So much average

Good concept, poorly executed.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Personally this was one of my favorite documentaries. The documentary follows a few seniors from different cliques, in Warsaw, Indiana. The reason why I think this was a great movie was because it really showed some of the pressure in that entails being a senior in high school and the caste system that high school really is. There was one part in the movie that I particularly did like, and it was when a more popular guy started seeing a girl that was a free spirit, I enjoyed this because it seemed real and showed true emotion and chemistry. I gave this movie a 8 out of 10 only because there were some cheesy animations to represent the future/dreams of the subjects of the documentary, and it was somewhat unnecessary. Overall, I recommend this documentary highly, it shows the similarities between all high schools and really gives an inside look on what it is like to be an "American Teen" - Christian J.

I enjoyed it at first but then started thinking about how the odds of this movie being authentic are pretty much 0. Yet another "documentary" director pushing the genre envelope. Countless shots where you think, "well, how convenient was that...what are the odds of her camera being there".Why not just call it a movie with untrained kids doing the acting based on their experiences. A fantastic movie called Kids (1999) was done in a similar style sans lies & deception. Does she not think her movie can be enjoyed as fiction? This manipulation frustrates me. I was recently at a documentary festival where the director fessed up to staging a few of the funnier scenes...someone in the audience followed up this revelation with a "why did you do that?". he just shrugged. i feel that sort of lack of credibility & concern from the director when watching this film.watch Kids and see how a film "shot in documentary style" should be made. or 7-up/Hoop Dreams if you want reality. don't settle for this middling attempt.

I kept thinking throughout the whole film that there was something inauthentic to it. It seemed staged. Manufactured. Not all of it but certain plot points seemed "created". That kept me from really enjoying the film. Additionally, Megan's Hate Crime goes largely unpunished, at least what they chose to show. If she had scrawled a racial slur on that young man's window, it would have been taken very seriously. It sends a dangerous message, although that can be said for a lot of this film.Bottom line on this film for me is that it doesn't feel authentic. It feels false. Even though she probably is guilty of it as well, I never get the feeling proceedings have been staged while watching a film by Barbara Kopple.

Any enjoyment I may have experienced watching this film was killed by a nagging doubt that what I was watching was authentic.Is it just me ... or does this film smell fishy? Not only is the camera ALWAYS in the right place when key events occur but each shot has degree of polish that would seem to have required a lot of advanced planning.This feels like some sort of mockumentary and I'm amazed it has been so positively reviewed. Is America this naive? Even if this film is real, it doesn't give us any more insight into the world of teen cliques than we got 25 years ago from John Hughes films. With most documentaries, there is are questions about what liberties were taken for the sake of the presentation but "American Teen" goes beyond that. I'm hoping Nanette Burstein will soon say, "By the way, I hope everyone realizes this was a gag." Otherwise, she has lost all credibility with me.