We caught the New York premiere of “American Teen” in June on the opening night of The Sundance Institute At BAM. Since the film opens up in limited release, we wanted to give our review a little bit more play, plus weigh in on some stuff that’s transpired since then.
As you’ll read in a moment, we had problems with the slickness of ‘Teen’s narrative, it almost felt staged in that MTV Real World kind of way and we’re not the only ones that felt that way. The L.A. Times blog just ran a story today about some of the drama surrounding the film and some of the more discerning critics that have leveled vague charges against the film that it felt “scripted.” Some have questioned the film’s motives and authenticity, but director Nanette Burstein’s – who has enjoyed nothing but very positive press about the film so far – is pretty upset over these suggestions. “I was really surprised actually and have been upset by [the level of pushback]. There’s accusations that it’s staged and scripted and that I went after the stereotypes, and it’s just not true.”
You’ll have to decide when you see it. On to our review:
The film festival circuit is a curious entity – an amorphous collective whose breathless excitement over films sometimes becomes a reckless game of chicken to see who can gush more effusively.
And at the Sundance Film Festival where the altitudes seemingly delivers even less oxygen to the brain than your average ciné celebration, attendees tend to overheat and get sloppily drunk with praise.
Or maybe its the genuine excitement of discovery, but either way to navigate the hysteria one has to yield to a healthy dose of skepticism.
Such seems to be the case with the fan favorite documentary “American Teen” which has been lavished with loopy panegyrics ever since it screened at Sundance. Directed by Nanette Burstein (co-director of “The Kid Stays In The Picture”), the doc follows the lives of four (or five depending on which ’80s film/poster you’re trying to riff on) teens in the very-average and very-emblematic of middle America, Warsaw, Indiana.
Appropriately, and for you easy digestibility, their familiar archetypes are spelled out for you in case you could have possibly missed them – there’s the jock, the princess, the rebel, the nerd and the hunk.
The doc announces this only skin-deep approach from the get-go, and from there we get an hour of fairly enjoyable set up and arguably engaging back story, but at the expense of anything revelatory or anything we haven’t already seen on TV a few hundred times. It’s a predictable story arc that wouldn’t be out of place on the early (slightly more engaging) days of MTV’s the ‘Real World’ or Reality TV that’s not completely lowest common denominator (is that possible?) It is certainly a cut above the sensationalism of most reality tele, but it’s not PBS or Nova either.
The simple and guileless documentary more often than not is too on the nose. Burstein, who did a fine job with the animation in ‘Picture’ seems to be unsure of herself here as the infrequent animation as emotional-tell-all sequences seem unnecessary, random and haphazard in their scattered implementation.
The documentary is certainly endearing and winsome at times, but it also seems unwilling or disinterested in drilling too deep; case in point, the rebel’s (the endearing Hannah Bailey – easily the breakout “star” of the film, and perhaps her role as the outcast was the most rich story) longtime boyfriend breaks up with her midway through the after they finally sleep together, but the reasons why are never examined or explored; it’s off to the next character to see what they’re up to. It’s certainly still enjoyable, but pronouncedly slight; either there’s not enough time or too many characters, but we never feel like watching anything outside a few broad and paradigmatic teen experience (and we’re all unique snowflakes, no?).
Yet, somewhere around the last 20-30 minutes or so, the doc does turn a corner in its race towards the finish line of these kids’ graduation and whether the dreams they’ve pinned their hopes on will pan out. It’s a winning, charming and inspiring last act that transcends any sentimental feel-good-ery one could arguably excuse it of (which there’s lots of), and which explains the reason why it was such a “fan favorite” in Utah.
Ultimately the film is more “crowd-pleasing” than it is a work of art or remotely insightful, but that’s what festival audience awards were invented, no? (i.e, not the best necessarily, just the most popular/enjoyable*). Don’t get us wrong, ‘American Teen’ definitely rallies to win you over and make you smile, and its a fine, pleasurable little doc, just not an entirely unproblematic one. [B]
“American Teen” hits theaters in limited release on July 25. The soundtrack that features the Ting Tings, Black Kids, The Unicorns, MGMT and more is scheduled for a July 15 release via Almost Gold/Columbia. *To be clear, it’s “The Wackness” that won the audience award at Sundance ’08, but ‘Teen’ was certainly a populist film that won the documentary directing award.
A slightly smaller blow to the film that perhaps further reveals the teens’ vapidity, Jeffrey Wells recently sat down with the ‘American Teen’ cast and gently asked them about their interest in the upcoming Presidential election. All of their answers were pretty sad and amounted to ignorance is bliss and zero interest blank stares. Wells writes, “They’re nice guys with good hearts and nice smiles, but this attitude and posture doesn’t cut it.” To us it’s just sad and unfortunate, but perhaps pretty indicative of your average teenagers indifference.
