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American Teen

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American Teen (2008)

July. 25,2008
|
6.4
|
PG-13
| Documentary
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A documentary on seniors at a high school in a small Indiana town and their various cliques.

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Reviews

Odelecol
2008/07/25

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

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ThedevilChoose
2008/07/26

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

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Invaderbank
2008/07/27

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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Billy Ollie
2008/07/28

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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medina-claudia57
2008/07/29

In my life i have seen many movies about teenagers from Sixteen Candles to High School Musical, and in all the movies i have seen, none have compared to American Teen. American Tenn is the most phenomenal film of the decade. This film truly does define an American Teen. Most films exaggerate or over expose the "Typical Teen" but this film shows a high school life from every angle in a beautifully crafted way. This film changed my life and opened my eyes to another world. The main protagonists are so full of personality and very unique. This film shows you morals and makes you think back to when you made their mistakes, achieved their successes and fell in love like they did. The film is so perfectly edited they filmed every scene as it should have been and glued all the scenes so that it's just a continuous stream of beauty. This film made me cry, laugh, and scared. mainly scared because it made me think about my senior year and if it would end up being that catastrophic, but in the end it gave me hope. I would watch this film when i'm happy, when i'm down, in health and in sickness. The If there is one movie to see it is American Teen.

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derek-ipod
2008/07/30

I enjoyed it at first but then started thinking about how the odds of this movie being authentic are pretty much 0. Yet another "documentary" director pushing the genre envelope. Countless shots where you think, "well, how convenient was that...what are the odds of her camera being there".Why not just call it a movie with untrained kids doing the acting based on their experiences. A fantastic movie called Kids (1999) was done in a similar style sans lies & deception. Does she not think her movie can be enjoyed as fiction? This manipulation frustrates me. I was recently at a documentary festival where the director fessed up to staging a few of the funnier scenes...someone in the audience followed up this revelation with a "why did you do that?". he just shrugged. i feel that sort of lack of credibility & concern from the director when watching this film.watch Kids and see how a film "shot in documentary style" should be made. or 7-up/Hoop Dreams if you want reality. don't settle for this middling attempt.

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meeza
2008/07/31

OK, I am going to get into pubercissm (true, will not find that term in dictionary) here with my take on the adolescent doc "American Teen". The central teen figures here are: Hannah Bailey (free spirit), Colin Clemens (b-ball jock), Megan Krizmanich (narcissistic beauty), Jake Tusing (geek), and Mitch Reinholt (hunk). We might have been one of these personifications in our teen spirit nirvana existence, or maybe a combo of these, or maybe none. But undoubtedly there is an authentic relative component of "American Teen" that makes it worthy to explore for anyone who has experienced high school teen life. Director Nanette Burstein follows these teenagers around during their senior year as they go through their trials & tribulation norms of: insecurity, pressure, loneliness, acceptance, bullying, popularity and mucho mas. Burstein does a formidable job in letting the teens be genuine with their elevator emotions; and it does not seem it was staged as "The Brunch Club", a silly sequel to "The Breakfast Club". I was in "The Pun Club". OK, enough! Back to the doc! The teens reside in a small town in Indiana because they were born in a small town, and they live in a small town, they will probably die in a small town just like me. Oops! Got too excited there with Cougar fever! The teen that struck me the most was the charismatic Hannah, the high school bohemian who yearns to be loved and also extract herself from small town life after graduation by moving to Los Angeles to be a filmmaker. Smell a "Hannah and Her Sisters" sequel here? "American Teen" is not a perfect documentary with its few flaws on emphasizing too many obvious forms of teenage angst; but I do recommend for every parent of a teenager to take the time to catch a viewing of this documentary with their adolescent offspring so they do not forget what they have to go through on a daily basis in tough high school life. **** Good

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TxMike
2008/08/01

You have to see the DVD extras to get a glimpse of how this movie, part drama and part documentary, was made. A number of schools were scouted, and when this Indiana high school was chosen, a number of students were interviewed for the featured roles. Once chosen the students and their families and friends were filmed throughout the school year in typical situations. Footage of basketball games or marching band practice are clearly authentic, but some of the teen "scenes" seemed at least partly contrived, or perhaps "recreated". Nevertheless the sum of the whole makes very interesting viewing.Hannah Bailey is a pretty, smart, unconventional girl. She is not part of the "in crowd" and lives with her grandmother because her mother is manic/depressive and her father works in another state. Hannah doesn't have a positive self-concept even though she is prettier and smarter than most of the high school girls. She wants to escape Indiana and the boring life she sees living there offers. Instead she wants to go to film school in California. She wants to make films that she will will remembered for long after she dies.Colin Clemens is the son of a former star athlete, and he himself is now the star of the high school basketball team. His dad tells him they can't afford to send him to college without his getting a basketball scholarship. He has dreams of a college career with a "Final Four" appearance, and a pro contract with the Pacers.Megan Krizmanich is a pretty, smart, and popular girl at school, and in a family with a long history of attending Notre Dame. Part of her drama is to see if she can get in, even though she gets into some trouble at school.Jake Tusing is your typical geek, slightly shorter than most guys, with somewhat of a monotone delivery and acne. He plays in the band, longs for a girlfriend but has trouble finding a match. But he tries.At the end of the movie embedded in the credits are short descriptions of what happened after high school to each of the five. Hannah was moving to San Francisco at the end of the movie, hoping to work for a year, establish state residency, then attend film school. But after 8 months she gave that up and moved to New York for film school.Colin received a scholarship to a smaller Indiana school and is doing well there, academically and athletically.Megan by her own admission grew up a LOT after high school and is at Notre Dame studying medicine.Jake is at his second college, still trying to find where he fits in.

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