AMERICAN TEEN REAL LIFE BREAKFAST CLUBThis documentary tracks the lives of a handful of students in Indiana through their school year in 2006 and is comparable on many levels to the Breakfast Club, the 1995 John Hughes film about different types of school cliques who have to serve a day in detention together. We have the geek, jock, princess, rebel and outcast only after the movie is over, you wonder exactly which label belonged to whom, or do the labels apply at all.
This is the first documentary I've seen that does not feel like a documentary. Through creative use of animation and a strong score it plays much more like an engrossing, hypnotic regular drama. To watch the raw, emotional cruelty, heartbreak, and social pressure reminded me of my own high school experience. In contrast to Hughes' Breakfast Club, in American Teen we see deep down into the lives of these students: peer pressure, parents, stress, relationships and goals set for after graduation. The film brings you into the movie and demands that you feel and relate to these kids and you do; sometimes awkward, sometimes painful but always real and universal.
PICK: A hypnotic snapshot of the lives of real American teenagers.
