American Teen

Director: Nanette Burstein
Country: USA

A documentary that chronicles the lives of five teens in a small Indiana town as they go through their senior year of high school. It highlights the ups and downs of high school life for five different types of teenagers.

"Real life drama" is the best way I can describe this. It was very interesting to see just how close this was to many of the teen dramas, both on TV and on film, that I've seen in the past. As a film, it wasn't a notable one, but I loved the movie despite this fact, probably because I was once a high school teen too, and I remember at least some of the things that these people went through (as well as the "ending" - life after high school). I guess I was just glad to see that I wasn't insane for a few years of my life (or that everybody else was as insane as me).

American Teen is an intriguing study into the lives of American high school students, and I would say high school students in general. It may not be the best documentary you will ever see, but in my opinion it's definitely worth a look.