VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

SD H 'American Teen' was really good, better than I expected. There were some enduring images: the girl who is yearning to be loved, to the extent that she doesn't care who knows it and will jeopardize her whole future for a boy she's just met. The girl who, in a moment of wild, horny daring, takes a picture of herself topless on her phone and sends it to a boy she likes, and within hours its all over the web and the girl is in tears, socially reviled and the latest target of the school bully. And that bully, an unhappy, nasty, intelligent and hard- working over-achiever who is so far ahead of her friends and whose parents give her so much stuff but pay her so little attention, oh, she has stuck with me. I could imagine her going on to be the richest person in America, as well as the most emotionally immature. She shook me to the core because I'd never seen real, deliberate, bullying, as it took place, as a bully composed a cruel text message or wrote a homophobic graffito, and I felt so sorry for her and despised her so completely at the same time that I feel I'll never forget her.Parts felt a little set up, as if the director had got there and said 'ok, now do something teenage', but maybe that was just the typical self-consciousness of youth - children act up when they know they're being watched, so it might have been as simple as that - some of them definitely dressed just for the camera, and even avoided doing shameful things in front of the camera. Despite that, there were a lot of places where the honesty of the teens was the most interesting thing - the nervousness of the band geek boy when going to a girl's house for a date was too much for him to cover up, and the relief of the jock guy who won the basketball game - the camera caught some real emotions. It wasn't the most exciting film of all time to be honest; none of the characters' stories were as exciting as Jason Bourne's and I didn't fall in love with anyone in it, so sometimes the pace did plod a little, but that's almost inevitable in a documentary with no set plot. I liked the range of different teens chosen, I was glad they weren't all from the same social group and loved that they weren't all sympathetic characters. I'd like to know where they all are now.I was really glad I watched this film and I'd recommend it to anyone who's ever been a teenager. There are movies out there that tell us to be scared of teens ('thirteen', 'Requiem for a Dream', hell, even 'Mean Girls'). Then there are so many teen movies that over-emphasize that whole jock, nerd, band-geek cliché of American schools, and it was really interesting to see some people who were real, who weren't quite stereotypes, who were jocks but also poor, or tortured, or geeks but also confident and happy, or popular but also depressed. Everybody was well-rounded and had a chance to make their voice heard and let their personality be seen, warts and all, over the filmed year. Director Nanette Burstein really seemed to be fascinated by her subject. I love a documentary, and this is one of the best I've seen in the past few years.

derek-ipod I enjoyed it at first but then started thinking about how the odds of this movie being authentic are pretty much 0. Yet another "documentary" director pushing the genre envelope. Countless shots where you think, "well, how convenient was that...what are the odds of her camera being there".Why not just call it a movie with untrained kids doing the acting based on their experiences. A fantastic movie called Kids (1999) was done in a similar style sans lies & deception. Does she not think her movie can be enjoyed as fiction? This manipulation frustrates me. I was recently at a documentary festival where the director fessed up to staging a few of the funnier scenes...someone in the audience followed up this revelation with a "why did you do that?". he just shrugged. i feel that sort of lack of credibility & concern from the director when watching this film.watch Kids and see how a film "shot in documentary style" should be made. or 7-up/Hoop Dreams if you want reality. don't settle for this middling attempt.

Seamus2829 Hats off to the A&E Network for bankrolling this slight, but interesting slice of life at a mid Western high school, where cliques, depression,peer pressure,sexual/chemical experimentation is ever a slice of life (I know, as I went through all of it,myself in my own adolescence). Nanette Burnstein has taken a handful of subjects that we've all seen before (a basketball jock,a band nerd,a mall queen,an artsy introvert,etc.),and show one year in their lives (their senior year in high school)on screen, complete with various interviews of the subjects, all done in a semi cinema verite fore mat (always welcome). The film also features some animated sequences,that manage to crawl into the psyches of some of the subjects (another nice touch). I guess if I have but one tiny quirk about this film, it pretty much manages to only capture one aspect of the American teen experience (as it takes place in the heartland of America,no black,Hispanic or Asian kids are depicted). I'm hoping that if Bernstein decides to produce 'American Teen 2', it will be filmed in an East Coast, urban setting (just to balance things out a little more). Apart from that, I was pretty impressed by it. Parents should see this,to get a view on how their youngsters are conducting themselves when they're not always around (or just don't want to be bothered---until it's too late). I'm talking about teen drinking,smoking,sexual experiences (although,illegal street drugs--i.e. Heroin,Cocaine,Meth,etc.are never mentioned here,but you know they're out there). The film is given a PG-13 rating,due to language & situations mentioned above.

Kevin Keefe I read a few of these posts, and think I might have a different perspective. I live in Washington, D.C., and have never been to Indiana outside of a visit to Bloomington as a child. I went to a public high school in upstate New York, near Syracuse, in the 70's. My friend and I went to the movie to see if and how high school and high school students have changed since we were in school. We were not interested in "Warsaw High" as a institution, nor in learning about Warsaw as a community. And after we left, we talked about the movie and never discussed "Warsaw as a community". We talked about the individual kids. It may help those of you who think the audience is going to draw negative opinions about your community to know that most of the audience doesn't think this was a study of your community - I saw it as a snapshot of a few high school kids from an American town. As I watched, I did wonder about how "typical" high school interactions could be filmed with people wired for sound and with cameras in their face, etc. I knew some of it had to be staged or severely affected by the presence of the camera. The center of the film, for me, was the pressures on, and insecurities of, the kids. I found the individual interviews to be probably the most honest and reliable part of the movie. Jake, Hanna, and the others said some pretty revealing and insightful (and embarrassing) things about themselves; sometimes funny, sometimes touching. And at my age, I know these are kids, as I was once a kid, who will grow up and out of this period of their lives. So I don't see the kids as stuck where they were. Again, it's a snap shot. Kids want to please their Dads by getting in to the right school or getting a scholarship; kids want a boyfriend or a girlfriend; there are cliques; there are jealousies and power trips. Yep, it's high school. That's all I saw. I liked the movie. Sorry if the film crew was rude. But Warsaw, chill out. I have no more or less an opinion of a town I never heard of, and whose name I will forget tomorrow, than before. To a ticket buyer like me, it wasn't really about you; it was touching on the universal American high school experience. Half true, half false; real and also TV and movie generated. The kids all got off to school and are growing up. We should, too. It's all gonna be OK.