American Teen

Remember all the kids you didn't care about in high school? Want to see a movie about them? Yeah, me neither.

A feature-length documentary that reveals stunning, lurid information such as that teenagers have lame parties, gossip about who's fucking who, and stir up insipid, pointless drama. Wow! Thanks, movie! I didn't know any of that! I needed to watch a fucking documentary about it!

Not very interesting

First part felt like watching an episode of Laguna Beach and all the other 'real life' MTV shows, and all the heavy editing to make certain situations more 'real' took away much of the true emotions of the film. Hannah is really the star of the show, and if they just did the film about her, I wouldn't complain one bit.

The directing and editing is great.

Some critics r absolutely postive that Burstein manipulated/contrived situations, but barring being a crew member 1 wonders how they could be so sure. She may stage a few shots as setups, but the kids' lives & suprising turns they take(esp. the "alt. girl") r almost certainly their own. Although choosing 2 follow "types" may annoy some, it's an honest reflection of MUCH of high school& the lives here r more than true enough w/ even the parents being as funny, relatable & moving as the teens.

Teenagers make bad decisions: The Movie. Unless you are a big fan of reality television or just in general, nosy people, this is pretty ho hum.

Bad documentary. They broke a lot of rules, and some scenes were obviously staged. However, it was an enjoyable movie, so I can't fault it completely.

It had its share of good moments, but nothing truly noteworthy or interesting. It was a less polished form of Laguna Beach. I'd rather see hot people go through the same things.

Emotional exploitation of teenagers is sadly enjoyable.

This film covers all kinds of high school movie cliches, yet this time the vapid, self-important characters are real people. Unnerving. Moments of the filming are obviously contrived or recreated, which diminishes its credibility.

The film operates as an ode to teenage self-centeredness and short-sightedness. In raising conflicts as banal as some of these to the level of Greek tragedy, the film reaffirms the teenage ego: If the controversy surrounding a choice of prom theme is of enough importance to film, then of course the drama it creates off-camera is justified, too. Beyond laughing at the instances of naivete and pettiness that result, what's the point?

It's quite boring at times and does a poor job of introducing the characters, but otherwise, it's an interesting documentary. If you remember going to high school (not necessarily in the USA), I'm sure you'll be able to sympathize with at least one of the kids.

As a documentary this movie is worth no more that 1/10. As a mockumentary (?) or staged reality show its worth 2/10. It shows that USA high school is everything you've seen in stupid teen movies - jocks, geeks, prom queens and kings. I just don't fit into demographic profile this movie was made for. The only good thing is that the movie manages to be somewhat amusing, like those MTV 'reality' shows.

Over the course of 100 minutes, the only thing this 'doco' achieved was to reinforce my intense dislike of teenagers. Jake was the only semi-interesting person in the film.

"Documentary focus is something that, like car keys, should not be given unquestioningly to high schoolers." - Fernando F. Croce

American Teen (2008) is a documentary about a handful of high school kids during their senior year. Watching it feels very much like an MTV show in the sense that it feels somewhat scripted, there is too much overblown drama, and every single person is a whiny douche at one point or another. The movie is pretty easy to get in to, but it can be difficult to sit still during the moments when you simply want to slap the subjects in the face.

The majority of the characters in this movie I did not like. There are some interesting moments in this documentary. It was interesting to see how certain parents put a lot of pressure on kids. Overall I can not quite recommend this one.

This is a vile misuse of the intimate, verité and reportorial technique that the Maysles, Pennebaker and other doc pioneers worked so hard to justify.

This was entertaining as a melodrama, but problematic in its exploitation of these kids for the sake of a film. It's not so bothersome that they chose kids according to a certain type, though I suspect that, like anyone, they (unconsciously) conformed to their selected type at least some of the time. However, I always cringe during documentaries about kids or other particularly impressionable people. It's hard enough being a teenager without a camera in your face all day.

Emotional exploitation of teenagers is sadly enjoyable.

Extremely contrived, yet thoroughly engrossing.

I've seen a decent amount of teen reality, be it documentaries or TV and I think this movie has probably come the closest to portraying what high school is really like -- at least what it was like for me. I don't understand the manipulation argument AT ALL. I went to HS in a small town and there was nothing here that struck me as anything less than authentic. I like that she didn't just focus on the 'cool kids' or the 'losers,' but took someone from each group to represent the whole picture.

I love docs...and now that I'm safely removed from the horrors of high school, docs ABOUT them are really appealing to me. This one is well done, and most of the "characters" are defined enough that you care about what happens to them all. However, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know, which is what I normally look for in a good doc. Events play out MOSTLY as I expected them to. The basketball scenes also annoyed me because they seemed manipulated, which forces you to ask what else was?