American Teen (2008)

I promise to watch a movie tonight with actual actors. For sure.  But I needed just one more documentary this week.  Its going to be hard to write this review without making personal attacks.  I have to try to remain neutral and just talk about the movie.  Okay....breathe.....so the movie is based on the lives of a few teenagers in Indiana.  Just the basic day to day activities, getting ready for college, prom, etc.    Sounds almost boring, or annoying...but it wasn't.  I thought it was very real, sad, scary and inspiring all at once.  There were a few kids that I wanted to punch in the face, which for me must be pretty bad as I do not condone violence!  One girl in particular...wait...I am not going to get into this, I swore I wouldn't because these are kids who hopefully have grown up by now to be more mature and nicer adults. HOPEFULLY.  But that Megan...oooooh I wanted her to get hers in the end.  UGH this movie was not really representative of my high school experience, but it kind of was....my school was smaller. I pretty much knew every single person in my graduating class, so a lot of this stuff was just not my experience so hard to put myself in their places.  Also....things are so different now in the technological age. I feel so sorry for kids today, that can't get away from that.  It takes gossip to a whole new level (as shown in the movie).  When you can be sitting with your boyfriend while your Mom cuts his hair, and be texting another boy at the same time...um....thats just not cool.  So happy its not the way I had to live my life as a teenager in the 1980s.  Also the pain that some of the kids went through because they either weren't noticed at all....or didn't fit in.  Just made me so happy I am homeschooling my very interesting children.  I can just imagine Ian being one of those kids, the ones who just don't fit in...the ones that get bullied.  It was heartbreaking at times.  There was one part in particular with a girl named Hannah, who was the one that I really "got" the most.  She didn't want to go to school after she and a boy broke up.  This went far beyond "didn't want to go to school" this was, making herself sick, can't get out of the car, the dad trying to help by offering to go with her....kind of didn't want to go to school. I have been there. Its hard.  I really felt those scenes in a very real way.  I was there, I was in that car, I was crying and freaking out...I spent a year in therapy over it. Not over a boy, but the feelings were probably similar.  Following her story through the movie was by far the best part.  This was a great movie, hard to watch at times, as a parent, (and even as a former teenager) because of the reality of it....but really, really good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486259/