Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

‘American Teen’ captures a year in the life

Almost every parent remembers a baby’s first steps.

But very few consciously watch a child step from adolescence to adulthood, and that’s what the movie “American Teen” aimed to capture.

With its mixture of comedy and tragedy, the documentary was a hit at January’s Sundance Film Festival and was considered evidence that the clever, compelling teens of “Juno” really do exist. It opens Friday in select cities.

“High school is a timeless experience, a rite of passage that we all go through,” says documentarian Nanette Burstein (“The Kid Stays in the Picture”), who spent a year following her subjects at a public school in Warsaw, Ind.

This month, she gave birth to daughter Natasha Sophie, and friends have been teasing her about why she would want to become a mother after spending so much time with teenagers. But she says it made her even more eager.

“Teenagers tend to cut off their parents when they reach 13 or 14,” she says. “Parents assume the worst. Extreme behavior exists, but it’s the anomaly. (‘American Teen’) should be a huge relief for parents.”

The students captured on film say they have changed a lot since then, and they describe the film as a kind of living yearbook.

“It’s a romantic time, a traumatic time,” Burstein says. “There’s insecurity, heartbreak, and everything is larger than life. Your behavior is erratic, and you’re emotionally vulnerable. There’s peer and parental pressure, and yet somehow we get on the right track.”