A few days ago I saw a movingdocumentary by Nanette Burstein called "American Teen." It follows the lives ofa bunch of kids during their senior year of high school in the small Midwesterntown of Warsaw, Indiana. The weird thing about the film is that it's beingmarketed not as a documentary, but as a teen flick, a modern-day John Hughesfilm. Check out the crazy ad campaign that has these real characters aping theposes of the teens in Hughes' popular film, "The Breakfast Club."
Obviously the similarity betweenthe two posters is deliberate, even down to the clothes they're wearing. What Idon't get is who the studio is trying to reach with this ad campaign. Certainlynot people my age who saw "The Breakfast Club" over twenty years ago. My 13-year-olddaughter loves "The Breakfast Club" which she's watched on DVD, but I'm notsure she or any of her friends would recognize the poster image. Leah and Isaw the previews for "American Teen" together. When I told her this morningthat I saw the film she said that she really wanted to see it. But when I askedif she realized it was a documentary about a group of real kids in a real highschool in Indiana, she seemed disappointed and said that made her want to seeit less. I guess Leah's reaction explains the reason for the deceptive marketing. But I really don't get it, I think the fact that it's a documentarymakes it way more powerful, not less! Several articles I read about the filmmention how they avoided using the "D" word in the promotional materials. When diddocumentaries become something film studios needed to hide? It's one of myfavorite art forms--what is more effective than an excellent documentary?
I guess I'm being a bit naïvehere. Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" is the top-grossing documentary of alltime with a box office take of $119 million since its release in 2004. That'shuge, of course, especially for a documentary, but it's still only a third ofwhat "The Dark Knight" grossed in its first weekend. The reality is that mostpeople are more likely to watch documentaries on TV, if at all, but they go outto the movies for pure escapism. I'd take a good documentary over most featurefilms any day. But they are not easy sells to the studios and most documentaryfilmmakers have a hell of a time getting funding or a distribution deal.
I remember what a big deal AlGore's "An Inconvenient Truth" was when it came out in 2006 and yet it "only"made $24 million. Leah recently saw this film in her humanities class at schooland I suppose that's the kind of afterlife the makers of documentaries dreamof. I was surprised by Leah's negative reaction about "American Teen" being adocumentary because I've taken her to so many that she's loved--films such as"Super Size Me" (she's never touched anything form McDonald's since), thedelightful "Mad Hot Ballroom," and the moving "Spellbound." Leah and I bothsobbed through those last two, but I doubt the studios were all that moved bytheir respective theatrical grosses of $8.1 and $5.7 million. That's still onthe high side when you look at the list of the Top 500 documentaries in termsof their box office receipts. Leah also loved the poignant "Paper Clips" (whichearned $1.1 million) and the controversial "Jesus Camp" ($902,000). I'vewritten about many other documentaries over the years, includingsuch outstanding films as:
"The Fog of War" ($4.2 million)
"Born into Brothels ($3.5 million)
"Grizzly Man" ($3.1 million)
"Capturing the Friedmans ($3.1 million)
"The Endurance: Shackleton'sAntarctic Adventure" ($2.4 million)
"The Life and Times of HankGreenberg" ($1.7 million)
"Who Killed the Electric Car?"($1.6 million)
"Anne Frank Remembered" ($1.3million)
"In the Shadow of the Moon" ($1.1million)
"The Eyes of Tammy Faye" ($1million)
"35 Up" ($922,000)
"Trembling Before G-d" ($788,000)
"For All Mankind" ($770,000)
All of those are in the Top 100.The film made about my brother-in-law Jeff Tweedy (and featuring my sister andnephews), "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," comes in at #123 with a totaldomestic gross of $445,522, right after "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War onJournalism" and "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl." Still avery respectable take for a documentary but probably less than the cateringbudget on a typical superhero film. Oy, listen to me with all these numbers,you'd think I was the money-obsessed studio executive! I'm just listing thesefigures here to educate myself on the realities of the documentary world. Iunderstand it better, but I'm still saddened that Paramount Vantage feels itneeds to pass off an excellent film like "American Teen" as a non-documentary.It reminds me of how the previews for foreign films that try to "cross over"never include a word of dialogue because the American distributors thinkaudiences will stay away in droves if they know they're going to have to read asubtitle. Is the American movie-going public really that stupid? I think not.
Apparently there was a bidding warat Sundance for "American Teen" and I can't blame director Nanette Burstein(who also made the excellent "On the Ropes" and "The Kid Stays in the Picture")for wanting her film to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Afterspending a few million for the American rights, I'm sure Paramount had theirmarketing wunderkinds working overtime to come up with a plan that would getthe film into the multiplexes. But is pitching it as a modern-day "BreakfastClub" the best they could do?
On the other hand, Burstein does agood job shoehorning the five featured kids into the teen archetypes seen inHughes' film. Megan Krizmanich is the Princess. She lives happily at the top ofthe food chain and is attractive, confident, and ruthless. We see that she isperfectly willing to humiliate a friend if her power is threatened in any way.But her life is not without its stresses. Megan's parents desperately want herto get accepted at Notre Dame and she worries that she'll disappoint them.Hannah Bailey is the Rebel who dreams of getting the hell out of Indiana andmoving to California to make movies. She marches to her own drummer but isdevastated by two break-ups during her senior year and terrified she willsuccumb to the mental illness that has ruined her mother's life. Hannah liveswith her grandmother but her damaged parents appear in the film long enough totell her she's not special enough to make it in on her own in California. Oy.Mitch Reinholt is the Hearthrob. During the course of the year he takes aliking to quirky Hannah. He tries to introduce her into his group of popularfriends but ultimately worries about his social standing at the school andcruelly dumps her via text message. Colin Clemens is the Jock, the star of thehigh school basketball team. He seems to have it all but we see the intensepressure he's under from his family to get an athletic scholarship. His fatheronce had dreams of making it in pro sports and now, working as an Elvisimpersonator, he is living vicariously through his son's achievements on thebasketball court. Will Colin choke from all this pressure and screw up hisfuture? Jake Tusing is the Geek who is painfully shy but desperate for a girlfriend.Jake is so awkward that he dreams of going somewhere new for college andreinventing himself, possibly as a "Mr. Muscles," if he works out a lot.
I was riveted throughout the filmand fully engaged in the stories of these teens, especially the two I couldmost relate to -- misfits Hannah and Jake. In Hannah I recognized my own "I'mabove all this crap" high school stance that I used to camouflage myinsecurities and my secret desire to fit in with the kids I thought I had no time for. I could well relate to Jake's geekiness and wanted to shout at thescreen, "Just hold tight, Jake, it's all going to work out. Your skin is goingto clear up, you're going to learn how to talk to girls, and you're going tofind the right niche of friends." I found Jake completely endearing although hewas even odder than I was with his disturbing collections of taxidermiedanimals and his obsession with video games. But for me, Hannah is the emotionallinchpin of the film. When a sudden break-up with her first boyfriend leavesher clinically depressed and she refuses to go to school, I was so fearful ofher not getting into college and out of Warsaw that I wanted to rush over anddrive her to class myself. When it looks like she might choose to bow to pressureand stay in Indiana rather than pursuing her dreams in California, I wanted toask my wife if we could adopt the 18-year-old and send her to USC. I knew manykids like Megan, Mitch, and Colin, but they were in different worlds. YetBurstein showed the very real adolescent horrors experienced by the kids whoseem to have it all and it made you care for them as well.
I always wonder why anyone wouldagree to be so publicly exposed in this way. Of course today, with the popularity of so-called Reality TV, the shock factor of watching the real livesof people has completely worn off. I remember when the PBS series "An AmericanFamily," by documentary filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond, premiered in 1973when I was a freshman in high school, it was a sensation. I became completely addicted to the story of the Loud family from SantaBarbara and I was glued to the set as Bill and Pat Loud's marriagedisintegrated before our eyes, as their oldest son Lance came out of the closetand moved to the Chelsea Hotel in New York, and as the other kids Kevin, Grant,Delilah, and Michele went through the horrors of adolescence in theirprivileged affluent world.
The Louds reunited oncamera a few times, once in 1983 and once in 2003 when 50-year-old Lance Loud was dying ofAIDS. But despite the fame and opportunity the show affordedthem (Lance in particular became a darling of the avant-garde), several membersof the Loud family were bitter about their experience and regretted taking partin it. With no precedent, they weren't prepared for the way the countrydissected their lives and judged their actions asdepicted on the screen. Even Lance said that he thought the filmmakers had intentionally edited the series to make him seem obnoxious and grating.
I couldn't help but wonder if thesubjects in "American Teen" had any misgivings about their participation inthis film. From the interviews I've seen since the film opened last Friday, itdoesn't look like it. Popular girl Megan, now a sophomore at Notre Dame (yes, she got in -- sorry for that spoiler!), seemsespecially articulate and appealing -- a big surprise since she comes across asa mean whack-job in the film. An episode involving Megan forwarding a toplesspicture of a classmate to everyone in the school and then making cruel prankcalls to the teen is particularly chilling. And the way Mitch dumps Hannahmakes him seem like a Class A creep but there the two of them are promoting the film together. In the short text updates during theclosing credits, Megan assures us that since the film was made she's matured. Alot. And Mitch self-consciously swears that he'll never break up with anyone bytext message again.
I wonder how I would have come offin such a series. Here is the page from my yearbook that introduces the sectionfor the senior class at Von Steuben High School in Chicago. It could serve as a poster forthe 1976 version of "American Teen." There I am in the top left, the troubled,disgruntled geek, sleepwalking through many of my classes and trying my bestnot to engage with my classmates. On the top right are the jocks, lording overthe gymnasium like mini-Mengeles, deciding who will live and who will die.Bottom left is the Class Clown, a popular guy who uses his outgoing humor tobop between several social strata at the school. And in the bottom right is a member of the popular set, very involved in all school activities, head ofthe afterschool clubs, and always wearing the right makeup and stylish clothes(in this case the dreaded 70s elephant bells!). While it would be fascinatingto watch today, may I express my gratitude that such a documentary was nevermade?
Now, partly because of thedesire to blur the lines of documentary filmmaking, Nanette Burstein is gettingcriticized by some for staging scenes and even scripting the film. I believe hervehement statements that these claims are completely false. "I was reallysurprised actually and have been upset by it," Burstein said of these critics."I think it's unusual to have a very narrative documentary, so people aren'tused to it. I think people have a hard time believing teenagers are willing tobe that intimate on camera. So sometimes I feel I'm being criticized for whatthe film's achievements are." The director said she's being targeted forwanting to make a documentary film with broad appeal. "I do want as many peopleto see it as possible," Burstein said, "and I'm not approaching it with as muchof a political agenda as more of an anthropological one. And I want toentertain people, I want to move them in the same way a fiction film would."
I worry about the young stars of"American Teen." They've been traveling the country together to promote thefilm and I fear that their sudden celebrity may not be a good thing. As part ofthe ad campaign, Paramount has set up glitzy Facebook pages for each of the"characters," inviting fans to become their "friends." Even more disturbing isseeing this group pal around with each other. Back at Warsaw High School,someone like Megan never would have given Hannah the time of day and she wouldhave looked straight through Jake, not seeing him at all. I thought that seeingthem hanging out and joking around with each other during interviews would besomehow reassuring but instead it seems an affront to the natural world order.Oh, don't get me wrong, I think shedding these ridiculous cliques and findingcommon ground with people from other social groups is a very important part ofgrowing up. It took me until my 30th high school reunion to fullylet go of some of my biases about my former classmates and jump over that once impenetrable barricade. But I think such a move needs to comenaturally as a result of age, experience, and maturity. If these kids hadn't made this film, there'sno way they would be palling around together. Iguess there's one social group that trumps all others. Megan, Jake, Hannah,Mitch, and Colin are now members of the most coveted clique among adolescents in this country:
The Famous Kids.