Josh Reviews American Teen

In 2006, documentary film-maker Nanette Burstein and her team followed several teenagers through the course of their Senior Year of High School in Warsaw, Indiana.  While a number of students applied to participate, the final film focuses on five kids, who seem to fit into typical Breakfast-Club style stereotypes.  (”I grew up watching John Hughes movies, and the inspiration I had for this movie was to find these fictional teen narratives in real life,” Burstein said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.)

There is The Jock: Colin Clemens, the star of Warsaw High’s basketball team who is hoping to receive a basketball scholarship and afraid that, without the money to pay for college, he’ll have to enter the Army if he doesn’t receive one.  There is The Princess: Megan Krizmanich, a pretty, popular girl who is at the head of the pack of the social life at Warsaw High.  There is The Geek: Jake Tusing, a nerd with bad acne and a bad haircut, who loves video-games and is desperately looking to get a girlfriend.  There is The Heartthrob: Mitch Reinholt, who is popular and good-looking; he’s friends with Megan and plays on the basketball team with Colin.  Finally there is The Rebel: Hannah Bailey, who dreams of being an artist and a film-maker, who plays in a band and openly despises life in Warsaw and hopes to move out to California after graduation.

What is most fascinating about American Teen (and what prompted a flurry of articles upon the film’s release last year), are the questions it raises about the degree to which the kids do or don’t perform for the cameras that they must know are recording them, and what that says about the lives of teenagers today in the world of facebook, myspace, youtube,  and reality television.  There are a number of times during the film when you can see clearly that the kids are wearing microphones.  And yet, they seem to behave as if they are entirely unaware that the cameras are observing them.  I have no doubt the kids were coached about not looking into the cameras, but there are moments in the film when we see the cameras capture very intimate moments (an almost-hookup, a breakup, etc.) as well as moments of  teenage cruelty (such as Megan and her friends planning and executing a vicious prank).  This of course raises the question of whether the kids altered their behavior for the cameras.  On the one hand, it seemed that they didn’t — that the cameras quickly became a ubiquitous part of their lives, and that they carried on behaving the way they ordinarily would.  As the New York Times observed (in the review by A. O. Scott), “Even when they are wearing microphones, few of them display much visible self-consciousness or discomfort.”  On the other hand, watching certain moments during the film, it is astoundingly hard to believe that the kids couldn’t have been aware and conscious of the cameras recording them!

American Teen is at its best when, as we watch the lives of these teens unfold, it allows us to get to know them in all of their unique, imperfect, teen-aged ways.  I was particularly taken with the funny, bracingly honest Hannah Bailey.  She’s a hoot (and the uncut interviews with her that make up one of the DVD’s meager extras are also a lot of fun).  But all of the kids are fascinating in their own way, and despite the marketing hook of labeling the five major kids The Princess, The Jock, etc., the film for the most part avoids shoe-horning them into easy Hollywood narratives.  And the leisurely pace of the film allows the viewers time to learn about them all, seeing their strengths and their flaws.

My biggest complaint about the film were  the times that the filmmakers attempted to bring the kids’ inner-lives and dreams to life with brief animated sequences (animated in a different style for each kid).  I found those to be way too on-the-nose and, frankly, annoying.  (Watching Jake’s video-game style avatar, complete with facial acne, rescue his fairy-tale princess was particularly agonizing.)  

I also sometimes felt that I could too-strongly see the editorial hand of Burstein and her team, shaping the stories of these kids into a more orderly narrative.  For example, we learn something poignant about Megan pretty late in the film.  It’s a powerful moment, and helps to shed light on her character and actions — but the placement of that revelation in the movie, which really could have come anywhere, seemed driven by where it would have the most emotional impact.  I understand that that is what a good filmmaker needs to do in order to shape a two hour film out of what must have been thousands of hours of footage.  Still, moments like that drew me out of the film somewhat.

American Teen has its flaws, just like the kids it follows.  But nevertheless it’s a fascinating, involving look at the lives of today’s teenagers.  I really grew to like all of the kids whose lives were chronicled in the film.  I wouldn’t mind a sequel, picking up their lives a few years down the road!  As I think now about the movie, I’m finding myself surprisingly concerned about their current situations — the way they all turned out, and the lives they’re finding for themselves after High School, and after the release of this film.  I hope they’re all doing well!!