American Teen uses stereotypes to tell a new story
March 1, 2008 at 1:53 a.m.
Somehow, someway, Nanette Burstein's incredible American Teen tells a story of what we thought we knew when we were in high school and makes it art.
Burstein spent about a year following high school students of Warsaw, Ind., a town where you can't escape your caste. If you are a nerd, you're a nerd. If you're a jock, you're stuck that way. There is no room for reinvention, and cliques are the law of the land.
The director slings the camera on her shoulder and tells the story of a four high school seniors, each of whom can easily be placed in a grouping — band nerd, basketball jock, popular princess and rebel artsy girl. Although the audience initially places them into that grouping, they learn that once you peel back those layers, the kids are not alright. They have families that mistreat them or have too high of expectations or have skeletons in the basement that should never see light.
But, in the midst of failures and successes, we get to see a portrait of what youth in Midwestern America have become. The film's documentation turns high school into a universal experience of growing pains, exaggerated emotions and missed opportunities that almost anyone can relate to. It feels real.
There's no doubt the director's role in the lives of the subjects likely changed the outcome of what the audience sees at the end. But even so, this is the best way to experience what it is like to grow up in the age of text message break-ups and e-mail bullying. And it is the best way to feel like a teen in America once more.
- Sean Ludwig
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