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Nanette Burstein directs this documentary tracing a year in the life of five ordinary senior-year students at a small-town Indiana high school. Follow the Prom Queen, the Heartthrob, the Jock, the Rebel and the Geek as they navigate their way through the minefield of life as a teenager: the clique system, applying for college, the jubilation of getting together and the heartbreak of breaking up, and the bitter agonies of a wrongly-forwarded email or a missed jump-shot.
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American Teen [DVD]
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Cate
Format:DVD
An American Teen follows the lives of 5 different teens; Hannah "the rebel" whos attitude and personality doesn't conform to the small town of Warsaw; Jake "the nerd" who likes to play video games and just wants girls to accept him; Colin "the jock" who is under pressure to get a basketball scholarship so he can go to college; Megan "the princess" who does anything to get her own way and Mitch "the hearthrob" who breaks the stereotype and dates a girl from a different clique.
I'll start off by saying, i'm not sure if this is 100% "real" in the sense that i'm sure certain parts of the film were set up so the cameras could film them dealing with certain situations; but in no way did i ever watch this and feel like they were acting. I liked the fact that once you get to know the "characters" you see the person beneath the label; Megan for example reveals a personal tragedy she had experienced, and as viewers we witness a very vulnerable side to her. Hannah, who's mother suffers from depression reveals her worries and fears about sucumbing to the same illness. I am British and i found it very interesting to see what an American high school was like; and it was strange remembering how petty things were in high school and makes you feel nostalgic.
Although the movie was really enjoyable to watch, there were some elements that i thought could be improved; i personally didn't like the short scenes that were transformed into cartoon; i felt like it wasn't appropriate for a film thats a documentary and therefore lost some of its realism. I also think the film would have benefitted by delving into certain cast members stories more thoroughly, such as Mitch who is only really featured as Hannah's new love interest and Colins basketball buddy.... Read more ›
I'll start off by saying, i'm not sure if this is 100% "real" in the sense that i'm sure certain parts of the film were set up so the cameras could film them dealing with certain situations; but in no way did i ever watch this and feel like they were acting. I liked the fact that once you get to know the "characters" you see the person beneath the label; Megan for example reveals a personal tragedy she had experienced, and as viewers we witness a very vulnerable side to her. Hannah, who's mother suffers from depression reveals her worries and fears about sucumbing to the same illness. I am British and i found it very interesting to see what an American high school was like; and it was strange remembering how petty things were in high school and makes you feel nostalgic.
Although the movie was really enjoyable to watch, there were some elements that i thought could be improved; i personally didn't like the short scenes that were transformed into cartoon; i felt like it wasn't appropriate for a film thats a documentary and therefore lost some of its realism. I also think the film would have benefitted by delving into certain cast members stories more thoroughly, such as Mitch who is only really featured as Hannah's new love interest and Colins basketball buddy.... Read more ›
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I think (like the other reviewer) that it was a mock-o-mentary, but it was very well made. I didn't get caught up in all the 'is it or isn't it real stuff' and just enjoyed it for what it was. The main students we followed were slightly cliched, but believeable, and I thought the film was endearing, and a good reminder that as well as being the best years of your life, they are also difficult years.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Ernie
Format:DVD
Though billed as a documentary it's hard to know what exactly 'American Teen' is.
The film has far more in common with TV shows like MTV's 'Laguna Beach', 'The Hills' and 'The Real Orange County', which themselves are partially scripted and storylined pseudo documentaries, than conventional documentaries like 'American Movie', 'King Of Kong' or 'New York Doll'.
The five main students chronicled within the film are clichéd clones of characters plucked right out from an 80's John Hughes teen movie. The slickly filmed documentary footage appears to have been edited then re-edited in order to create artificial storylines which in turn cause a huge amount of continuity errors, in one scene the high school nerd 'Jacob' is seen having his hair cut by his girlfriend's mother who apologises for cutting it too short, in the next scene Jacob is dumped by his girlfriend but his hair is long again. In another scene a high school basketball game is played, but if you pay attention to the scoreboard the score is higher midway through than in the final minute of the match.
The subjects of the documentary also act and speak as if they are acting out pre-scripted scenes, no-one ever naturally glances at the camera or even acknowledges that they're being filmed, and subjects do ridiculously stupid things that no rational person would ever do on camera knowing that their actions were being filmed. An example of this is Megan, the bitchy queen bee of the school who circulates a topless photo of another female student who she dislikes to the entire school via email and then proceeds to make a series of offensive nuisance phone calls to the girl, which goes completely unpunished.... Read more ›
The film has far more in common with TV shows like MTV's 'Laguna Beach', 'The Hills' and 'The Real Orange County', which themselves are partially scripted and storylined pseudo documentaries, than conventional documentaries like 'American Movie', 'King Of Kong' or 'New York Doll'.
The five main students chronicled within the film are clichéd clones of characters plucked right out from an 80's John Hughes teen movie. The slickly filmed documentary footage appears to have been edited then re-edited in order to create artificial storylines which in turn cause a huge amount of continuity errors, in one scene the high school nerd 'Jacob' is seen having his hair cut by his girlfriend's mother who apologises for cutting it too short, in the next scene Jacob is dumped by his girlfriend but his hair is long again. In another scene a high school basketball game is played, but if you pay attention to the scoreboard the score is higher midway through than in the final minute of the match.
The subjects of the documentary also act and speak as if they are acting out pre-scripted scenes, no-one ever naturally glances at the camera or even acknowledges that they're being filmed, and subjects do ridiculously stupid things that no rational person would ever do on camera knowing that their actions were being filmed. An example of this is Megan, the bitchy queen bee of the school who circulates a topless photo of another female student who she dislikes to the entire school via email and then proceeds to make a series of offensive nuisance phone calls to the girl, which goes completely unpunished.... Read more ›
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Let's just get something straight. This is not a documentary, it's a badly faked fly on the wall docu soap. It has nothing original or interesting to say so do not buy it. Like I did. And now I feel silly. Sigh.
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