American Teen (new high school doc)

oh yeah,i'd watch this.

Have read mixed reviews of this, but I'm a sucker for movies of this ilk, so I will happily take the s1ocki recommendation.

that'll be $3.

US or Cdn?

i'll need it in liberian coin certificates.

Saw this at Sundance. It is indeed great for all the reasons s1ocki gives. See it!

Is it an actual documentary? Hear somewhere it's scripted. Not that I'm against that if it's good, mind.

really great and enjoyable. wish they'd spent a little more time with the basketball dude and his giant chin. HATED the stupid fantasy animations, they really distracted from the movie

it's a doc.

if i still lived in a town with $2 movies, i'd see this. but since i don't, eff this.

seriously. such assholes.

Is this really a doc? The preview makes these kids seem awfully un-self-conscious in front of cameras.

it's a doc. what's with you people?

I get suspicious.

it's a whole school year so the kids had eight months or whatever to get comfortable in front of the cameras

after watching it, i was still suspicious. i mean it follows all the plot points of a teen movie pretty well.

everyone's comfortable in front of a camera these days with your youtubes and your whatnots.

i worked the NY premiere for this, but I haven't seen it yet :/

were you at the prom at BAM?

when did "the princess" quit being the hot chick?

haha yuppers xp

did you get to hangout with peter and maggie?

when did "the princess" quit being the hot chick?

-- sunny successor, Monday, August 4, 2008 2:19 PM (49 seconds ago) Bookmark Link
a lot of the popular girls in my high school were kinda ugly.

how odd

i didn't but maggie's here a bunch.

the princess in the movie seems to be popular because she is rich (for the town, it seemed) and extremely manipulative. these were also common traits for popular girls in my hs.

Is this scripted?

I <3 Hannah.

me too. she was at the screening i went to.

Are these kids robots?

or just CGI?

btw, i've watched this doc nine times. it still holds up.

i'm white btw

best pixar film of all time imo

Well-made and engrossing, but fashioned into a narrative rather strongly. There's no ambiguity and no surprises - everyone is exactly who we think they're going to be, and every event turns out exactly as we expect it to. So we don't really find any new insight into the lives of high school kids, or even these high school kids.

Good movie, but not as interesting as some other HBO/PBS/etc. series we've seen covering the same ground.

Most interesting 'characters' were the ones we really don't find anything out about - the blonde girl who tells her bitchy friend to fuck off, Hannah's BFF, etc..

still sounds like a porn

wtf did they remake breakfast club

you might note that I'm not complaining about anachronisms - which are crucial to the "alternate reality" theme of the story - I'm complaining abotu STUPID SHIT that is in there for no reason and has nothing to do with the character other than "oooh we need to have the bad guy in black. leather. with nipples. wouldn't that be cool."

i cant differentiate b/w jock/rebel/heartthrob even with the supposed signifiers - the guy in the letter jacket looks like 'the geek' to me? which is more rebellious, a black glove on one hand or wearing a hooded black sweatshirt? if the latter, how the fuck could that guy in the back be 'the heartthrob'? *confused*

saying its a movie about movies is a gross misrepresentation - its a movie about a comic book about comic books. unless they've completely re-written the plot.

its a documentary about teens using teen movies as reference point isnt it

you might note that I'm not complaining about anachronisms - which are crucial to the "alternate reality" theme of the story - I'm complaining abotu STUPID SHIT that is in there for no reason and has nothing to do with the character other than "oooh we need to have the bad guy in black. leather. with nipples. wouldn't that be cool."

-- jeff, Tuesday, August 5, 2008 2:16 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

saying its a movie about movies is a gross misrepresentation - its a movie about a comic book about comic books. unless they've completely re-written the plot.

-- jeff, Tuesday, August 5, 2008 2:22 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

dude i think you are on the wrong thread

I dunno about that. the 80s was a pretty adventurous time for comics.

jeff what the fuck are you talking about

Fish Police!

(j/k that show was terrible)

this is definitely the best version of fish police to hit screens in 08

i'm calling it

Is this scripted?

I read the script and really enjoyed it. I reckon it'll be good. I suspect the grizzled fun-hating ILZingxors aren't the target audience.

The guys on the Filmspotting podcast were interestingly split on this. One lapped it up and the other thought it was phoney as hell.

the other thought it was phoney as hell.

I think that's kinda the point

That it's scripted?

Nothing is scripted. Recreated? Totally. I vaguely mention this on the rolling docu thread, but I think that with American Teen, Burstein was making a statement about reality tv and documentary film.

It's standard for reality tv crews to use totally unethical methods to achieve this sort of seamless, sensationalized storytelling that's anything but 'real.' For example, this past semester, MTV's MADE filmed at my high school; the crew confronted several acquaintances, asking them to trash the MADE contestants (only one complied, and she had never even seen the MADE contestant she was berating!)

With American Teen, I think Nanette showed that it's possible to achieve that same exciting and entertaining storytelling without losing grip on reality and without using completely ethical methods. Because she was so successful, people have accused her film as being fake, but she's able to brush off those accusations because she has a very stellar filmography/reputation to fall back on.

everyone loves it when werner herzog does it

without using completely unethical methods

totally loved this

i think hannah's best friend got the rawest deal u know he luved her and was totally jealous when that dude hit it and quit it

she's awesome though i have a total crush on her

in any event it seemed real enough to me, slocki's got a good point about them feeling comfortable in front of the camera. another thing, unlike shows like MADE or true life or even real world when they go out into the "real world", no one was treating the primary subjects like specimens because everyone was so accustomed to the cameras being around. it was just an accepted thing, and i think that the whole school/town had to adjust probably went a long way to making it seem like the cameras were invisible.

I think Nanette showed that it's possible to achieve that same exciting and entertaining storytelling without losing grip on reality and without using completely unethical methods.

There's a deleted scene in which a girl asks Clarke to prom after he's promised Hannah that they'll go together if no one asks them. We've never seen her before, but the camera's on her as she makes the call. It seems unlikely that it would've just happened that way, so is this scene recreated? I have to admit it did cross my mind that Burstein could've found a girl to ask him out just to create drama in his friendship with Hannah.

I liked this but definitely wasn't expecting it to hew so closely to the reality-TV paradigm.

The degree to which this documentary felt like a fiction film was perhaps compounded by the fact that earlier yesterday I watched The Class, a fiction film that felt in many ways like a documentary.

so what is the consensus on this?

phony as hell but enjoyable

boy i do not remember this one, either.

it's no "american high," the early '00s fox/pbs show, i'll tell you that.