American Teen Review

American Teen Review

American Teen is a documentary based on the lives of seniors at a high school in a small Indiana town whilst being a funny and touching movie it also show the various cliques and characters and their (who) stress in senior year about getting into college.

The movie is shown in many different forms we view the text messages between characters, characters talk directing to the camera and the normal camera view during action, such as basketball games and the Fall Dance.

Although based in an American school, Australian teenagers can relate to the movie, whilst it concentrates on extreme stereotypes all of the experiences are primarily the same and can be related to by all teenagers around the world.

We follow the lives of the typical archetypes, Hannah Bailey (the arty loner), Colin Clemens (the jock), Megan Krizmanich(the popular-rich girl), Mitch Reinholt (the heartthrob) and Jake Tusing (the nerd)who are all in the senior year at Warsaw Community High School.

Hannah Bailey is an artist, musician and wannabe filmmaker who has her sights set on the big city of California. Hannah falls into depression after her long-time boyfriend breaks her heart. Later on she dates heartthrob Mitch before he breaks up with her as she isn?t 'cool'.

Colin Clemens is the class-clown and star basketballer for the school. The pressure of sport weighs him down when he finds out his parents cannot afford for him to go to college and he needs to impress scouts to receive a scholarship or his father will send him to the military.

Megan Krizmanich is the queen bee of school who comes from a wealthy family and is popular in many ways. Whilst being academically talented and involved in many extracurricular activities her major goal is to attend the college her siblings and father attended. Megan at times is cruel and almost touches on being the villain, when she has to ?get even?.

Jake Tusing is the crucial nerd, he strives as a introverted student who plays video games and is a marching band member. He longs for a girlfriend and much of his story revolves around his dating.

Mitch Reinholt is the ultimate heartthrob he is popular because of his sports talent and good looks. Mitch dates Hannah until it causes friction with his popular clique of friends and he then breaks up with her via text message.

The movie touches on all teenage troubles from parent pressure to peer-pressure, to the insecurities of one to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or the pressure to belong in a group and not be seen as ?different?. These teens are also bombarded with jealousy, falling asleep in class, first loves, heartbreaks, sex, bullying and the struggle of making weighty decisions about their futures.

Whilst Hannah, Colin, Megan, Mitch, and Jake hope, pray and stress about receiving a letter accepting them into the college of their choice, in Australia many teenagers are in the same position, losing sleep about enter scores for VCE and fighting for a place in University.

American Teen is an unscripted documentary that runs similar to that of a reality television program. American Teen is directed by Nanette Burstein.