In an effort to make a year-long documentary about high school seniors, director Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes, The Kid Stays in the Picture) reviewed more than 100 different schools in the pre-production process, and ten schools replied, agreeing to participate. After she interviewed incoming seniors at all 10, she chose Warsaw. The film, American Teen, competed in the Documentary Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the Directing Award: Documentary and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.
Ms. Burstein asks her audience, were you a rebel, a jock, a queen bee, a heartthrob, or a geek in high school? Those are the perspectives from which Ms. Burstein takes a look at high school life. Herein lies one of the films flaws–if you don’t/ didn’t count yourself a part of any of those groups, your view is not represented. That is only the first of several issues I had with the film, and I’ll try to explain them first.
Five Indiana seniors Hannah Bailey, Colin Clemens, Megan Krizmanich, Mitch Reinholt, and Jake Tusing agreed to have their final year of high school documented. Burstein was undoubtedly trying to go beyond the stereotypes and find out what made these kids tick–their insecurities, heartbreaks, goals and dreams. While the goal was a noble one, many viewers are likely to come away from American Teen feeling unfulfilled. Though the film is touching at times, it really doesn’t dig very deeply into the tough parts of teenage life. Everything seems a little to effortless to ring true, with a sprinkling of nearly every type of teen angst imaginable put on display, as part of these five lives.
One thing that struck me immediately was the lack of diversity within the documentary subjects. All five subjects are white, middle class, fairly attractive and smart. I’m aware that many high schools have a mostly white student population. However, if Ms. Burstein was truly looking to follow a cross section of American teens, a more realistic portrait would have included students of other ethnicities, races, economic backgrounds and learning abilities.
The proportion of three boys to two girls also puzzled me. If Ms. Burstein wanted to make her film genuinely representative of teen life, then why not offer an equal number of boys to girls: Three and three or two and two? Unless in Indiana the boys really do outnumber the girls by a ratio of three to two.
Anyway, onto the film; here are the characters: First, there’s Hannah Bailey is the so called “rebel.” A loner, she is an artist and musician, who dreams of being a filmmaker. Her liberal views make her a bit of an outcast in the conservative Warsaw culture. She can’t wait to leave Indiana. Her big dream is to move to California after graduation and study film. She wants to live in San Francisco and go to San Francisco State. Hannah seemed the most real of the group. She lives with her grandmother because of serious family issues, and she misses several weeks of school dealing with heartbreak, after her longtime boyfriend cheats on her.
Second, there’s Colin Clemens, the jock. Colin is the school’s star basketball player, friendly, nice, everybody’s buddy. But he feels he’s under tremendous pressure always to win. He needs desperately to get a college scholarship because his dad, an Elvis impersonator (?), doesn’t have the money to pay for all of his expenses. Colin and his father envision a successful college basketball career for him, followed by eventual pro stardom with the Indiana Pacers.
Third, there’s Megan Krizmanich, the queen bee, the rich homecoming queen who’s in the top social group, the highest clique. She’s on the student council, the track team, the golf team, and the volleyball team. She’s the meanest of the kids, the snobbiest, and the most airheaded. Her goal is to get accepted into Notre Dame, just as her father and siblings have done before her. Though she is easy to dislike, the film does point out that her family life isn’t as perfect and pressure free as it initially appears to be.
Fourth, is Mitch Reinholt, the heartthrob and one of Colin’s best friends and teammates. He gets the least amount of screen time, not making an appearance until almost halfway through the picture. (He was even left off some of the posters for the film.) Still, when we meet him, he turns out to be rather charming, a much nicer guy than one might have expected, because of his classmates.
Last, there’s Jake Tusing, the geek, the “quintessential marching-band nerd.” It’s hard not to feel for this guy–he’s cute, shy and introverted. He has few friends, and mostly spends time in his room playing videogames. His main goal in life is to have and keep a girlfriend, despite a pretty nasty case of acne on his face.
After watching American Teen, I was left with the impression that the biggest problems these kids really had to face were romantic issues with some pressures about college acceptances mixed in. While shy Jake’s romance was the sweetest and Hannah’s problems were the most dramatic, I couldn’t help but feel that director Nanette Burstein may have left some of the best footage on the cutting room floor. American Teen has a tidy run time of 101 minutes, while Burstein admits to shooting over 1000 hours of footage. What is presented seems to polished and professional to feel like a real documentary. Somehow, it all just seems too perfect.
Despite my misgivings, by the time graduation day came, I found myself wishing all the kids the best. Flawed or not, American Teen does have some honestly touching moments that make it worth watching. Similar to Michael Apted’s Up series, it might be interesting to revisit these five people again in four years, to see where they find themselves after graduating from college. So, while American Teen is far from perfect, by the time it’s finished we do feel we’ve spent some quality time with the subjects, and we wish them all the best.
The film was made using digital video cameras, so the picture isn’t quite as realistically textured as it might be, nor is there the kind of depth we have come to expect from film stock. However, the colors are bright and deep, the definition is fairly sharp, and the screen is very clean.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is surprisingly strong, with good bass and an abundance of surround activity for ambient noises. The sound is too good for the situation.
The extras begin with “Pop Quiz: Cast Interviews,” wherein the major cast members answer questions about how they got chosen for the film, what they thought of the filmmaking, and what they think of each other. Next, there are six deleted scenes in widescreen, followed by “Hannah Blogs,” ten segments wherein Hannah chats about her likes and dislikes and her general opinions about life.
The extras conclude with a series of trailers at start-up for other Paramount products; five character trailers for American Teen, each widescreen trailer emphasizing a different one of the five main characters; fifteen scene selections; English and Spanish spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
In the U.S. Paramount have made American Teen a Target exclusive, available for rental everywhere but only available for purchase at Target stores. However, it will be for sale or rent at all major retailers in Canada.
