American dream

"For those who felt that the 40 minutes of MTV's True Life were just not enough, your film has arrived," reads one of the capsule reviews of the new documentary American Teen at Rotten Tomatoes. Though it's supposed to be an insult (to which I say, that's supposed to be an insult?!?), it really is the perfect way to sum up this film. To quote another review of another teen movie (Roger Ebert's of Ghost World): I wanted to hug this movie.

Pepperoni nipples, fat-Elvis impersonators, hobbies reading about rapists and tons of spoilers for my favorite film of the year so far are after the jump.

Jake Tusing can pinpoint the moment in which he became a social outcast. It happened in middle school during lunch one day, when a bowl of chili ended up in his lap. He had to ask to change his pants in front of his peers, who became collectively hysterical about Jake's "period." That's when the tide turned for him, when he became, per American Teen's Breakfast Club-esque, archetype-adherent marketing, "the geek." That at 18 he should remember this incident is unsurprising; that at 18 he has such insight to delegate this moment as the one that changed his life forever is uncanny. It would seem that within this narrative, he isn't just a character, he's also a writer. Which, comes to think of it, makes him a perfect subject for a documentary.

Despite the realistic goals of its director (Nanette Burstein aimed to share the senior-year experiences of a handful of teens attending high school in Warsawb Indiana), American Teen has been criticized for being unrealistic. New York magazine's resident killjoy David Edelstein writes, "the way it has been put together reminds me of those animal shows where the crew nudges the gazelles in the direction of the lions with multiple cameras standing by." Don't let the overarching skepticism detract from Edelstein's word choice: the idea that this film throws its subjects to the lions is not to be missed. Sigh. We're all aware by now that cameras immediately render environments unnatural, right? That's just given, right? But we can also reason that how unnatural they render the environment directly correlates to the age of its subjects -- the kids are more likely get it because they know what it is to live publicly in a way that adults aren't accustomed to. Facebook and YouTube and reality TV never didn't exist for many of them. They almost instinctively know what it is to "make good TV." Teens are a self-conscious breed, and what is media savvy, anyway, than refined self-consciousness?

Self-conscious as they may be, these American Teens aren't omniscient, which means there's plenty of delicious subtext that exists unbeknown to them. Everyone but Hannah ("the rebel") has at least one major flaw approaching despicability. Jake says stuff that goes beyond awkward and right into shitty (he tells his prom date that they're a good fit because, "We both suck at life"). Colin ("the jock") is a self-absorbed ball hog. Mitch ("the heartthrob") is detrimentally susceptible to peer pressure. (A side note: I think he's gay. He thinks it's refreshing that Hannah doesn't wear makeup. He enjoyed Brokeback Mountain. He wears Abercrombie. He seems completely comfortable with someone gesturing a pool cue near his rectum. Also, he is adorable. So all this is to probably say, I hope he's gay.) Megan ("the princess") is vindictive and matter-of-factly homophobic (although describing the nipples of a girl who foolishly sent a topless shot to one of Megan's friends as "pepperonis" is kind of genius). Even Megan's back story does little to make her sympathetic. She's such a mega-bitch because she can be...and because her slow-ish older sister killed herself two years ago. As she's explaining this, she says, "I think it was rough on her being inferior to everyone else." Her sense of superiority keeps her from knowing for sure, though.

Hannah, on the other hand, has Lorber-esque appeal. For one thing, she is endlessly gif-able.

She obviously lets her freak flag fly, even if she isn't a book-smarty pants like Lorber (from what we can tell, at least). Her desperation to leave her current situation is palpable, not just because she's a liberal in a conservative town but because her manic-depressive mother is oppressive (a conversation about Hannah's scary future concludes with her mother, who's made a hobby of reading stories about men who prey on young girls, telling her, "You're not special!"). And, despite frequent conversations about how "different" she is, Hannah's need for acceptance isn't far below her surface: an aspiring director, she talks about wanting to make movies that people remember, even after she's dead. Just because you accept your marketing designation doesn't mean you have to be happy with it.

I guess that's kind of a cliche, the outcast who says she doesn't want to fit in but, duh, does. But instead of feeling distasteful as it played out in American Teen, it just made me feel satisfied that something I hold true, in fact, is. There's a lot of that in this movie. There's the fact that these kids' possibly bleak futures in Middle America are laid right out in front of them (Colin's dad is an Elvis impersonator, who implores his son to, "Establish your own Elvis identity"). Then, there's the bizarre phenomenon of the "hot" kids actually being...

...not hot. (Keep in mind that Colin is introduced as being a guy that girls think is hot. Mitch gets billed as "the heartthrob," but that's not really explored in the movie. It's only implicit and, you know, obvious.) If I had to describe Megan to someone who hasn't seen her, I'd adopt the voice of Sixteen Candles' Jake Ryan and say, "She isn't...ugly."

American Teen is glazed with innocence that probably seems unlikely to people (after two utterances, the word "fuck" is bleeped so as to keep a PG-13 rating), but this was what I related to the most. Yeah, in my high school people were mean and horny, but there were no major drug busts or pregnancies. And things really did work out the way most people wanted it to, at least temporarily. The trip back that this movie provides is utter joy (its crowd-pleasing aspirations are another arguing point of its critics, but far be it from me to bitch about pleasure). The world is changing, yes, but studying high school, which hosts an endlessly renewing pool of citizens that never stop talking about where they're going and what they're becoming, is like watching transition suspended in amber. And a movie as good as American Teen shows how magical that process can be.

Comments

[AKZombie]

Rich, I just love reading your entries. It's like I'm having a discussion with someone with a brain - instead of the corporate zombies by whom I'm surrounded here at work. That being said, between the photo at the top of the entry, and that new J.C. Penney commercial modeled after The Breakfast Club, this 34-year-old now feels about 90. Hands off my icons, people!

And I hear you about the so-called "hot" kids. Yikes, the chin on that kid! Either the lens used for the picture was a bad choice, or the subject is actually a character in a Dick Tracy comic. Isn't our genetic pool supposed to be skewing more and more toward the attractive end?

[Brandy]

Just a few weeks ago I was hanging at my best friends house and we were looking at her old year books and photo albums and we were both surprised at how many of the "hot" people we went to school with were actually not! It's so bizarre.

[heyhey]

How is this not hot?

While I continue to be irked at "American" always equated to white suburbia (unless "Gangster" is attached), I might scope this out on DVD. Primarily for the geek girl. I vaguely recall watching something similar on PBS called "American High School" five years back (this time with a bit more people of color, but still upper-middle class), and I'd be intrigued if post Laguna/Hills/TruLife/vlogging kids come off any differently than the previous generation-- in terms of self-awareness, camera-ready snark, etc. I know lot of that has a lot to do with the directorial style as well. Still, can't justify dropping $10 on this doc. Rental, tho.

[clare]

Holy shit, I didn't look at that picture properly the first time and thought it actually *was* The Breakfast Club.

[HouseofJules]

This doc has gotten so much buzz that I had grown a little suspicious of it, but your reviews are always spot-on, so I'll definitely be adding it to my Netflix once it gets released on DVD. Thanks, Rich!
Jules
House of Jules

[Lea]

Totally agree with you, heyhey - WTF with American always meaning white, middle- to upper-class, and usually some form of Christian? What about that melting pot B.S. we were fed in school?? Huh??

I've watched a few of these "ooh, a serious look at REAL high schoolers" things and they always seem to either be too bland to be interesting or too crazy to seem real. Plus, I fucking hated high school so why the hell would I want to look at some other poor schmucks going through it? Meh...

[Sparker_Pants]

What are they doing to my beloved Breakfast Club?! Unless you are a member of the Brat Pack, step away from that pose. Step away!

[Jenn]

I agree with you Lea & heyhey and that was the reason I declined free tickets to the screening of this. It annoys me that there are a lot of shows and movies that try to portray "American" life as being white and middle class. Just call it what it is, a look at White and middle class society. Although, thank you rich for reviewing it because I will admit to being curious about it.

[Jro]

I was watching this in NYC, and the audience burst into applause when the caption reads "Hannah decided she was an East Cost girl, and is currently studying film in Manhattan." You have to relate to her and love her. It's unavoidable.

[Rae]

I was lucky enough to catch this at Sundance while the cast/subjects were in attendance, and I have to say that if the QA session was any indication, the film portrays them quite well. Jake is still painfully awkward. Yeah, Colin got his "happy ending," but he's definitely a little fish in a big pond now. Megan, of course, got exactly what she wanted, and while she seemed embarassed by her behavior in the film, she also didn't seem incredibly sorry either. (She brought her boyfriend to the premiere, to see her behave like an asshole on film - need I say more?) And Hannah? Hannah is awesome. It didn't seem like she had found her place in the world quite yet, but it seems like she's well on her way.

I didn't get the impression that the film was overly manufactured, at least not obviously so. Both Megan and Jake have some truly ugly moments caught on film. The only parts I found jarringly over-produced at Sundance were the animated sequences, but I'm wondering if they were actually taken out before the wider release. (Nobody I spoke to liked them.)

Honestly, I think the Breakfast Club-esque marketing was a mistake, though. I don't see this film being pro- or anti-mainstream at all, and I feel like the advertising is misleading people about the film's intentions. The film doesn't feel overly messaged to me, especially in the sense that "different" doesn't necessarily translate to "better" for any of these kids. Megan and Collin essentially get handed what they want, and if Hannah "gets" what she wanted, it certainly wasn't given to her. Different is HARD for these kids, and I think that is pretty honestly portrayed. Yeah, the editing is slick, but I think that if you film over a thousand hours of teenagers, you probably get more than enough to fill a feature length film with drama.

[Tanith]

Wait -- America doesn't have the same demographics as Greenland? Who knew?

Meanwhile, over at Jena High School...

[Lolly]

Guess I'm the only one who finds Hannah irritating.

[Faith]

i cant wait and am going to buy this biss right away! i love you Rich, for bringing all these glorious flicks to my attention, i just bought (a bootleg) The Ruins.

[Mia_Maurer]

Pepperoni nipples is actually a pretty common term! We said it 10 years ago back when I was in high school.

And to HouseofJules, no one wants to melt.

[stephanie]

Um, Tanith, I think you mean Iceland. It's pretty full of white (of Danish and Norwegian extraction) people. Greenland's mostly got native Greelanders. As in Not White.

[Katie]

I can't wait to see this. I've always had a deep fascination/ fear of teenagers, even when I was one. The hormones make them unpredictable like wild animals or something.
I love the Jake Ryan reference.

[Sallad]

Gotta say, I'm super excited for this movie to make its way out to those of us in smaller markets. I grew up and went to high school in a town not far from Warsaw (Not Warsawb), so that's an added element of interest for me.

The Onion AV Club had a great interview with the director, you should check that out.

[Micaela]

I was so excited to see that you wrote a review for this movie -- I agree with so much of what you say, esp. about the "hot" kids ... that was my first thought upon viewing them. I love you on Pot Psychology!

[tallulah bankhead]

Is something wrong with me that the movie really bored me?

[sarah]

Rae - the animated sequences are still in there. I saw the movie in an almost empty theater (it was also 2pm on a Thursday), so maybe it wast just my friends and me, but the whole theater was cracking up awkwardly during those parts.

I really enjoyed this movie. I'd read a lot about how it was too slick, and seemed staged, but I thought it was really well done. It reminded me of seeing Little Miss Sunshine, where you just know it's going to be huge.

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