Though we don’t plan on making this a regular occurrence, we're taking a look at another documentary this week. This time around it's American Teen (PG-13). The film documents a group of high school seniors (the jock, the princess, the geek and the outsider) going through their senior year in Warsaw, Indiana. Nanette Burstein directs.
Ryan: There's no question that filming a documentary about real high school students going through their real senior year is open to criticism in just “how real is this.” Since this is a film, there's obvious manipulation with how the film is constructed and put together. It's also safe to assume that there was probably some prodding by the filmmakers to liven things up (maybe by forcing relationships). But with that said, American Teen is infinitely more authentic than what passes for reality teen TV viewed by million of viewers every week. The kids on this documentary are not here to entertain. They're here to share their stories.
Andy: Unfortunately, I think the reality TV reference is spot on; American Teen feels as much like a reality show as it does a documentary. Perhaps most glaring in its departure from traditional documentary style is the use of animated sequences to visually depict different students’ feelings. All documentaries are the filmmakers interpretation of actual events, but the animated sequences are getting dangerously close to not being documentary at all.
Ryan: I would definitely say that much of the reason to see this film is that its subject deals with a (relatively) small Indiana town. There's a lot of allure in that especially around here. On one hand I would have liked the movie to explore more Hoosier-based themes (other than high school basketball) but it's obvious that the movie is going for a more universal approach so I do understand the reasoning. It just would have been nice to see the Warsaw community (and even Indiana) more integrated into the students' lives.
Andy: It seems clear that the filmmakers made a decision to have each of the students they followed fit a certain mold (the jock, the princess, the geek, etc.), and they framed each of those students’ senior year accordingly. The result is a bunch of young adults who are made to look much more one dimensional than they can possibly be. Furthermore, the relationship they have with their parents seems to be defined by event for each student. Obviously to cover as many students as they attempted to cover some story lines had to be cut out, but the movie seems to oversimplify what is actually one of the most complex periods of a person’s life.
Ryan: There are several attempts to make American Teen more of a contemporary documentary. For example there are several animated scenes in the movie that express what a given character is thinking. There's certainty not anything wrong with that (in theory) except in this case the scenes in question come across as being really cheesy. Unfortunately those laughable scenes take away some of the weight from the film. Furthermore those scenes take up some of the running time and to be honest the film could have used a few more “real scenes” to make the documentary more clear. Nonetheless American Teen does a passable job showcasing modern teen angst. Final grade: B.
Andy: American Teen is interesting in that it raises the question, did the filmmakers attempt to make these teens lives seem like a television show, or do small town teens actually live lives that mimic the shows and movies they watch? Is art imitating life or is life imitating art? I certainly don’t know the answer to that question, but I do feel like American Teen missed a great opportunity to show real, humanized people experiencing the joys and agonies of growing up. Instead they seem to have made a postcard from high school that just touches on the nuances of what it actually means to be an American teen. Final grade: C-.
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