Web Exclusive: American Teen Preview

June 5, 2008

Hailed as the modern day “Breakfast Club,” director Nanette
Burstein’s “American Teen” shadows the lives of five Indiana
high school seniors dealing with the rituals and pitfalls of the awkwardly
pubescent years of identity construction and self-discovery. An homage to the
archetypal films about high-school cliques, the documentary presents vignettes
of the scholarship-seeking jock, greasy-faced geek, prissy princess, reclusive
rebel and I’d-give-my-left-boob-to-date heartthrob. We’ve heard it all before,
right? Well, not quite — rather than contrived characters valorizing a
stereotypically saturated portrayal of adolescence, the seemingly genuine
“American Teen” cast offers a sugarfree dose of reality, a nostalgic overture
to our high-school sentiments that is sure to win us over this summer. July 25.

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