DVD Review: American Teen

It's hard to judge a documentary nowadays. In the age of fake reality TV can you really trust a documentary to truly be a documentary? Can you be sure there was no influence or direction from the film makers? Probably not. But does that hamper the enjoyment of a documentary? For me, I'm always thinking in the back of my mind whether the situation I am seeing is real or not.

That happens a couple of times during American Teen, but for the most part, it does seem like an authentic look into the lives of four Midwestern teenagers.

The film mainly focuses on four teens from Warsaw, Indiana (and a scattering of others). Colin the Jock, Jake the Geek, Hannah the Artsy chick, and Megan the Popular Girl. Yeah, the most cliche of High School archetypes are utilized here but in fact these kids are more than they appear.

We follow the teens through their senior year of high school. From day one to semi formal, to college acceptances, to prom, and finally graduation.

For a movie like this to be successful, you have to like the subjects and as you watch you do find yourself liking them. For the most part. It does seem like every character does something that makes you not like them for a bit. All except, surprisingly enough, Colin the basketball player. He is the only person who did not do something negative. Even Hannah, who is probably my favorite of the bunch made me want to yell at the screen at one point.

There is one character however who, contrary to everyone else, I did not like the majority of the time but did have slight moments where I thought for a second she was likable. I'm referring to Megan. There was a second when a major event of her life is revealed and I thought well this is why she's the way she is. I don't think that event really makes it okay for her to have sent naked pictures of a classmate to everyone in the school though.

Out of the cast, the two favorites have to be Jake, the geek who wants nothing more than a girlfriend, and Hannah the artsy indie girl who pretty much gets her heart stepped on twice. I see parts of myself in both of them so I can relate to a lot of what they feel and go through.

American Teen is pretty much a real life Breakfast Club, except that the kids don't interact with each other much. They're all part of their own cliques and don't seem to cross paths besides Hannah who ends up dating one of the popular guys who seems like a great person until he does something so ridiculous that you end up hating him for it.


I don't want to get too much into the plot details. A lot happens to these kids, nothing too major but it is an experience to witness the reactions they have to the situations they find themselves in.

So what is real and what is staged? I'd like to think that the majority of what we see in American Teen was in fact real. Only a couple scenes come across as less than authentic and these scenes are not major ones so they don't take much away from the enjoyment of the film.

American Teen is an enjoyable documentary. It presents its subjects in a fairly unbiased light. It never tells us how to feel about any given character, instead allowing us to form our own opinions.

I heard there are thousands of hours of footage and I wonder if any more focuses on some of the other teens such as Hannah's best friend who I would have liked to see more of. I'm also curious as to why there was no mention of any gay teens. Are we to believe they don't exist in the Midwest or are simply to afraid to be open?

I think there is more to be seen here and would love to see more footage released.

The DVD special features include character trailers, more footage of Hannah they call Hannah's blogs and some cast interviews. Certainly none of the hours and hours of extra footage unfortunately.

I would definitely recommend watching American Teen. It really is a great documentary and you will find yourself really connected with the subjects. Even Megan, who despite her raging bitchiness, has a couple touching moments.

American Teen is on DVD now and is available exclusively at Target (unless you're in Canada in which case you can get it anywhere).