American Teen and Buttercup Bake Shop

American Teen

Written/directed by Nanette Burnstein

I quote poet Walt Whitman, "I Celebrate myself, and sing myself/And what I assume you shall assume/
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." For this displaced modern midwesterner, I assumed this latest fad documentary would be verse near and dear to my own upbringing. The sort of cinema which would bring to light a true depiction of today's teens, who are not cast members of Laguna Beach, the O.C., Gossip Girl, or High School Musical. But rather products of changing times, social pressures, hormones, and fast food consumption. Atoms of my own soul.

I quote my friend Gemma, "Whomp, whomp." This is not that film. Clever editing transforms five Indiana high school students into caricatures from a John Hughes movie (see the Breakfast Club-inspired poster) or "Heathers" without the irony. The jock, the outsider (she IS Ally Sheedy), the band geek, the rich girl, and a stereotype I've already forgotten. There are confessionals of teen angst, some animation sequence which express their inner turmoil with being middle-class white kids in suburban America (Juno did this with more flair), and a handful of typical awkward social situations (dates, proms, house parties).

As much as I am not recommending this film, I will admit that the band geek/freshman hottie romance of convenience scenes seemed pretty dead-on. Favored moments; when the hottie's mom is cutting the band geek's hair, attempting to make him look less like a Ninja Turtle, and the hottie looks into the camera "People still won't like him. He's weird." Wow, out of the mouths of babes. She later cheats on him at a neighborhood swimming pool. Maybe it is Laguna Beach?

The only thing more saccharine than the overall message of this film...frosting shots at Buttercup Bake Shop. Sort of like Soco and lime for the underage crowd.