Steineded How sad is this?

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

SnoopyStyle It's Warsaw, Indiana and it's the senior year for a group of high school students. Megan Krizmanich is the queen bee and the rich type-A princess. Colin Clemens is the basketball star and closest thing to Jesus. Jake Tusing is the lowly pimply band geek who is intent on getting a girl. Hannah Bailey is the artsy rebel girl with best friend Clark and looking to leave to make movies. She sleeps with boyfriend Joel and they break up. There is a sexting incident and Megan bullies the girl. Colin is under pressure in need of a scholarship.The most obvious question is that if these are even real people. That's a loaded question for a supposed documentary. It seems a lot of it is setup by the filmmaker. It's a little too slick at times. I'm not talking about the animation inserts or the one-on-one interviews. The basic interactions sometimes feel set up. I hope nobody writes dialog for these kids but I wouldn't be surprised if the kids do. The movie does get the awkwardness and uncomfortableness of being a teenager. It just feels like a coat of gloss has been painted on top of any realism.

Sam Stapylton I loved this film. Growing up in England has always been different when it comes to school. I have to say though as I've recently become a teaching assistant at school I found my self yet again comparing Uk and American schooling and the one thing that they both have in common is the geek, the princess, the jock, the rebel and the heart throb. This is exactly why, as grown ups we still put ourselves into boxes. The kids in this film are just as frightened and excited to see what their future holds and where they fit into the world around them. You connect with them from the beginning. Really well filmed and loved the animation spotted through the film. I wish them all well and look forward to seeing if they get to where they need to be in their lives.

meeza OK, I am going to get into pubercissm (true, will not find that term in dictionary) here with my take on the adolescent doc "American Teen". The central teen figures here are: Hannah Bailey (free spirit), Colin Clemens (b-ball jock), Megan Krizmanich (narcissistic beauty), Jake Tusing (geek), and Mitch Reinholt (hunk). We might have been one of these personifications in our teen spirit nirvana existence, or maybe a combo of these, or maybe none. But undoubtedly there is an authentic relative component of "American Teen" that makes it worthy to explore for anyone who has experienced high school teen life. Director Nanette Burstein follows these teenagers around during their senior year as they go through their trials & tribulation norms of: insecurity, pressure, loneliness, acceptance, bullying, popularity and mucho mas. Burstein does a formidable job in letting the teens be genuine with their elevator emotions; and it does not seem it was staged as "The Brunch Club", a silly sequel to "The Breakfast Club". I was in "The Pun Club". OK, enough! Back to the doc! The teens reside in a small town in Indiana because they were born in a small town, and they live in a small town, they will probably die in a small town just like me. Oops! Got too excited there with Cougar fever! The teen that struck me the most was the charismatic Hannah, the high school bohemian who yearns to be loved and also extract herself from small town life after graduation by moving to Los Angeles to be a filmmaker. Smell a "Hannah and Her Sisters" sequel here? "American Teen" is not a perfect documentary with its few flaws on emphasizing too many obvious forms of teenage angst; but I do recommend for every parent of a teenager to take the time to catch a viewing of this documentary with their adolescent offspring so they do not forget what they have to go through on a daily basis in tough high school life. **** Good

doctorsmoothlove As of tomorrow at 9:45 p.m., I will no longer be a teenager. It's a great transition, as I enter my adult life. And as such, I have decided to discontinue the star system for rating movies. Applying stars to a movie is highly subjective and discourages readers (and even me) from actually reading reviews. I won't eliminate stars on the first 100 reviews but expect no more. Instead, I will simply recommend or fail to recommend a title. Additionally, I will also begin reviewing videogames. Since I'm very busy with university, work, and my on-campus organization, don't expect too many. Please enjoy my final review written while I was a teenager.I won't be a teenager tomorrow night at this time, so I have less than 24 hours to critique American Teen with complete authenticity. The film is a documentary of sorts about the lives of five teenagers (then high school seniors) as they prepare for college. Director Nanette Burstein shot many hours of footage for this film and carefully chose which should be in the finished product. The result is almost too stylized to be considered a documentary. American Teen lacks the grit of contemporary members of its genre. March of the Penguins was similarly directed, but well edited and brilliantly scored.A guy has pimples while addressing the camera, only to be clear-faced in the next instant. Very strange. That guy, as you may imagine, is the nerdy guy. The other four characters fall into the jock, preppy girl, artistic rebel punk girl, and preppy guy archetypes. They might as well be the cast of the next Ar Tonelico game. All of them are faced with stereotypical problems their social class demands. I was moved, at least, by the characterization each person receives. They aren't just walking drones. The preppy guy begins dating the punk girl at one point and the preppy girl has to overcome her sister's suicide. Young audience members may identify with one of the cast more than most critics would have you believe. Yet despite the inclusion of non-traditional elements, each person adheres to our expectation. People will seldom admit that they are much less complicated than they think. This movie proves it.In my eccentric high school experience, I encountered many people who fit into these categories and additional ones. I won't go into detail, but there wasn't much I could get from this movie that I didn't experience. There is what I consider the film's greatest flaw. As the high school featured is in a small town, only certain types of people are present. My school had approximately 2000 kids at any given time. We had transgendered students, twenty-six different ethnic groups, mentally handicapped students, homosexual students, non-English speaking students, exchange students, and refugee students. A film called American Teen should be from the perspective of members of every group I mentioned and those I didn't see in high school. Religious issues are also absent. A lot of kids struggle with finding their spiritual identity. Why not find someone like that for this movie? A lot of "adults," or people who haven't been in high school for a long time have praised this movie for "showing the real concerns of children." I won't refute the film's ability to do that. If you are one of those people, please remember that the film only addresses a minority of concerns. I didn't dislike the movie, but I felt disappointed while watching it. Here is a documentary that presents us with an aura of its own lack of faith in its ability to be entertaining. People are inherently entertained by learning new things. I don't want a faux Hollywood teen movie with lower production values that isn't as insightful as its bigger counterpart. Heathers or Mean Girls will teach you a lot more about North American teens than this movie will.