User reviews

I once showed "Teenage Dirtbag" to a college class of freshman-level composition students. While none of them absolutely loved it, it kept the entire class in rapt attention, and no one complained that it was just "stupid" or "boring," which is noteworthy. They found Amber Lange and Thayer Mangeress two very well-realized characters, and Amber's poignant closing lines produced a flurry of involuntary hums and sighs. One guy noted that it had a low budget feel, and that he would have liked more special effects, changes in scenery, and everything else one gets from larger company productions. I saw his point but think the lowbudgetness also adds to the essential realism of the film. What my class found most intriguing were the open questions and room for speculation this film leaves about what _really_ happen to Thayer's father and brother.

"Teenage Dirtbag" may not be anything truly special, but it accomplishes what its makers set out to do very well: Taut and gripping storyline with excellent acting and characterization. Several years after seeing it, this film remains quite fresh in my mind.

I extremely enjoyed this indie gem from the first minute to the last, even though the concept and the various topics, which have been touched in the movie (hatred turning to love, broken home, fitting in, far-from-perfect high school environment), cannot be called authentic. The idea, however, that a certain conflict originating in one's deviation from the average on whatever grounds can be overcome by the power of words is refreshing. Here poetry is the key to annihilate the barriers between the main characters. Through the creative writing class the characters embark on letting each other peek under the surface to discover who they really are. Probably that's why the male leader is so obnoxious when we first encounter him, whereas later it is unavoidable not to like him or at least not to sympathise with him.

Poignant film with elaborate characters, nice soundtrack and brilliant poems.

Supposedly based on true events, Teenage Dirtbag tells the story of Amber a popular high school girl who is harassed by a delinquent boy,Thayer. Thayer seems to develop an obsession with Amber and what begins as teasing and harassment soon evolves into affection as Thayer tries to reach and connect with Amber.They are placed in the same creative writing class and trough written words they start to understand each other a little better and the class becomes a bonding experience as they share their feelings. A friendship starts to form but Amber is confused by her feelings and Thayer has to withstand his abusive father and a broken home.Teenage Dirtbag is essentially a unrequited love story between teenagers.Very well written and directed,this small independent film turned out to be a pleasant surprise and it deserves more recognition and a wider distribution. The performances were all very solid with a special mention to the lovely Noa Hegesh who did a terrific job as Amber.The musical score which caught me by surprise,complimented the movie very nicely and kinda took it to another level. Overall a great effort by first time director Regina Crosby.

7/10

This is my first ever review. I have never felt the need to spread a movie, or voice my opinion before, but I find myself angry that more people have not seen this movie. It is a movie unlike any other. Scott M foster portrays Thayer Mangeris, a delinquent and a somewhat bad boy from a broken home, who grows a connection with Amber Lang, played by Noa Hegesh, through the creative writing class they have together, and their frequent correspondence in study hall via a notebook. Noa, who has never liked Thayer before, having been forced always to sit with him due to their naming order, finds herself growing feelings for this wrong side of the tracks boy. i wont say anything more but this: buy a copy of this movie, for a guarantee you will be watching it again and again.

Amber Lange (Noa Hegesh) is a high school cheerleader. She's always forced to sit around Thayer Mangeress (Scott Michael Foster) due to their alphabetical order. She's annoyed with his antics. He likes to gross eating, has a troubled home, and dating new girl Tabitha. They have a creative writing class together. The movie starts years later with pregnant Amber finding out about Thayer's death.

Noa Hegesh delivers an intriguing performance. She looks and acts very much like Selma Blair. It's too bad that she doesn't seems to have done more after this. Her character is not the stereotype cheerleader. She has depth. Her relationship with Thayer is complicated. The story could have gone a couple of different ways. It's not the neatest or the straightest path. It takes a couple of surprising turns. It's not exactly realism but something of an old fashion romantic tragedy. I would definitely leave out the "inspired by true events" tagline. It's meaningless and does more harm than good.

a story of being alone while popular for both main characters i think, thayer and amber are completelhy different characters but fall for each other on an emotional level if not a physical one, thayer is the good looking rocker rebel from the wrong side of the tracks and amber is the popular, clever cheerleader from a good home, the ending leaves it up to the imagination of the viewer i think that they got it on and amber has thayers baby , the soundtrack is very good particularly love the song where hes wearing a dress and talking to her by the water reminds me of my friends bev, colm and bart its called 'youre not gonna save me' overall a very good film i love teen films

I'm struggling to understand wh this movie rated so high. I keep thinking because it was filmed in such a small community, most of the high ratings would come from local people, friends, and family. I would rate the movie a bit higher if the characters existed instead of being loosely based on the directors high school experiences. Wasn't really worth watching in my opinion. Save yourself the time and read the Wikipedia description or better yet listen to the song Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus for a plot summary. Not very original.

I agree with most of the good reviews of this movie. It affected me really hard. Although I didn't like the poem part because I don't know..I do that when I'm in some emotional personal thoughts and thinking of death. It is small budget film and some unknown actors but who cares? I give them an A. The pacing, acting and directing was great. I also never thought it is a 2009 movie. I was getting into a deep feeling at the end when he's really desperate in getting the girl but why couldn't he just say 'I like/love you' straightforward? Just thinking I thought he could be a lot bolder..Really good movie..Worth a watch. I also like the movie soundtrack at the end, it is tragic but beautiful. Too bad popular movies don't have this.

I streamed this film on Netflix and honestly, wasn't expecting much. I figured it would be a "bad-boy likes and gets the good-girl" type of cliché film. Boy, was I surprised. This film is a really good story that pulls you in and holds you until the end. The two main characters are both so intense. You can seriously feel their emotions and you cheer for them, you get caught up in their stories. There were parts of this movie that were hard to watch because they are so true-to-life. The filmmakers also paid special attention to the time period, capturing the feel of the late 90s perfectly. This is how high school was for me when I attended school during this period. I remember like Thayer and Amber, being forced in study hall to sit next to this guy I barely knew, and over the course of the year we became friends, writing notes in our notebooks, taking turns bringing snacks, and finding ways to dodge the attention of the grouchy study hall monitor. I was totally able to get wrapped up in the story. I was really impressed with this film and highly recommend it.

Just watched it and it drew from me every emotion the director desired and then some. As the movie began I immediately thought it was older than 2009 as nothing jumped out at me that said it was a 2009 movie. It appeared to be a high school type movie but it slowly drew me in like a classical novel. I viewed troubled teenagers while easily placing myself in the lead's character role. The lead follows and mildly harasses his dream girl in school. However, the movie is so much more than your typical standard HS movie about the different groups we all experience in H.S. as it brings the creative writing element into the picture and a young troubled male opens himself up to a creative writing class but with the intent of opening himself to the girl only. Study hall leads to a fondness perhaps a forbidden fondness between the two as they are very different people experiencing life from different ends of the spectrum but not really so different. Highly recommended movie about love, different groups in High School and the darkness of a broken home. This movie can be depressing as love can often be and while it shows many aspects of a broken home and perhaps a broken lead character it can lead to strong internal hurts for those that may have experienced similar circumstances in life. I recommend viewing on a Saturday afternoon and then going out and being active so not to linger in the emotional strings that it will surely tug at within you. Rarely does a movie pull at you emotionally like this one and that makes it a true treasure

Where do I begin? First of all, I gave this movie 10 of 10, despite its many flaws, just because it affected me in a way that no other movie has. Scott M. Foster's acting here is more than excellent - it gave me chills and kept me involved to the very end. The soundtrack had a great impact on me too - probably it's the second major factor that makes this one worth-watching. Of course, you'll notice many things that are not right (like when we see Thayer's big scar... and then in some of the next scenes it's gone), but everything about this movie is so emotional that I just ignored its shortcomings. I surely will follow Scott's career with huge interest from now on. This guy has great potential.

At first I didn't know how to feel about this movie. It left me with a bitter taste and desperation and anger in my heart. But then I couldn't stop thinking about it and watched it again. And again. Now I'm a little obsessed with it, with the characters and I absolutely love it. If it were any different, it would be forgettable and mediocre. But as it is, it is just perfect. Very realistic, harsh and I don't know. This movie kicks you in the stomach and leaves you on the floor. I would love to see a sequel to this movie, but that's probably not going to happen. The chemistry between the main characters is electrifying. The story sound like a dumb cliché teenager movie, but that can't be further from the true. I would recommend this movie to everyone. It's just beautiful. This movie shows the painful beauty of life as it is. It shows us what the writer wanted to show us and not what the audience expects or hopes for. And that is art. I watched a lot of romantic movies recently and none of them compares to this one.

Many movies that contain other art forms- dance routines, songs, poems- disappoint because the art doesn't live up to the rest of the film. This movie was different. The poems were awesome, yet realistic high school level. The soundtrack had some great tracks that I will be investigating how to download them into my mp3 player.

The chemistry was real between the characters as well. Every time they interacted, there was an intensity. I have seen high budget films with huge celebrity names ruined because the character's feelings/chemistry were not believable.

I think this movie is a must-see. It was also a great example to cinematographers who think you need to add a whole bunch of nudity and swearing to portray sex and violence. This did the job without dragging the viewer through profanity and raunchiness. Though I did have to skip the fetal pig scene... YUCK!!! (Hope that raised your curiosity!)

It would seem like an opened a window on someone very dear's secret thoughts. There are no much ups and downs in the story, it is quite flat. It's so simple, so well - known, but through this very same quality it reaches to involve the audience so deeply - and thus such an intimacy felt with the characters. The antagonist main characters under the aura of truthfulness, reach to connect to each other in the class of Creative Writing, where they are asked to bare their souls. Naked and pure as they are exposed, they find that poetry is within every single life - no matter the dramas, no matter the pain, no matter the hurt. He is a life gambler - can have everything because he needs nothing: he is used to disasters, he has no fears. But he can't stand being ignored by her, the perfect, all neat and tidy cheerleader. On the other side you find out she is condemned even more then him: condemned to be cold and controlled. She is the one who is under the pressure of maintaining the social status.

The love that flourishes is a rare unconsumed one, mingled in breathtaking poetries and murmured confessions. They find themselves making love in their fight, not accepting the tremors they cause to one another, avoiding and nurturing an unseen bound that ties them forever. But she stops searching him, wanting him, inspiring them. Her days die. So seems to be with the inner fire he could have lit within her soul. Her attitude, head up high reaching mountains he never wanted, treats him as a small firefly, another amusement of summer twilights, a distracting one. She chooses the acceptable format by the society and ceases to believe in the dance of their souls. The movie is about everlasting loves between lost souls, a love impeccable of ordinary relations . It is about a precious feeling which, under other circumstances other than the agonistic dilemma posed to her in the end, would be assumed that would just degrade in the fake flow of the everyday. It's like a teenage version of Peter Pan - Wendy's love: the she escapes; fearing to loose contact with the measurable reality and the he plunges in the deepest waters of life dimensions being the hero of the truth, making love with the angers, the resentments, the social statuses, the fakes.... our hero fights till the end simply by living purely with no fear. He is just like a coffee bean: cannot help other than give its flavor and taste to the boiling-water-like challenges: even to an officially unrequited love.

I found myself wishing as a kid to be somewhere inside the story so that i could change their lost. But maybe, this is the beauty of it, this is the gift they can have. Having printed forever in her stony heart through carvings of unconfirmed death, the memory of a strong complete love.

I had PMD after this movie. Tonight, i'm watching it for the 7-th time in only one week.

For some reason, my favorite part of this movie is when Amber was at her locker and Thayer is walking down the hall banging hard on the lockers either trying to scare her or trying to annoy her. Then she starts talking to him. Saying something like I hate you then he stops and yells why she let everyone read his journal. Then he whispers "why" and leans his forehead against hers and she closes her eyes and that soft music plays in the background. Then he pulls away, she says "because I hate you." It's something about this scene that just makes me think: "damn. Regardless of what she says, its easy to tell she has a thing for him like he has for her." I just really love that scene.

This movie stands for the proposition that you can have an entire relationship with someone and not touch them or do anything together. All you need to do is interact. Thayer is the proverbial boy from the wrong side of the tracks that has semi known Amber for a long time as they are in alphabetical order in school. A stray remark Amber makes at the end of the prior year sets Thayer's sights on her for senior year and this movie is basically the story of the little interactions that they have for the entire year where they form a strong but unfortunately unspoken love. The actual film is very amateurish. Looking like an ABC afternoon special but the thing that sells this for me is the acting. Scott Michael Foster is amazing as always and sells the simmering absolute desperation of his character. Noa Hegish as Amber is also solid and sells her character's love and regret. The writer and director says this wasn't based on anyone in particular but I don't believe her. It almost feels like this movie itself is an adaptation of a journal. The movie is done via flashback from Amber's view after high school is over so you know the outcome from the start but I still was captivated even knowing the result.

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen maybe the best so far. Its got just the right amount of tears and laughter. Its shocking and depressing. But its so amazing and proves a point. "death is fleeting..love lasts forever." STATEMENT. Teens have this thing where if they stay in their social group that they are just dandy. But going out and about from your social group brings many other things to your life that you never knew you'd actually wanna know. if i was in their situation i would of been just as shocked as amber was. Both Amber Lang and Thayer are awesome characters. I do believe this is one of he best movies I've ever seen in my whole life.