cinemoz.org

Movie: American Teen

• Director: Nanette Burstein
• Release Date: October 11, 2008
• Run Time: 95 mins
• Genre: Documentary

Documentary following the lives of four teenagers–a jock, the well loved girl, the artsy girl and the geek–in one small town in Indiana through their older year of high school. We see the insecurities, the cliques, the jealousies, the first likes and heartbreaks, and the struggle to make profound decisions about the future. Filming daily for ten months, filmmaker Nanette Burstein urban a deep understanding of her subjects. The result is a film that goes beyond the enduring stereotypes of high school to render complicated childish people trying to find their way into adulthood. Hannah Bailey is smart and wonderful, but a misfit in her high school. She is a liberal, atheist living in a traditional, Christian, conservative town and dreams of moving to California with graduation. Colin Clemens is the star of the high school basketball team–and in Indiana, basketball is everything. Colin is not more than enormous pressure this year playing not only to make his town, his school, and his father proud, but for a college scholarship. Jake Tusing is painstaking to be a nerd in high school. Even if quite amusing and charming one-on-one, he is painfully shy in group situations and crushed with self-doubt. In his older year he vows that nothing will stand in the way of him finding a girlfriend. Megan Krizmanich is the student council Vice President and the youngest daughter of a prominent local general practitioner, nervously awaiting word from Notre Dame University admissions. Wealthy, sweet, smart and well loved, she rules her high school–just don’t get on her terrible side. When Megan’s peers challenge her authority, she can’t help but take action, even if it means risking her future. Mitch Reinholdt is an attractive and charming Varsity basketball jock with a soft side. When he puts his social status on the line, avoiding his well loved friends for dates with artsy Hannah Bailey, he strains to maintain his reputation while learning a new side of himself.