American Teen

I enjoyed it at first but then started thinking about how the odds of this movie being authentic are pretty much 0. Yet another "documentary" director pushing the genre envelope. Countless shots where you think, "well, how convenient was that...what are the odds of her camera being there".

Why not just call it a movie with untrained kids doing the acting based on their experiences. A fantastic movie called Kids (1999) was done in a similar style sans lies & deception. Does she not think her movie can be enjoyed as fiction? This manipulation frustrates me.

I was recently at a documentary festival where the director fessed up to staging a few of the funnier scenes...someone in the audience followed up this revelation with a "why did you do that?". he just shrugged.

i feel that sort of lack of credibility & concern from the director when watching this film.

watch Kids and see how a film "shot in documentary style" should be made. or 7-up/Hoop Dreams if you want reality. don't settle for this middling attempt.

A mediocre movie that depicts a series of true life characters in their senior high school year. Unfortunate for the viewer that wants to see a more in-depth understanding as to why the teens behavioral patterns are how they are depicted - the writer/director fail(s) at showing why the most successful teens have the gift of having non-broken "quote on quote" normal families. Not much perspective in to family backgrounds, though hard to do in approx 1.5 hrs of film. I feel for Hanah's character, she seems like a very bright yet confused girl, and Jake was my favorite, perhaps because I felt like him at times in my high-school years, though my circumstance was quite different, being the only Caucasian boy in my school.

Some points missed are a character of a substance abusing person, most schools have them as well ; and teacher-student bonding, which is much more prevalent in closely knit communities like the one in this movie.

Final review: boring at times, too shallow, not enough character depth.

In the documentary "American Teen," which had its Regional Premiere here at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival on the heels of an auspicious Sundance debut, filmmaker Nanette Burstein chronicles a year in the life of a group of high school students from Warsaw, Indiana.

On the face of it, it seems like we've seen this before -- the popular girl, All-American jock, shy pimply geek, and wild child -- growing up and dealing with the overwrought, overblown, magnified time of life that is adolescence in rural America. But this is 2008, and issues that were never raised in the past, or were overlooked -- mental health, self-acceptance, peer pressure and the need to fit in -- take on a new, frightening reality in this day of Columbines and nooses and hatred taken to unheard of levels. The consequences of ignoring what our teens are saying are more frightening than ever before.

Yet Burstein's subjects are a refreshing dose of a reality we don't see on television -- yes, these kids are troubled and in need of support, but they also demonstrate an impressive capacity to heal themselves. They are smart, streetwise, and comfortable in their own skin. They are smart, funny, and adorable. They have more to teach us about the importance of being able to laugh at ourselves than we may be willing to admit.

Ultimately, they grow on us because we've all been there, if not one then a combination. There are more awww moments than one can count and, in the end, we want to stay there in Warsaw, Indiana.

Winning a place on the guest list to American Teen was not a high priority for me. When I heard the title, I thought it must be a teen movie, and when I read that it was a documentary, I was even less interested. I could not have been more wrong.

This was the first time I've watched a documentary in a cinema, and it was well worth a Monday night. The stories of these five adolescents from Warsaw, Indiana were absolutely compelling, and wonderfully hilarious, as the raucous laughter from a near-empty cinema attested. Nanette Burstein has edited their experiences in their final year of high school with a deft hand, developing a rich, interwoven story well worth telling.

Watching these young Americans over-experience every emotion imaginable was fascinating not only because of the universal comedy of youth, but also because it reminds you just how much better our own education system is. Which is quite an accomplishment when your audience is a cynical old ex-teacher like myself.

American Teen is not ground-breaking or unique, but it is one of those rare pieces of film-making that exemplifies the best of the art form: simple storytelling, with characters that are easy to relate to, an awesome soundtrack, and an image of ourselves. Well worth a Monday night. Or even a Friday. Go see it.

I read a few of these posts, and think I might have a different perspective. I live in Washington, D.C., and have never been to Indiana outside of a visit to Bloomington as a child. I went to a public high school in upstate New York, near Syracuse, in the 70's. My friend and I went to the movie to see if and how high school and high school students have changed since we were in school. We were not interested in "Warsaw High" as a institution, nor in learning about Warsaw as a community. And after we left, we talked about the movie and never discussed "Warsaw as a community". We talked about the individual kids. It may help those of you who think the audience is going to draw negative opinions about your community to know that most of the audience doesn't think this was a study of your community - I saw it as a snapshot of a few high school kids from an American town. As I watched, I did wonder about how "typical" high school interactions could be filmed with people wired for sound and with cameras in their face, etc. I knew some of it had to be staged or severely affected by the presence of the camera. The center of the film, for me, was the pressures on, and insecurities of, the kids. I found the individual interviews to be probably the most honest and reliable part of the movie. Jake, Hanna, and the others said some pretty revealing and insightful (and embarrassing) things about themselves; sometimes funny, sometimes touching. And at my age, I know these are kids, as I was once a kid, who will grow up and out of this period of their lives. So I don't see the kids as stuck where they were. Again, it's a snap shot. Kids want to please their Dads by getting in to the right school or getting a scholarship; kids want a boyfriend or a girlfriend; there are cliques; there are jealousies and power trips. Yep, it's high school. That's all I saw. I liked the movie. Sorry if the film crew was rude. But Warsaw, chill out. I have no more or less an opinion of a town I never heard of, and whose name I will forget tomorrow, than before. To a ticket buyer like me, it wasn't really about you; it was touching on the universal American high school experience. Half true, half false; real and also TV and movie generated. The kids all got off to school and are growing up. We should, too. It's all gonna be OK.