The movie American Teen is out on DVD, and I was sent a copy to review. After watching it, I emailed the PR rep and asked him if he was sure he wanted me to post my honest opinion? He said absolutely. So, here it is:

This movie is awful.

Let me quantify that choice of words. American Teen is a documentary about five kids going to Warsaw High School in Warsaw, Indiana. Filmmaker Nanette Burstein spent a school year filming the Seniors, supposedly waiting for characters to reveal themselves. But I can’t help but think that she went in looking for stereotypes, and rather than show us just what life is like for today’s high school teens, she focused solely on “the jock”, “the rebel”, “the prom queen”. It was like Burstein set out to find the “real” Breakfast Club characters, and focused only on that goal.  Notice the resemblance in the image I posted?

Also, it felt really staged, like the kids had been told, “hey, can you say what you just said again? I need to fix the lighting”. It felt too much like the kids were living in the Big Brother house as opposed to being themselves while a camera happened to film them.

The other problem I had with the kids in this documentary was that they were just so hard for me to like. Megan, the student council rep and prom queen, was just absolutely horrid. She does something shockingly cruel to someone who is supposed to be her friend, as the cameras kept rolling my jaw kept dropping. Later on in the film she spray paints an obscene image and word on the window of a boy’s house because he got his friends to vote for a different PROM THEME. The heck? Oh, her Dad is one of the richest men in town, of course. She apparently had told him ahead of time about the “prank”, and calls him from school to tell him she’s in trouble for it. His response?

“IT WAS STUPID THAT YOU GOT CAUGHT”.

What the BLEEP kind of parenting is that?!?!? And her punishment for what the school deemed sexual harassment? Well, the principal tells her, we normally suspend out of school for this, but since you have a clean record, we’re going to take away your student council seat for the year. HORRORS. How about some freaking COMMUNITY SERVICE? How about APOLOGIZING to the family who’s house she vandalized?

Hannah is “the rebel”. She has a boyfriend and a dream of moving to California as soon as she graduates, and she lives with her Grandma. When she experiences heartbreak (and I have to admit, I felt for her), she decides she can’t go to school where she would have to face anybody. So she stays home. For SEVENTEEN DAYS. Finally her Dad shows up and tells her she’s going to school. He puts her in the car and starts driving her there. She completely FREAKS OUT about how she Just! Can’t! Do! It! so what does her Dad do? DRIVES HER HOME.

I can just imagine what my parents would have said if I had tried to stay home for one day every time my latest high school “boyfriend” broke up with me. They would have told me to get my a** to school! It’s like these parents are afraid of their own kids. I wish the parents had gotten more screen time.

But, the parents weren’t the focus of this documentary, the kids were. And for me, they were just too mean, oblivious, self-centered, wishy-washy. Where were the kids in that high school who did volunteer work? Who ran clubs? Was there not a single kid in that whole high school who cared about the environment or politics? No kids trying out for the musical or the debate team?

The other thing I MUST tell you is this- there is a LOT of drinking, swearing, and talk about sexual activity in this DVD, which I did not know when I agreed to review it. The press release calls it “thoroughly entertaining and captivating”, as well as “unusually intimate, entertaining and funny”. I must have not been paying close enough attention, because I found nothing funny in this movie. Actually, what I did feel is sick, thinking about my three kids going to high school. If they are going to have to binge drink, if my daughter is going to have to perform oral sex on boys in order to be invited to parties, if that’s what high school is today, I’d rather home school them.

Want to see for yourself? In the U.S., the DVD will be available exclusively for sale at Target and for rent at all major rental locations. It will be for sale or rent at all major retailers in Canada.