Load of rubbish!!

Charming and brutal

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The DVD box describes "Confessions of an American Girl" as a "quirky dark comedy". If you are going to make a "black comedy" about a dysfunctional family, it better be entertaining. In order for the film to be entertaining, it better be funny. If it's not going to be funny, it better not be depressing. Unfortunately, "Confessions of an American Girl" is not only not funny, but it is both pointless and depressing. Family goes to visit their jerk father in prison, family come away agreeing he is indeed a jerk. End of story. Throw in some incest, homosexuality, endless suicide attempts, along with the depression, and you wind up with a bad movie. Not recommended. - MERK

Really honestly...apologies to Scott Sandoe's second cousin...but wow! It just doesn't get much worse than this movie. It really felt like a movie written, directed and cast by people who really like good, beautiful independent films (much like the rest of Jena Malone's body of work) but just doesn't have one single little iota of talent. Not a shred, truly. The writing is so bad I really had to laugh. And I'm not a person who immediately objects to cliché. I have more than a little fondness in my soul for melodrama. Particularly when it's Jena Malone. I can forgive a movie a lot when Jena Malone is in it. Not because she's God's gift to acting or anything but she's very pleasant to watch...doesn't do very much different in each role she is in, but in general picks good movies and is pleasant. Saved is fantastic. United States of Leland was pretty good. Heck...Life as a House had some nice moments. But wow! This movie...so bad. It was like the screenwriter chose a different cliché or hackneyed bit of dialogue for each scene and then structured each scene around it. I started cheering every time we reached the cliché for the season. It couldn't decide what genre it was in...it had no idea how to make us feel or identify with characters...it was offensively cliché towards the class of people it was...caricaturing (I can't bring myself to describe it as illustrating) And the father character? The movie would have made a lot more sense titled Ernest Goes to Prison.Please please please don't watch this movie. I watched it all the way through for the same reason one watches a car wreck...but please please get something else. Anything else.Might make a good drinking game...but be sure to have several drinks in you before you start. And to Scott Sandoe's second cousin...yes the director's camera work was odd at a couple of points. And yes...good on him for managing to write a screenplay and managing to get it produced. But let's be honest...it was a bad screenplay. What was wrong with the film more than anything else (even worse than the casting of the father....which actually may have been inevitable given how the character was written...I'm not even sure I can blame that on the actor) was the (I hesitate to even use the word) writing.If you're looking for a reason to not try to become a screenwriter and instead go get your law degree like your Dad wants you to...watch this film. Otherwise...walk into a rental store blindfolded and grab something at random...but make sure, when you're checking it out, to ask the clerk to make absolutely dead certain that the movie you are renting is not Confessions of an American Girl.

Jena Malone never stops amaze me. This movie have everything, including great style. It's about a girl named Rena who wants to kill herself because she thinks that her life isn't worth anything..The movie makes no sense, but oh my goddess it's great. I totally recommend it!

"American Girl" is a wonderful movie about the girl Rena (played by Jena Malone from Donnie Darko) who lives with her family in a trailer. She has to hide when she's with her boyfriend so nobody sees him with her, and her father is in prison for life. After various attempts to kill herself, she decides to visit her father in prison to tell him the news: she is pregnant...The film is funny in a tragic sort of way, and it takes up some serious issues in life. Very recommendable.