Film Review: American Teen

Title: American Teen

Director: Nanette Burstein

Producer: Jordan Roberts, Nanette Burstein, Eli Gonda, Chris Huddleson

Screenwriter: Nanette Burstein

Cinema: Laela Kilbourne

Editor: Mary Manhardt

Music: Michael Penn

Year: 2007 (95 minutes)

Synopsis: American Teen is the touching and hilarious Sundance hit that follows the lives of four teenagers – a jock, the popular girl, the artsy girl, and the geek – in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. We see the insecurities, the cliques, the jealousies, the first loves and heartbreaks, and the struggle to make profound decisions about the future. Filming daily for ten months, filmmaker Nanette Burstein developed a deep understanding of her subjects. The result is a film that goes beyond enduring stereotypes of high school to render complex young people trying to find their way into adulthood. Hannah Bailey is smart and beautiful, but a misfit. Colin Clemes is the star of the high school basketball team – and in Indiana, basketball is everything. Jake Tusing is considered to be a nerd. Though quite funny and charming one-on-one, he is painfully shy in group situations and crushed with self-doubt. Megan Krizmanich is the student council vice-president. Wealthy, pretty, smart and popular, she rules her school – just don’t get on her bad side. With extraordinary intimacy and a great deal of humor, American Teen captures the pressures of growing up – pressures that come from one’s peers, one’s parents, and not least, oneself.

Review: I really wasn’t looking forward to seeing this movie. The idea of seeing a film that chronicles the lives of a bunch of high school seniors in some small town in Indiana just didn’t appeal to me. And yet, within a few minutes of the start of the film, I started to care about these kids. I wanted things to work out for them and for them to be happy. Of course, that would have made for kind of a boring movie.

Director Nannette Burstein did what a filmmaker has to do to be successful; she made me care. She also reminded me how tough growing up can be at times. From my perch as a forty-something, I look back on my teenage years as some of the most fun years of my life. I tend to forget about the pressures that come along with being in high school. The film does a good job of documenting the pressures and helped to remind me how seemingly unimportant things to adults can be huge to teenagers.

American Teen captures the lives of four teenagers as they navigate the highs and lows of their senior year of high school. Initially, I didn’t want to see it, but I’m glad I did.

3.0 out of five