Review: American Teen

The unfortunate thing about American Teen, the new doc by Nanette Burnstein following the lives of five cracker-ass middle-American high schoolers, is that no one starts shooting.

My Girlfriend Made Me See It

The movie succeeds in reworking the idea that kids these days are getting dumber. The truth is that they are addled by technology and video games, that their emotional relations rely on 140 character text messages, and that they are totally unable to find Canada on a map. But it’s also true that they are much, much smarter than their parents and any other past generation that has built the society around them. This becomes the take away point of the movie—that as vapid as you might assume modern day youngsters to be, they are much smarter and have to navigate a new type of complexity and pressure unknown to anyone before them. But you knew that, right?  Your parents sure didn’t. They’re too busy watching Fox News and washing their Camries, wondering when the next Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are going to snipe their kid over Sloppy Joes.

The Straight Dope. Ps Kids:  Stay Off Dope.

Let’s drop this into the category of Netflixable date/girlfriend movies. There is a chance that if you are watching it with the right girl, she might wax so nostalgic about her bygone days as the hottest member student council that it could lead to rememberful sex.  Just be sure to have a blanket, a box of wine, and some condoms you got from your older brother within arms reach. 6/10