American Teen: Teen Angst as Art
Stuart Nachbar
August 12, 2008
American Teen is a documentary that follows the true lives of four teenagers: a mean girl, a basketball star, an artsy girl and a geek through their senior year at an Indiana high school. I liked the movie, but every once in a while I had to remind myself that for these kids it was real life; they were not actors. They were just high school kids who agreed to be followed on camera. If my nieces and nephews asked me if they should appear in a movie like this, I´d tell them to run for cover. They´d never know what a camera and an enterprising filmmaker might do to achieve cinematic glory at their expense.
I pitied the mean girl in American Teen; she got into Notre Dame, but I hope her potential summer employers have forgotten about her part in this movie when she goes on internship interviews. She spreads stories about a classmate who posed topless in an e-mail to a potential boyfriend; this was a significant scene. I also pitied the girl who posed topless; she became a more important minor character than she ever expected to be. She got worse than she bargained for. I also pitied the geek, but the movie went to extremes to find one. I was considered a geek in high school, and I knew other geeks too, but every geek I knew had their braces off and got over their acne before the 11th grade. Think Paul Pfeiffer, Josh Saviano´s well-played character on the Wonder Years if you want to see a more genuine geek. Paul might have wanted a girlfriend, but he also had brains and common sense when it came to school.
Only one adult figure is prominent in this movie: the basketball star´s father, and he´s the saddest character. He´s an Elvis wannabee living his past basketball glory through his son, and he won´t pay for the boy´s college education if he doesn´t get a basketball scholarship. In the end, the kid learns to be a better team player and has a big game in the sectional finals—a real big deal in a basketball crazy state. Dad drags the son off to Indiana Tech, the only school that offers him a scholarship, and pushes him to sign the letter of intent. I hope parents who see this movie will learn something from his ridiculous behavior.
American Teen is not unique. You can find real-life tales on MTV´s Made about kids who wish they were someone else and on Real Life where they cope with real problems like alcohol, drugs and relationships. But how many parents and grandparents over 40 tune into MTV? When I went to see American Teen, parents and grandparents, not teens, filled most of the seats in the theatre. I believed that they were the audience; they wanted to know what their teenage children might not be telling them. The teen audience is drawn to fiction like Clueless, Heathers, Mean Girls, 16 Candles or The Breakfast Club. Why would they pay to see kids like themselves in the movies when they see them all day in school? The non-fiction is better directed at mom, dad and the grandparents.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at httop://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
I pitied the mean girl in American Teen; she got into Notre Dame, but I hope her potential summer employers have forgotten about her part in this movie when she goes on internship interviews. She spreads stories about a classmate who posed topless in an e-mail to a potential boyfriend; this was a significant scene. I also pitied the girl who posed topless; she became a more important minor character than she ever expected to be. She got worse than she bargained for. I also pitied the geek, but the movie went to extremes to find one. I was considered a geek in high school, and I knew other geeks too, but every geek I knew had their braces off and got over their acne before the 11th grade. Think Paul Pfeiffer, Josh Saviano´s well-played character on the Wonder Years if you want to see a more genuine geek. Paul might have wanted a girlfriend, but he also had brains and common sense when it came to school.
Only one adult figure is prominent in this movie: the basketball star´s father, and he´s the saddest character. He´s an Elvis wannabee living his past basketball glory through his son, and he won´t pay for the boy´s college education if he doesn´t get a basketball scholarship. In the end, the kid learns to be a better team player and has a big game in the sectional finals—a real big deal in a basketball crazy state. Dad drags the son off to Indiana Tech, the only school that offers him a scholarship, and pushes him to sign the letter of intent. I hope parents who see this movie will learn something from his ridiculous behavior.
American Teen is not unique. You can find real-life tales on MTV´s Made about kids who wish they were someone else and on Real Life where they cope with real problems like alcohol, drugs and relationships. But how many parents and grandparents over 40 tune into MTV? When I went to see American Teen, parents and grandparents, not teens, filled most of the seats in the theatre. I believed that they were the audience; they wanted to know what their teenage children might not be telling them. The teen audience is drawn to fiction like Clueless, Heathers, Mean Girls, 16 Candles or The Breakfast Club. Why would they pay to see kids like themselves in the movies when they see them all day in school? The non-fiction is better directed at mom, dad and the grandparents.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at httop://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
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