Movie Review & Interview:

American Teen

by Lynn Barker

The new documentary American Teen plays more like an involving TV reality show. You will immediately identify with or be involved and invested in the lives of one or more of these diverse teens just trying to survive Senior year!

American Teen focuses upon several small town Indiana high school Seniors; a rich, popular girl, two jocks, the artsy girl and the gamer/band geek. The piece is narrated by pretty, smart, artsy film buff Hannah Bailey who is a liberal misfit in the conservative town. She can’t wait to graduate and head to L.A. for film school and freedom but she is crippled by the meltdown of her romance. Colin Clemens is the basketball team star who suffers unrelenting pressure from his Elvis-impersonator dad to get a scholarship and play on a top team (see, this movie has bizarre reality show written all over it!).

You’ve got cute but acne-plagued Jake Tusing, the band geek who is quite charming and funny but full of self-doubt and on a quest for a reliable girlfriend. Megan Krizmanich is the golden girl, mean girl, prom queen, student council V. P. and daughter of a rich surgeon. Don’t get on her bad side! She rules her school but has her own personal demons. Mitch Reinholdt is a gorgeous hottie Varsity basketball jock who is really a nice guy but bows to peer pressure when his buds think Hannah just isn’t good enough for him to date. Creative animated dream sequences by different filmmakers accompany the teens’ various daydreams or nightmares.

I highly recommend this film. It’s very “real” and full of the angst of high school society. You’ll enjoy the fun animated sequences and identify with the peer pressure, parental pressure, clique cruelty, heartbreaks and certainly the mass desire for change and a bright future. The film was shot daily for ten months, allowing filmmaker Nanette Burstein to get to know her subjects and make them comfortable while surrounded by intrusive cameras. You can see that these teens aren’t just stereotypes but individuals with complex personal desires and problems. They are you, your friends and perhaps, by checking them out, you can get a clue to solving your own problems and get some suggestions for mapping out your future.

After the film was screened, AGW was able to chat with most of the actual teens in the film; Megan, now at Notre Dame in pre-med, Colin, at college on a basketball scholarship, Mitch and Jake, also in college. Hannah was tending to a family problem but we learned that she did come to California but found that she was more comfortable in New York where she is in film school and has a boyfriend. The teens have been in Hollywood for about a month doing press for their film and are enjoying the Tinseltown celeb thing. Colin loves meeting some of his favorite sports celebs, Jake has flown out Molly, his 2nd girlfriend in the film, who was present. Mitch’s dad was in our audience having flown to L.A. for a business trip.

The Indiana school and students were chosen for the film when documentarian Nanette went on a ten-city tour looking for a Midwest town with one high school. Open casting calls right before Senior year pared the candidate schools down to five then zeroed in on the town and the final participants.

The cast members admitted that during filming, at first, the cameras were hard to accept but, gradually, the student cast went on with their lives, forgetting the cameras were around and behaving normally. Although the cast, crew and parents have seen the movie, the group is looking forward to their friends and old classmates’ opinions of their Senior year up on the big screen.

When asked what the teens hoped audiences would take away from the film and what they learned from their experience, Colin stressed that he hopes parents will see their kids’ struggles and hold back on the pressure, express love and encourage their teens to pursue their dreams. Megan admits that she learned how unaware she was of the consequences of her actions for herself and others. She simply didn’t consider it and feels she’s grown up a lot. Mitch told us that he’s learned to never text-message break up with anyone again! He let what others thought effect him much more than it should. He was too much of a people pleaser back then. Jake, who has made friends with the popular kids who used to snub him, says the experience helped him open up. He’s loving audience reactions to the film so far; how they empathize and sympathize with his high school self.

We asked what the cast regretted after watching the film the first time. Megan shared that she has no regrets because she has learned from her mistakes and hopes others can be helped by watching her make them. Jake regrets that he just dumped date Molly at the prom and didn’t dance with her. Colin just wishes his dad wouldn’t have worn his Elvis costume in the film and that now, his friends at college call him “Hollywood”. Mitch regrets that text-message break up incident and the scene in which he’s wearing a silly dragon suit. All things considered, the cast would do it all over again and are ready for an update film in several years.

 

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This movie is rated PG-13

Official Movie Web Site - American Teen

Pictures courtesy of and copyright Paramount Vantage, 2008