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An appealing rookie effort by James Bridges that has its moments. Yes, the quality is uneven but its melancholy, nostalgic undercurrent echoes Dean's effect on the disaffected youth of the "innocent" Fifties, the first generation to register his impact. Offbeat, quirky and, yes, melodramatic, "September 30, 1955" captures adolescent confusion, longing and the death of innocence, paralleling Dean's own untimely death. The day-for-night closing fade-out and elegiac music foreshadow a sleepy generation soon to lose its Saturday-night youth to rapid, startling change. Throughout, Dean's presence is often eerily palpable in an admittedly lesser effort that deserves a greater following.

I'd never heard of "dogging" before catching "Public Sex" on Sundance. Even British reviews of this UK flick took inexplicable pleasure in belittling it. At a minimum, it deserves a cult following, much like its subject. Subtitled "A Love Story," this overlooked, naughty-but-nice gem uses occasional pseudo-documentary touches. Its main character, a young, unemployed, "investigative" journalist, shines a light, if you will, on the British phenom of dogging, couples shagging inside cars, at night, in public areas frequented for just that purpose. And dogging devotees aren't particularly shy about onlookers. Asked "How did you get into it?," one dogger responds, "How can you not get into it?" This proves true as the characters in "Public Sex" use dogging to find what they're really looking for and discover that, as one car door closes, another opens. Dogging, anyone?

This documentary is essential for any fan of James Dean. I agree that the quality is low budget and it would have been nice to have had some interviews with people who knew him in Fairmount. However, at least one other documentary (and some of the books written about Dean) has interviewed those who knew him growing up and they really don't have a heckuva lot to contribute (at least as far as they're willing to reveal).

What is essential about The First American Teenager is that it's the only documentary that interviews Sal Mineo (who is sipping a can of beer), Natalie Wood, and Nicholas Ray (director of Rebel Without a Cause). As such, this documentary has unique footage. Some of these same interviews have been excerpted in later Dean documentaries.

I have to disagree that using '70s rock music is a nice touch, and I say this as someone who happens to enjoy the music in question. My gripe is that this is the only Dean documentary that I'm aware of that so obviously tried to generate audience interest in Dean by pandering to contemporary tastes. This goes against the grain of what has kept Dean relevant to every generation since his death: the timelessness of his impact, various personas, and universal message (he remains as great an icon in Japan, for instance, as anywhere else).

Watching this documentary today is to realize how badly this music dates it. Playing Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend" is fair enough but the use of Bowie's "Rebel, Rebel" and Bad Company's "Movin' On" are anachronistic distractions that appear to have done nothing to popularize this rather obscure documentary. It's not even available on DVD, as contrasted with the numerous other Dean documentaries that are, including the one by PBS' American Masters series, none of which felt compelled to apologize for the fact that Dean lived and died during the Fifties which, by the way, is when rock 'n' roll came of age.