American Teen is an entertaining yet uneven documentary that focuses on the lives of several senior year students, who attend the Warsaw Community High School, in the predominately white, conservative town of Warsaw, Indiana.

But one could be forgiven if thinking they have stepped into the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois, which was the stomping ground of many films written and directed by 1980s teen movie king, John Hughes. Of particular mention is influential teen movie The Breakfast Club, which saw a group of teenagers of differing cliques converge during a stint of weekend detention.

Now, the same caricatures that made Hughes’ teen movies -as well as other films in the teen genre- such formulaic yet entertaining fair, have been pounced upon and sufficiently used to create an engrossing, yet not wholly realistic in tone, documentary.

The films featured subjects read like a laundry list of clichés: There is Jake, the socially awkward and lovelorn geek, who suffers from bouts of acne and loves video games; Hannah, the Juno of the group (minus the teen pregnancy), who pines to leave her restrictive surroundings and move to San Francisco; Colin, a basketball player who is gunning for a University scholarship; and Megan, the over achiever and stock villain of the film.

Director Nanette Burstein’s –who received an Oscar nomination for boxing documentary On the Ropes – has created an often insightful and engrossing film. Yet, her insistence in creating a movie, and not document real life, undercuts whatever honesty has been portrayed on screen, with various moments coming off as scripted and staged.

These include: exchanges of dialogue between students while walking along the school’s corridors; the pairing and breakup of social misfit Hannah with popular jock, Mitch (one of Colin’s teammates); and the coincidental capture of Jake’s girlfriend with another man. 

Also, the irritating use of animation driven sequences, which was no doubt used to enhance the viewer’s insight into the minds of these American teens, instead creates a synthetic tone.    

American Teen’s strength is its success in capturing the soap opera which is adolescence. The usual staples of peer, social, parental and educational pressures still exist, but they are now coupled with the rising use of technology amid Generation Y.

A by-product of this is cyber bullying, which Megan conspires in to destroy the reputation of a supposedly close friend, by circulating a topless picture all other the internet.

Also shown is the hyper sexed nature of today’s youth, with conversations revolving around first kisses, now replaced with first blowjobs. 

Not to say that American Teen is one big farce, but there is enough drama during senior year high school without the aid of staged moments and post production wizardry. 

It follows the zeitgeist of documentary filmmaking, the era of Michael Moore, where truth is manipulated in order to create an entertaining film, which American Teen no doubt is. Yet the question of its authenticity will linger in the minds of some viewers.