American Teen Critic Reviews

Parents are another matter. Almost to a man and woman they lay expectations on their children that ignore who those children are.Read the full review

American Teen isn't as penetrating or obviously realistic as her "On the Ropes," but Burstein has achieved an engrossing film.Read the full review

The players are timelessly familiar in American Teen, too. But filmmaker Nanette Burstein tells their stories with a distinctly 21st-century pop and audacity.Read the full review

Here are casual cruelty, crushing heartbreak and pressure from parents and peers, all of which can involve the viewer but are nothing revelatory.Read the full review

The movie is entertaining on a superficial level, but there's little beneath the surface.Read the full review

Reality tv, welcome to the multiplex. If "The Hills" went back to high school and developed wit, perception and a conscience, it might play something like Nanette Burstein's wallop of a doc.Read the full review

Shows how a documentary can be as moving and suspenseful as the best narrative feature.Read the full review

For all of its access and exposure, American Teen seems skin-deep. It's well shot, with good production values and lots of cool music. But it's fun and facile in much the same way reality TV is.Read the full review

This is the kind of movie the people in it might have made, which means that its revelatory power as an investigation of teenage life in America is limited.Read the full review