American Girl (2002)

Admirable film.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Rena, a teen ager living in a small community, is the by-product of parents that, having marrying young, don't have a clue as to how to bring up their children. Rena, not surprisingly, follows what other teens in the same situation have gone through. Her romance with a boy with Kenton, a rich boy produces a sad situation for Rena and her family.Rena tried unsuccessfully to take her own life, but nothing happens. The next thing this young woman wants to do is to go to her father's picnic that will take place in the prison where he is serving a sentence. Rena wants to tell him about the impending changes in her life. What happens in that fated outing will not only transform Rena's life, but also her brother Jay will comes to terms with a problem that is troubling him, his own homosexuality."American Girl" is a dark comedy directed by Jordan Brady. The screen play is by Scott Sandoe. Mr. Brady has given the film a light touch instead of going for a more dramatic take that wouldn't have helped the project.Jena Malone is a young actress who is a natural for the movies, as proved by her other appearances, notably in "Saved". She carries the movie and makes the viewer feel for her Rena, who in another type of environment and with another family, would have turned out differently. The brother Jay is played by Brad Renfro, another young actor who has been seen in other quirky films. Alicia Witt, who plays Barby, the sarcastic half-sister, doesn't have much to do. Michelle Forbes and Chris Mulkey portray the parents of this confused family. Clifton Collins Jr. has a good opportunity as Buddy, the man that clarifies things for the confused Jay.The film shows a reality that is seldom seen in other mainstream films in which teens are happy and carefree, which might be right, but they haven't have to deal with what life has given Rena and her family.

If you like black comedy you should enjoy "Confessions of an American Girl". Rena (Jena Malone) is the embodiment of that old cartoon where the guy is sitting on the ground with a noose around his neck and a broken rope in his hand; captioned "some people can't do anything right". Rena lives in a mobile home with her somewhat "strange" family, is suicide challenged, is pregnant by a guy who doesn't want to be seen in public with her, and blames it all on the unfair eight year absence of her loving father, who is in prison for murder. Her dim memories of her father are somewhat biased. The highway and its exit ramps are metaphors for her life and her desire to end her life.Alica Witt plays Rena's half-sister. Because Malone and Witt are arguably the most intelligent actresses in Hollywood, you immediately wonder about the wisdom of casting them as moronic trailer trash. But Malone has a special talent for playing this kind of "slack-jawed" character and Witt's standard sarcastic teen character works fine even in this environment. Their scenes together are the best ones in the film; with their reconciliation scene toward the end especially good. Brad Renfro does a good job as Rena brother, O-Lon Jones (remember the waitress in Seinfeld's "Bubble Boy" episode) is excellent in a small role and Clifton Collins Jr. is great as Buddy, the prison trustee, who quickly sizes up the situation and sets the forces of change in motion.While "American Girl" is an above average film, its main scene (the picnic at the prison which actually takes up the majority of the film) pushes it into cinema classic territory. This scene is an example of the way storytelling should be done, and the pacing is absolutely inspired. It is staged perfectly as Buddy orchestrates a sequence of revelations that changes all four visiting family members. Even if you hate the subject of this film it is worth watching just to see how wonderfully they manage this climatic scene. The disastrous visit over, the family leaves the prison with the statement "it went better than it could have".Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Really honestly...apologies to Scott Sandoe's second cousin...but wow! It just doesn't get much worse than this movie. It really felt like a movie written, directed and cast by people who really like good, beautiful independent films (much like the rest of Jena Malone's body of work) but just doesn't have one single little iota of talent. Not a shred, truly. The writing is so bad I really had to laugh. And I'm not a person who immediately objects to cliché. I have more than a little fondness in my soul for melodrama. Particularly when it's Jena Malone. I can forgive a movie a lot when Jena Malone is in it. Not because she's God's gift to acting or anything but she's very pleasant to watch...doesn't do very much different in each role she is in, but in general picks good movies and is pleasant. Saved is fantastic. United States of Leland was pretty good. Heck...Life as a House had some nice moments. But wow! This movie...so bad. It was like the screenwriter chose a different cliché or hackneyed bit of dialogue for each scene and then structured each scene around it. I started cheering every time we reached the cliché for the season. It couldn't decide what genre it was in...it had no idea how to make us feel or identify with characters...it was offensively cliché towards the class of people it was...caricaturing (I can't bring myself to describe it as illustrating) And the father character? The movie would have made a lot more sense titled Ernest Goes to Prison.Please please please don't watch this movie. I watched it all the way through for the same reason one watches a car wreck...but please please get something else. Anything else.Might make a good drinking game...but be sure to have several drinks in you before you start. And to Scott Sandoe's second cousin...yes the director's camera work was odd at a couple of points. And yes...good on him for managing to write a screenplay and managing to get it produced. But let's be honest...it was a bad screenplay. What was wrong with the film more than anything else (even worse than the casting of the father....which actually may have been inevitable given how the character was written...I'm not even sure I can blame that on the actor) was the (I hesitate to even use the word) writing.If you're looking for a reason to not try to become a screenwriter and instead go get your law degree like your Dad wants you to...watch this film. Otherwise...walk into a rental store blindfolded and grab something at random...but make sure, when you're checking it out, to ask the clerk to make absolutely dead certain that the movie you are renting is not Confessions of an American Girl.

I am extremely proud since Scott Sandoe is my second cousin. I'm really excited for him, and I hope all of you other movie goers watch and enjoy his movie. Even if the director was a psycho with the camera. I am going to see him this summer, and hopefully you guys will be seeing more of me in the next couple of years. If you don't, then i guess you will all have to live your every day lives thinking that some guy on IMDb could have been big, but i didn't believe in him. Guess What, I'll be in LA waiting for that dream to be caught and you won't be able to put me down. Well, I am going to work my butt off for my dreams, and Scott getting his movie out just showed me that my dreams can come true. Catch you later.