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Hannah Bailey, Colin Clemens, Mitch Reinholt, Megan Krizmanich, Jake Tusing ... see more see more... , Ali Wikalinska , Geoff Haase

In this biting cinéma vérité, director Nanette Burstein follows a group of five Indiana high-school seniors as they navigate the social mazes of adolescence, prepare for graduation, and generally deal... read more read more... with the often surprising and strange situations that arise simply from being 17. Incorporating intimate footage, interviews, and animation, Burstein reveals all the gritty details about life as a teenager in Midwestern America, from drugs, alcohol, and depression to cliques, first love, and heartbreak. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi

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PG-13, 1 hr. 40 min.

Directed by: Nanette Burstein

Release Date: January 19, 2008

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DVD Release Date: December 21, 2008

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Flixster Reviews (2,082)

  • paulsandberg
    October 15, 2011
    paulsandberg
    As I watched the documentary American Teen, my brain kept telling me that this was just another of those posed, fake, "reality" shows. How the heck did the camera get to be in the middle of all intimate moments? In particular there is a scene about 2/3 of the way through in whi... read morech the camera follows Megan (a snotty female dog who I was really hoping would fail in her quest to go to Notre Dame to please her daddy) as she vandalizes another students' home. As the Vice Principal tells her; since she deemed it necessary to spray paint the word "fag" on the window, her actions could be construed as sexual harassment and worthy of a class C felony. Ok, if you buy that, then the film-maker could certainly be tried as a co-conspirator, having knowledge of her intent and not only doing nothing to stop her, but filming the entire escapade in lovely living color.

    But aside from that feeling that much of the events, while "real" were certainly manipulated, and filmed in such a way as to heighten any drama and get the directors' point across, there are certain universal truths here that, while not shocking - having seen this act before in any number of teen films - still maintains a certain earnestness, especially when viewed through the lens of "this is real".

    So you have kids behaving like kids, and yet every so often amongst all the confusion, one of the 5 main characters says something profound - giving me hope that perhaps we aren't facing the end of civilization, just a re-adjustment into the land of texting and social networks.

    The director, in spite of being a bit heavy handed and overusing the same shot sequence (look closely at the basketball scenes), does show a bit of inventiveness in the use of animated dream sequences - only one of which is really compelling; that of Hannah, the artist and pariah whose dream sequence includes watching her face in a mirror become demonic, flipping back and forth until the faces blur together and then elongate into a Munchian Scream.

    There are scenes where I was confused over who was doing or saying what about whom, but again, my brain gave these a pass, concluding that the director was trying to edit a narrative of "real" events. Still, I couldn't help but wonder at some of the directorial choices. For example, Hannah misses a couple of weeks of school after suffering a near breakdown after getting dumped by her BF. She is told that if she doesn't get her ass back into class and fly the straight and narrow from here till the end of school, that she'll be expelled. So what does the director choose to do? Go for the art shot, showing her finally going back to class late, and sheepishly walking back into class. Later she is shown walking down an empty corridor. The only way that corridor could be empty is when class has already started - so Hannah is once again on the wrong side of the rules - meaning that the director risks her expulsion simply to shoot this shot inferring that she is a loner.

    I was also curious about the tag ending that had a quote from Hannah saying that San Francisco was too expensive for her, so she moved to.... Wait for it.... New York - from what I've read the cost of living is equally high in both places. Further, I wondered how this poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks managed to get a scholarship to a prestigious NY art school after being underground in SF for a year - perhaps the film paid her way? Just saying.

    In all, an interesting study that says more in subtle sub text than it does in its grand statements.
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    January 28, 2010
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "Remember high school? It's gotten worse."

    A documentary on seniors at a high school in a small Indiana town and their various cliques.

    REVIEW

    Documentarian filmmaker Nanette Burstein's explor... read moreation into the 21st Century American teenager is often on the mark but feels very manipulative in examining 4 atypical US high school seniors a la John Hughes' The Breakfast Club: The Geek, The Jock, The Basket Case, The Princess and The Rebel as a template that has a few surprises in store for those who anticipate the expected usual trials and tribulations of youth: high expectations, stress to excel in curriculum and extracurricular activities to get into a decent college, social awkwardness, growing into one's own persona, and finally accepting the things the way they are, damn the expectations.
  • romy861
    July 20, 2009
    romy861
    I really enjoyed this. I tend to like things that follow "real" people, although I do have to question how set up this one was. Anyhow, it was very entertaining and I even sat and watched all the extra features, which I almost never bother to do on a rental.
  • kiriyamakazou
    May 5, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    According to this documentary, high school soap operas and teen movies have had it right from the start. This isn't a gritty expose of some secret way of life. It's just American high school as we've all come to expect it. Cool alternative girl, geek, jock and the princess are ou... read morer main characters. They're just self-conscious teens worrying about which colleges they'll get into and if they'll have a date for prom. It's all very samey, but also entertaining. The film also has a cruel sense of humour directed towards lovable loser, Jake. He's represented in fantasy gaming sequences, where the animators have kindly decided to give him acne. He also has some choice chat-up lines concerning "failing at life". American Teen also tries a bit hard to mess with us with it's manipulative techniques. It's only after representing her as a bitch, that we hear about Megan's sister that committed suicide. Yet we hear about Hannah's mother suffering from manic depression, straight from the off. Nice and simple entertainment, but a strange and unexciting topic for a documentary.
  • superclerk25
    April 22, 2009
    superclerk25
    We get a pretty good look at who these people really are and for some I hope it was a wake up call.
    We get the classic types here... jock, princess, outcast, and artsy. Each one has a story that shows they all have hardships and struggles while just trying to get through high sc... read morehool but you can tell some wouldn't care if they knew about them.
    You know who the villain of the story is and it's almost a bummer when she gets what she wants despite her being so hateful and mean.
    It's a good doc but it comes off a little too edited and fast sometimes. It looks at the senior year but we miss much of the story as that year flies by.
    It is entertaining though. I recommend this for those people who maybe aren't that into the more usual documentary films out there.
  • mrbungle7821
    February 7, 2009
    mrbungle7821
    [font=Arial][color=DarkRed]Filmmaker Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes) wanted to document the lives of actual American teenagers. After a national search, she settled on the town of Warsaw, Indiana, which we're told in the opening narration is "mostly white, mostly Christian, and r... read moreed state all the way." [i]American Teen[/i] is the feature-length documentary that chronicles the lives of four Warsaw teens during their senior year. The class of 2006 includes Colin, a basketball star worried about securing a scholarship. His father, an Elvis impersonator, supports his son but reminds the kid that dad has no money for school, so it's either a scholarship or the Army. This, naturally, places tremendous pressure on a 17-year-old and his play diminishes as he tries to up his stats. There's Megan, the queen bee at the school who feels pressured by her family to get into Notre Dame. This makes her act like a cretin, apparently. Jake is a kid who feels uncomfortable in his own acne-scarred skin. He plays video games a lot and desperately wants to find a girlfriend. Then there's Hannah, the artsy girl prone to spontaneous dancing who feels trapped by her town.

    I found [i]American Teen[/i] to be largely unbelievable for two major reasons. First, teenagers today are way too media savvy after having grown up on a bevy of reality TV programming, the ultimate genre of manipulation. Remember way back in 1991 when MTV first started [i]The Real World[/i], the pioneering reality TV show? The people selected to live together as a social experiment were interesting, unguarded, a nice cross-section of the country; you felt like you could run into these people on the street some time. Then about half way into its run, the likely turning point being the Las Vegas season, [i]The Real World[/i] participants became self-aware. They knew to exaggerate behavior for manufactured drama, to play up romantic crushes, and to work from the realm of playing a well-defined cliché character; no longer did these people feel real, instead they felt like drunken auditions for a really lousy soap opera. And all of the people started looking inordinately beautiful, chiseled hunks and leggy, waif-thin models. When was the last time they ever had an overweight person on that show? Anyway, the point of this anecdote is that thanks to the machinations of reality TV, teenagers today have grown up with the concept of cameras and they know how to manipulate reality. One could argue that you will never capture the true essence of a person by pointing a camera at them, because the instant a camera is placed to document reality it changes reality; people talk differently, either more reserved or confessional. A camera changes reality, but this discussion point is a little beyond the realm of [i]American Teen[/i]. So I doubt the legitimacy of watching the "real lives" of "real students," especially when these kids come from a more affluent area and probably digest other MTV semi-reality dramas like the unquestionably fake [i]The Hills[/i].

    So how would you behave if you knew a film crew was making a documentary in your school? I fully believe that many of the actions caught on camera are done so because the students wanted to ensure that they would be in a movie. I cannot blame them. I mean, if I was close to being involved in a film I would probably check every possibility to ensure my lovely presence eventually fills up the big screen. What do you want from kids who have grown up as a generation of self-reflective narcissists thanks to reality TV and uninvolved parents (sorry, soapbox moment)? This is why the nature of documenting reality in a high school setting is questionable. Burstein's cameras follow Jake around and he's able to walk up to girls and ask them out, point blank. Would he normally be so bold? I don't know. What I know for certainty is that there would be fewer girls interested in the acne-scarred self-proclaimed geek if he didn't have the adjoining camera crew. I'm sure girls looked at Jake and thought, "Here's my ticket to being in a movie." I'm not trying to be mean here because Jake is a rather nice, typically uncomfortable and socially awkward teenager who will find his niche once he leaves the confines of high school. I've known several Jakes in my life. But I don't believe that a socially awkward kid like this naturally dates three different girls, all of them pretty, without the promised presence of cameras.

    Also, there's this popular guy Mitch completely thrown in at the middle of the film. All of a sudden he sees Hannah onstage rocking out at a school battle of the bands function, and the movie slows down, Hannah literally starts glowing, and Mitch says, "Wow, I have a crush on Hannah Bailey." Allow me to doubt the sincerity of this sudden cross-clique crush. We never witness the beginning of this relationship, each side feeling the other out, the nervousness and delightful possibilities. We just get a voice over of Mitch saying he likes her and then the film cuts to like weeks into their supposed relationship when they're goofing off at a gas station. When Hannah is invited to a party with Mitch's friends, naturally she's going to feel a bit out of place amongst the cool, popular crowd. He hangs out with his friends instead of his girlfriend. He makes sure to say hey to everyone else even while Hannah is sitting next to him. The next day Mitch breaks up with Hannah via the modern marvel of text messaging (ouch). You never see Mitch again until the end credits reveal that he feels he has matured. Essentially, Mitch is only seen and introduced to the movie because of his attachment to Hannah. Clearly, Mitch knew that if he buddied up next to the pixie girl he would ensure some place in the movie's running time. It worked, because Mitch is featured in the trailer, the poster, and even tagged along on the national press tour. To paraphrase the title of Burstein's superior documentary, the kid found a way to stay in the picture.

    My second point of contention is that Burstein has taken a chainsaw to 1200+ hours of footage to make her documentary about high school stereotypes, not people. Burstein has selected five figures to spotlight and she has whittled them down to one-word stereotypes: jock (Colin), geek (Jake), princess (Megan), rebel (Hannah), and heartthrob (Mitch). She isn't destroying these lazy classifications but reinforcing them willfully. The marketing campaign around [i]American Teen[/i] recreated the poster from[i] The Breakfast Club[/i]. I swear, I think that art imitated life and now high schoolers are just imitating what they have seen propagated time and again as stone-cold reality in their schools: the rigid social caste system. There are so many missed opportunities by painting in such broad strokes. Colin is a jock because he plays on the basketball squad, but why can't he also be a geek? Why can't a rebel be a princess? I feel tacky talking in such degrading, baby-fied terms. Burstein doesn't help her case by giving the main figures their own animated fantasy segments. Hannah is obviously the star of the film, and Burstein has seen to it that she narrates the tale as well. I suspect some canniness on Burstein's part. Either the filmmaker felt that Hannah would most reflect the spirits of the crowds that attend indie documentaries, thus ensuring a bigger gross, or Burstein say much of herself in Hannah and naturally wanted to make the "different girl" the star, possibly working through some of her own high school demons.

    There's also the issue of how staged some of this comes across. Am I to believe that Burstein's camera crew managed to capture those perfect moments where the students stare out into space, thoughtfully? Am I to believe that the camera crew managed to capture everyone's dirty little text messages then and there in the moment? Am I to believe that scenes of Hannah walking down the hallway weren't planned? I'm forgiving when it comes to re-enactments but when a movie feels overburdened with re-enactments or posed figures, then it feels too manufactured. Just like [i]The Hills[/i].

    Perhaps I'm coming down too hard on [i]American Teen[/i]. After all, most documentaries distort some facet of reality and generally are edited to present a series of points. But the reason[i] American Teen[/i] doesn't work is because it offers zero insights into the American high school setting and little to no insights with its "characters." Hannah is a cute girl with an independent streak but I fail to get a sense of her as a person. She gets dumped twice over the course of [i]American Teen[/i], suffers from crippling anxiety to the point that she misses almost a month of class, and she longs to leave the reach of her conservative town for the holy destination of California, so why then does the film not present her as a person instead of a classification? I also get the feeling that we don't see any of would-be filmmaker Hannah's own work because Burstein may be shielding her subject from the harsh realities or critical response.

    Obviously Megan is the villain of the piece and Burstein takes advantage of the girl's self-absorbed sense of entitlement. Megan could be an interesting subject as far as casual cruelty. Megan vandalizes a student council member's home because the guy had the gall to devise a different prom theme. We watch Megan literally spray paint a penis on a window followed by the word "FAG," then she whines that everyone is being mean to her even when the punishment she gets for a borderline hate crime is a slap on the wrists. Megan's friend Erica makes the unfortunate decision to send a topless picture of herself in an e-mail to the guy she likes, who happens to be Megan's friend and object of territory. So Megan briskly sends the picture to scads and scads of students with e-mail subject lines like "silver dollars" and "pepperonis." Megan then leaves mean-spirited voice mail messages saying that Erica is destined "to live the rest of her life as a slut." [i]This is her friend![/i] Burstein has the good sense of mind to interview a teary-eyed Erica after the topless photo fallout, and it probably is the emotional highpoint of the film because it's so honest and wounded. Why not follow Erica after this? Surely her story, recovering from humiliation, is more intriguing then watching Megan scoot along her privileged life or whether or not Colin can be a better teammate. Speaking of the tall kid with the Jay Leno-sized chin, why does his dad insist that Colin needs a basketball scholarship or else "it's the Army"? Has he not heard of student loans? Does Colin's father believe sending his son into a war zone is preferable to amassing debt?
    [i]
    American Teen[/i] is a pseudo-documentary that has little intention to dig deeper under the surface of the realities of high school life. If your high school experience exactly mirrors this film, then perhaps you watched too many movies. Or the filmmakers did and tried to feed into the film idea of what goes on in a high school. Or both.

    Nate's Grade: C[/color][/font]
  • jennifxu
    January 15, 2009
    jennifxu
    Hannah Bailey is my hero. How can one person be so likeable and not be fictional? Although this movie has a tendency to villainize/sympathize with certain people, I've never seen a movie so akin to the true high school experience. Probably because it is a documentary, but still i... read moret's rare that a film can encapsulate the banal dramas of all social "statuses" of high school, so seemingly unimportant but as riveting as a soap opera. And always lurking underneath is the hungry desire to go to college. This is high school as I know it and as it always will be.
  • MovieGeek13
    August 18, 2008
    MovieGeek13
    I don't care how staged and scripted this doc is, how many dumb critics/audience members think it's all a big cliche, or how reminiscent the stories are to episodes of Laguna Beach or The Hills, this is a 100% accurate description of high school life. It covers people from every... read more clique - their personal and public lives - and makes you root pretty much for every one of them. Not to mention, it's really funny. You will meet these kids in every high school in North America.
  • gator681
    October 6, 2009
    gator681
    It is not the underage drinking or the borderline illegal activity that disturbs me so much in the partly satisfying documentary "American Teen."(I could tell you stories about high school class trips to Quebec that would curdle your blood...) Rather, it is the high school stude... read morents' self-inflicted lack of privacy. The one difference between now and 20 years ago is the technology, breaking down all barriers in the form of mobile phones, text messaging and other toys. It used to be just unreliable gossip but now there is instant proof to be forwarded around at will. Take the very sad example of the high school student in the documentary who sends a picture of herself topless to a guy she likes who then forwards it to somebody he knows and before you know it, it is all over school, the subject of massive ridicule.(Pepperoni nipples?) That has to be worse than having a father who is an Elvis impersonator, right?

    None of that compares to the privacy given up by the four students profiled in the senior class at Warsaw Community High School in Indiana in an attempt by the filmmakers to film a representative cross section of the student body. They are captured in their most emotionally vulnerable moments as they try to find their places in the world.(Whatever happened to locked diaries?) The central question is whether that will be in the same small town where they grew up or elsewhere. And even though the intent is to show high school through the eyes of the students, I would have liked a little more overview from the high school staff, which would give a better idea as to whether this high school is more vocational in nature or college prep. At a guess, I would have to say the former.
  • fb720603734
    August 14, 2008
    fb720603734
    Really engrossing despite it's many deficiencies....staged scenes, convenient editing which clearly took many liberties with the truth, written voiceover, and some problems with storytelling at times.....but despite this, it was captivating.

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Critic Reviews

Ruth Hessey
November 21, 2008
Ruth Hessey, MovieTime, ABC Radio National

My only gripe is that the relentless pressure to be a winner in American culture is exhausting to watch. Full Review

Roger Moore
August 8, 2008
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

The whirl of hormones, high hopes and hysterical drama that is high school earns its close-up in American Teen, a smart and revealing look at the Class of 2006 in Warsaw, Indiana. Full Review

Amy Biancolli
August 8, 2008
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

They all have their stories tell, some more complicated than others. Full Review

Bruce Demara
August 1, 2008
Bruce Demara, Toronto Star

A moving and engrossing slice-of-life documentary about teen life in small-town Warsaw, Ind. Full Review

Mick LaSalle
August 1, 2008
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

American Teen shows how a documentary can be as moving and suspenseful as the best narrative feature. Full Review

Mario Tarradell
August 1, 2008
Mario Tarradell, Dallas Morning News

American Teen is The Breakfast Club in real time. Full Review

J. R. Jones
August 1, 2008
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

This being senior year, Burstein can't help but capture some genuine drama, but there's a stage-managed quality to the movie that reminded me of MTV reality shows. Full Review

Ty Burr
August 1, 2008
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Consciously or not, the movie's about the way we structure our lives as drama if we want them to have any meaning at all. Full Review

Rick Groen
August 1, 2008
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

The doc seems a bit imitative itself, aping the slick manners of its poor cousin on the small screen -- reality TV. Full Review

Roger Ebert
August 1, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

American Teen isn't as penetrating or obviously realistic as her On the Ropes, but Burstein (who won best director at Sundance 2008) has achieved an engrossing film. Full Review

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  • "She´s a maniac, maniac on the floor And she´s dancing like she´s never danced before" This classic song by Michael Sembello was featured in what teen movie? You Chose: Flashdance (Incorrect - 0 pts) Correct Answer: American Wedding (2003) **Should we be a little more specific?*  Answer »
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