‘American Teen’ a Familiar But Fun Documentary
The documentary “American Teen” doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know about high school. It can be a rough time, even if you’re pretty and popular. Kids divide themselves into cliques. They can be cruel to each other. Pressure can come from all sides —î from parents, coaches, fellow students and mostly from within. But the intimate way in which director Nanette Burstein tracks the lives of a group of seniors in small-town Indiana brings this familiar story to life, and it should make viewers feel nostalgic, regardless of how long it’s been since they walked those crowded, chaotic halls. Burstein, who last co-directed the rollicking 2002 documentary “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” about movie mogul Robert Evans, takes on a much safer, saner subject matter here. She follows several familiar types at Warsaw Community High School in the year before they head off to college: a bossy blonde who runs the school; a basketball star hoping for a college scholarship; a lonely band geek who longs for a girlfriend; an artsy young woman who dreams of becoming a filmmaker; a heartthrob who falls for a girl outside the popular crowd. If this sounds like a John Hughes movie you’ve seen a million times before —î or all of them simultaneously —î you’re right. One subplot is straight out of “Pretty in Pink.” The scrawny kid in the band could be Anthony Michael Hall in “Sixteen Candles.
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