American Teen

American Teen is a very striking and dynamic documentary about normal, everyday American teens. The movie follows four main characters from different cliques throughout their high school careers. The characters include a homecoming princess, a basketball jock, a band geek, and a complete rebel and outsider. In the beginning the movie feels very flat and unemotional. The teens are all good actors, but nothing feels real. It was like watching an MTV show like The Hills. You want to believe it's real but everything is just too flat. But then, the rebel character gets dumped by her boyfriend and true emtions begin to show. With tears and laughter the teens work through many hardships of high school: from being cheated on, to getting caught vandalizing, to trying to get into college. While something about the movie feels a little unrealistic, many of the plot elements are dead on about high school. One scene portrays a young girl sending a nude photo of her self to a guy and having the photo sent all around the school via email and text messages. This plot point is so very realistic. For those of you who aren't in high school right now this may seem crazy, but this very thing has happened several times at my high school. Watching this movie, I feel as if someone stuck a camera in my school. And I'm sure any other teen watching this movie would feel the same way. While some of the characters are stereotypical and overdone, the plot is so emotional and realistic that it makes up for the other flaws in the movie. It takes a little getting into, but once you've started watching this movie you'll be hooked until the end.

-H