The Myth of the American Sleepover

"American Graffiti"-lite. "The Myth of the American Sleepover" is about what boys and girls get up to on a summer's night and no, it's not what you might expect if you rely solely on the movies for your information. The closest they get to sex is a bit of petting; they drink beer and vodka but stop short of getting drunk and 'fighting' is limited to an egg and a slap being thrown. This was David Robert Mitchell's first film and it's a real charmer. Nothing happens but his delightful young and untried cast make spending time in their company a real pleasure and Mitchell is content just to let them be themselves. There are no dramas and nothing bad happens. This is a movie to make us think back to our own youth and smile.

Various teenagers go to various parties, each longing to make the last night before school starts up again memorable in the slice of life drama. Those who are expecting American Pie type shenanigans to follow are best to look elsewhere as this film has more realistic, and dare I say, more noble goals in mind.

Almost every Tuesday Instant Netflix has at least one film streaming on same day as released on DVD, this week it's three films (this one, Wolf Town, and Beneath the Darkness) and while I can't vouch for the other 2 as I still have yet to watch them, I can give my enthusiastic thumbs up for this one. I found the film to ring true of the teenage experience of the average American teenager. The pathos, the awkwardness, the long & uncertainties are all on display. And frequently well-acted to boot. Writer/director David Mitchell is one to be on the lookout for if he continues to put out films of this caliber.

My Grade: B+

Some may view the struggles of adolescence with fond memory, as a time of innocence and a stepping stone to becoming an adult, others may see it as a collection of petty first world squabbles that we all must joylessly march through to enter the crushing world of adulthood. However you view it, the fact is we all must, or have underwent its trails, in our way…

The Myth of the American sleepover tries to (and in my humble opinion succeeds rather well) in conveying this fact and gives us a sometimes startling accurate insight into how we used to think, behave and what we used to aspire too. Told in an episodic fashion with no real main character or plot, the movie instead focuses on characters, all teenagers, during one night, specifically the last night of summer vacation and set in that most barren of wastelands, the white American suburbs as they try to fulfil their desire before summers end.

Being that there is no set story or plot the movie ops instead for a series of episodic tales or parables if you will, each one involving a character searching for something, typically that which all adolescents search for… love, excitement, friendship, or even just to end the summer with a bang. Its all very nicely handled with the stories being loosely connected to one another and switching back and forth in a relatively seamless manner so that you are never confused as to whats going on or whose doing what. This is further helped by the slow pace of the movie which ensures that everything flows slowly but smoothly, almost like a dream. Indeed the noted sparsity of dialogue and the cinematography does give the whole movie a dreamlike effect as each character searches for that which they desire before the sun inevitably rises and the dream ends.

However this slow pace and lack of any complicated plot may be a turn off to some people and i would be lying by omission if i didn't say that a heavy tolerance to "whimsy" is needed to appreciate or even tolerate this movie, and while some be put off by the very "indie" feel, with people talking about their emotions while looking at the stars etc i would however encourage these people to look a little harder because if so they will find that this movie actually handles teenagers very realistically, all least compared to some supposed "indie teenager emotion movies" like Garden State for example. At certain points the movie achieves the highest praise one can bestow upon a film, being that you forget your watching actors in a movie and not real people just being filmed.

Indeed the acting in this movie was really quite excellent given the age of the actors, director David Robert Mitchell really manages to capture the awkwardness and conflicting desires that plague those lost in the void between childhood and adulthood. But best of all he manages to capture this without crossing that line and becoming too whimsical or indie. Your not for example, as so many of these types of movies make you, rolling your eyes in disgust or throwing up at the cheesy, right on the nose, "emotionial" dialogue. Instead its all subdued and tastefully done, and as long as you give it chance then you can really enjoy it or what it is.

On the flip side of that however, the subdued and quiet pace of the movie, while one of its many strengths is also its greatest weakness, the movie lacks enough of a punch or "oomph" if you will, while a nice watch its not terribly memorable, which is a shame because it has some good actors and was all handled rather well. But in the end its not enough to make it stay with you or to stand out as unique creation.

So overall i couldn't recommend this to anyone whose looking for action or comedy or zany antics because id be a great big liar. However I would recommend it to anyone who wants to take a walk down memory lane and relive those glorious or torturous years, and remember a time when the biggest worry you had was if the girl at the supermarket noticed you or not, or when a social gathering meant sleepovers at your friends house and every beer was a little can of illegal debauchery and summer was your kingdom and you its sovereign ruler.

Yeah, I sought this out because of It Follows, and trying to seek out what else the director had done. This is definitely not your ideal coming-of-age story. it seems like these days there are set rules on what those types of films are, and as good as they can be (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) they are also pretty predictable and follow a specific formula. This really strayed from that. Not all of the story lines work perfectly, but it very much feels like a film trying to show actual people interacting and trying to make the whole thing as honest as it could be. The characters are well-painted for the most part, and the film doesn't have the restraints of having to hit certain spots of points that a Hollywood film would try to do. Much of the human touch here would be further explored in It Follows, and so in that sense it's not entirely different. Very surprising, very good film

I call this a "modern John Hughes" movie because, just like the John Hughes films of the 80's, they tell stories of teenagers that can hit home with many people. This film tackles some of the not only more modern issues with teenagers, but the deeper issues. I think where it misses its mark is with some of the characters themselves. The story surrounding them may be interesting, but the characters...not so much. For example, I thought the "twins" story line was interesting, but the guy who played the character which this plot surrounds wasn't very likable (perhaps due to his terrible haircut). I think a better casting could have improved this film. The movie looks at teenage life through a slightly nostalgic point of view, but I think it benefits from this. It also shows high school from different points of view, such as a freshman, a senior, or even someone who has already graduated from high school. This film had potential and some good moments, but overall didn't quite hit the mark.