over by her, and while others may not relate as strongly as I did to the film, because Burstein profiles such a wide range of personalities, even the most stubborn of viewers will be unable to resist at least one of the teens.
Personal experiences aside, American Teen is also a telling snapshot of teenage life in small-town America. Although not surprising, it’s nonetheless fascinating to see how technology has become an inextricable part of the high school experience. When I was growing up, computers existed to play Oregon Trail; virtual dysentery was the worst thing that could happen. Now computers and the internet are used to virally propagate gossip and destroy reputations, as in one devastating sequence where a girl’s photographic self-portrait (of the risqué variety) is spread around the school lightning-quick by email and cellphone. The ‘what’ of teenage life may not have changed much, but the ‘how’ certainly has.
American Teen is a cinematic time capsule, a window into teenage life at the turn of the millennium that will be referenced for years to come. That it also functions as both splendid entertainment and compelling drama is icing on the cake. This is one of the finest documentaries of the year and one that I am happy to champion. See it, support it, and fall in love with it.
Nanette Burstein and her cast of diverse teens.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 7:01 am 1. Sam Juliano said …
Another Evan Derrick reviewing gem, and I both agree with your rating and your assessment completely. A “telling snapshot of teenage life in small town America” and a “time capsule” indeed. Beautifully written.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 8:51 am 2. Joseph said …
Props for using the term “Russian nesting dolls” in a film review.
Loved the film. I’m very interested in seeing her previous work now.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 9:13 am 3. Joe said …
ok I saw this a few eeks ago and I completely agree with Mr. Derrick that it is both entertaining and compelling drama. With all the hoopla over Man on Wire, I think this is being undervalued as one of the season’s better documentaries.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 9:59 am 4. Daniel said …
Glad to see another positive reaction to this one. I fell in love with it at first sight, and I find it bittersweet that it will surely be ignored by Oscar season because of the number of amazing documentaries that have also come out this year.
Nanette Burnstein was at the screening I attended in April at the MSPIFF, and despite all the press that has come out since AT’s release, I still find myself trusting her claims that nothing was recreated other than the text message scene. I had a lot of respect for her walking out of that theater, and I find the contradictory criticism of the film baffling. If we can all so intimately connect with the simple characters that we recognize from our past, why would Burnstein need to cajole and create a story out of it? It’s the kind of documentary that needs no embellishment. In fact I might even ruffle some feathers and say that Man on Wire might have played itself more dramatically than American Teen, specifically in the ***SPOILER*** uncorroborated account of how Petit received the arrow in the nude. It takes nothing away from MoW, which is outstanding, but I just wonder why everyone is so obsessed with accusing AT of doing something it had no reason to do.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 1:02 pm 5. Lou A. said …
I remember another documentary called “Spellbound” from about 6 or 7 years ago, that this new film reminds me of. It focused on a group of kids who were preparing for a spelling bee.
Very fine review.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 1:27 pm 6. Evan Derrick said …
I agree, Daniel. All the vitriol that has been leveled against Burstein (I’ve heard it called “The Hills with pretension”) is entirely out of line. You can certainly tell that some things (like the cellphone messages, as you mentioned) were done with cutaways, but the entire thing works so well because she’s such a wonderful filmmaker. This feels like a fictional narrative film, and I think people are responding so violently because they think docs should be more verite and gritty. I’ve listened to a few interviews with her myself, and I agree with you completely - I have a lot of respect for her. This will, of course, be overlooked come Oscar season, as the Academy prizes politically minded docs above all others.
And Lou, Spellbound had that central competition of the National Spelling Bee anchoring it while this one is more of a coming-of-age character study. Similar in some ways, but I think the emotional reaction you will get out of each is different.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 1:58 pm 7. Daniel said …
I agree about Spellbound. Actually saw that one 3 times in the theater. Still one of my favorites.
Evan, I’ve also seen some people call Burnstein out on the carpet for not pushing a particular agenda, and instead just documenting the lives of these students as they happen. I guess I missed the memo about when that was all of a sudden considered inadequate.
By the way, I find it interesting that this resonated with you, even though you didn’t go to high school in the States.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 2:49 pm 8. Evan Derrick said …
I guess that goes back the universality of the human experience. I really connected with Hannah in more ways than one. Even some of her emotional issues seemed to mirror mine when I was in college (and I know that statement is going to invite all kinds of one liners).
Obviously, some of the pressures they faced were fairly foreign to me. I kind of bypassed the whole peer pressure thing, and when I got to college I was self-assured enough to spot superficiality when it was coming at me.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 4:10 pm 9. Film-Book dot Com said …
This flix has been garnering a lot of acclaim and from what I’ve been reading, its well deserved. Can’t wait to see this film myself.
on Aug 22 2008 @ 6:01 pm 10. Kristena said …
I can’t wait to see this. Especially since a- the poster is the same as The Breakfast Club, b- you mentioned Russian nesting dolls, and c- there’s a guy with a red headband and a Farrah Fawcett Tee.
on Aug 23 2008 @ 2:57 pm 11. Nick Plowman said …
Every time a review of this film pops up at a blog/site I frequent, I get a little lump in my throat – because soon enough everyone’ll have seen it but me. I am looking forward to it in a big, big way, and I really enjoyed your review.