True/False Films

American Teen

In person: director Nanette Burstein & producer Jordan Roberts.

"We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." — The Breakfast Club

In American Teen, Nanette Burstein (The Kid Stays in the Picture) follows four John Hughes archetypes — the beauty queen, the band nerd, the popular jock and the lovable basket case — through a senior year at a Midwestern high school. Over the course of nine months, the young adults cope with standard high school drama — depressing break-ups, broken alliances, private-turned-public pin-ups — and reveal their inner troubles. Though each character belongs to a completely different caste, under Burstein's honest lens, all of them display an understandable angst — their futures are terrifyingly unwritten. American Teen's glossy visual style has drawn comparisons to MTV reality shows, but its core is every bit as thorough and insightful as a Ken Burns epic. Just like its complex characters, American Teen may appear to be one thing at first glance, but beneath the surface seethes the complicated culture of contemporary youth. (CB)