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Director Nanette Burstein insists that her latest film is a documentary (you know, a movie that depicts actual events and that is supposed to have nothing scripted in it). And that begs the question: does she really think we're that asinine?
American Teen didn't fail to entertain me, but I also have to note that it's been ages since I've snorted so many times while watching a movie. If someone didn't go into this film knowing it's supposed to be a documentary, they'd more than likely think that it is a scripted film. It's already been criticized in dozens upon dozens of other reviews, so in the spirit of not being too repetitive, I'll simply say that it is just IMPOSSIBLE that the camera crew here was able to be present during so many crucial situations, or to find out what text message one kid sent to another or to capture an exact moment in which someone reacts to something. Not only that, but the situations that the kids get into and that the cameras manage to capture totally seem like scripted situations because, well... you've seen them tons of times before (assuming you've watched at least an episode or two of Dawson's Creek or if you watch any of the shows currently playing on the CW network). It's because of all of this that it's impossible to view American Teen as a realistic depiction of the average U.S. adolescent. Also, the movie features a couple of animated sequences that are supposed to be a colorful way of portraying the struggles the kids are enduring, yet these sequences are nothing but annoyingly imposing and entirely distracting and detrimental to the overall flow of the film.
Now, just so I'm not too harsh on Burstein and her crew, I'd like to offer another possibility for the reason why this film feels so artificial. Obviously, these kids were told that their lives were going to be documented in a film that would be seen by millions of people, and they knew that this would help them gain a heck of a lot of exposure. So, while Burstein may have actually been setting out to capture reality and encouraged her subjects to behave normally, the kids may have chosen not to give that to her, and instead chose to spice things up for her by purposely creating lots of drama (heck, a lot of teens do that in their daily lives regardless of whether or not they have a camera recording their every move, so this isn't a far-fetched theory in the least bit). It really would disappoint me if this were true, though, because it'd make me wonder if kids like Hannah and Jake (my favorite characters in the movie, simply because they're the ones I could relate to most, but then again, I knew that in the first 10 minutes when the film let me know the stereotypes they fell into) were simply playing a role and weren't actually the characters we saw them as. I sure hope that's not the case. Megan, who falls into the prom queen/student council president/most popular girl at school stereotype, is extremely serious about getting into Notre Dame University, which is notoriously hard to get admitted to, yet she allows Burstein and her team to film her committing an act of vandalism. Seriously?
The reasons that make American Teen feel artificial are the same reasons that make it enjoyable at times, in the same sense that you'd enjoy an episode of a show on the CW and quickly forgot about it afterwards. It's not a memorable diversion at all. What's funny is that even if this film had been released just as it is and had NOT been identified as a documentary but as a scripted work, it would've still not been a good movie because of the fact that all of the drama and struggles featured here are things we've seen dozens of times in said TV shows. So, even if American Teen had a more authentic feel to it, it still wouldn't be a groundbreaking work of cinema because it offers nothing in the way of insight, which should be the aim of any decent documentary. A good comparison here is to the MTV show The Real World, billed as a reality show yet clearly featuring staged drama, and the reason for the creation of said drama is that the producers don't feel it'll be entertaining to those watching if said drama isn't created. And maybe it's fine to do that with an MTV show, but I feel like the endeavor should've been handled more honestly by the makers of this documentary, which could've been an extremely insightful examination of the adolescent mind. It's a mistake to think that something realistic can't be enjoyable. Just look at Man On Wire, one of the other documentaries released this year - it gives you nothing but facts about the events it covers, yet it is a thrilling piece of work.
I have mixed emotions towards American Teen because I enjoyed it on the surface, but couldn't for a second shake off the feeling that I was being cheated.
5/10
