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Quint flirts with AMERICAN TEEN, the best documentary at Sundance!

Been looking by Uncle_Pooch	Jan 25th, 2008 03:43:47 AM

and it looks good by Uncle_Pooch	Jan 25th, 2008 03:44:43 AM
stupid computer
Real title should be... by thinboyslim.	Jan 25th, 2008 04:47:15 AM
American Teen: How a narcissistic is born Where are the parents, techers or the hippy councilor from Freaks&Geeks during all this heartbreak and bullying.
Looks Good by Midnightxpress	Jan 25th, 2008 05:07:42 AM
...thou hopefulyl it will get a wider release in the UK than King of Kong ever did...
Yeah, I Remember Being A Teenager Too by LaserPants	Jan 25th, 2008 05:41:46 AM
I just never felt the need to whine about it, or document it for ease of access on YouTube. Why is this generation such a bunch of whiners? Get over yourselves! Life is hard, deal with it.
The point of the review... by tonagan	Jan 25th, 2008 06:35:53 AM
Never watch this film with Tim Burton. It would be awkward.
Topless teens? by scudd	Jan 25th, 2008 07:40:24 AM
Sign me up!
Ya know.. by thinboyslim.	Jan 25th, 2008 07:51:39 AM
making a documentary and then selling it to a national distributor probably isn't going to help the topless kids self esteem, its very well the cheerleader showing her school mates the photo but you guys are showing the world.
Hannah Bailey by BetaRayBill07	Jan 25th, 2008 08:20:58 AM
Here to comfort you. Always. Us talkbackers are definitely the kind, caring sort. Now I must quit doing crack lol.
Isn't this way i watch by erichaislar	Jan 25th, 2008 08:24:32 AM
The Breakfast Club
Fuck mean why by erichaislar	Jan 25th, 2008 08:25:47 AM

What happens to these kids? by Hikaru Ichijo	Jan 25th, 2008 09:03:03 AM
pseudo-documentary. How can a child behave normally with a camera in her face, even in this day and age? This just sounds like more voyeurism.
Lets find some kids getting abused by other kids by INWOsuxRED	Jan 25th, 2008 09:44:33 AM
and then tape it! When the abused kids kill themselves because not only were they abused, but they had adults observe the behavior and do nothing about it, we can make a sequel!
Did this documentary have... by Dr. Stanley Goodspeed	Jan 25th, 2008 11:19:08 AM
explosions and john rambo? ...because if it didn't then i don't care.
American Teen. by WickedMonster	Jan 25th, 2008 11:25:31 AM
I was born in East Africa. I didn't know there were different psychological layers in a teenage person until I arrived in the U.S. a few years ago. Then I learned about the factors of Adolescence and change and puberty and how the schools and the community take special care when the children go through this phase in their lives. Well, guess what? Teens in East Africa don't get treated like special human beings, at least during the time I was studying there, roughly, the early 90's. We get whipped in the ass with canes the size of tree barks if we didn't submit homeworks. If you get through the day with getting whipped three times, consider it the best day of the week. Bullying, cliques, popularity all these things were there, but we never defined it, like its being done here. The girls would beat the boys if they tried something funny, and get whipped by teachers later on. Forget high school, this happened in middle school and junior high. In high school, you get slapped on the face for doing something stupid. Heh, and this used to be the best high school and junior high in the country. American Teen? Boo hoo.
That description doesn't interest me in the least. by rbatty024	Jan 25th, 2008 11:43:46 AM
Sure, we were all a little self-involved in high school (some more than others) but I have no interest in revisiting that period of narcissism through the eyes of a handful of stereotypical students. I'll pass.
ricarleite: 7 Up. by Saluki	Jan 25th, 2008 11:49:39 AM
This has been done, in the 7 Up series. They've been following these people since the 1960's when they were children, and have caught up with them every seven years since.
i'm going to go out and say... by damagedinc	Jan 25th, 2008 12:13:49 PM
that Quint is probably my second favorite writer here after Moriarty and sometimes Quint gets top billing. While some writers have too many geeky lenses with which they look at movies, these two still write from the heart and I relate to their responses, even when they are geeking out.
Uh... no, actually... by Kid Z	Jan 25th, 2008 12:18:04 PM
Re: "In fact, I kept thinking of Matt Stone’s words of wisdom from BOWLING FROM COLUMBINE. I wanted to go to Hannah, Colin and Jake (and Erica, the poor topless photo girl) and look them in the eye and explain how high school isn’t the entire world. These bitches and assholes that are making you miserable have reached their full potential already and these guys will go on to bigger and better things, lead more meaningful lives." What really happens is you go on to end up in a dead end job with these same assholes as your supervisors. Despite the fact that they're invariably talentless morons who couldn't manage a Junior Foods store, "Daddy" invariably has the connections to place them high on the corporate ladder right off the bat. Sad, but too true.
Kid Z by mthrndr	Jan 25th, 2008 01:51:23 PM
That's EXACTLY what I was about to post. I was a nerd in HS, and my friends and I would often take solace in the fact that the assholes in the school would get theirs in some karmic "real world" while we went on to great things. Guess what...those assholes are now real estate developers, lawyers and have other "Daddy" connected jobs, hot wives and all the accoutrements while my friends are caught in an endless loop of lame tech jobs and neverending post-graduate work. yeah, Matt Stone, you really know what the fuck your talking about. not everyone makes it big with cardboard cutout animations.
Kid Z speaks the truth... by Sledge Hammer	Jan 25th, 2008 02:36:10 PM
People want to believe that after school the real world will operate based on merit, not connections, good looks and clique based popularity, but that's not the way things are, and if you really think that after Highschool that the 'geeks will enherit the earth' then you're living in a fantasy land. Highschool isn't different from real life, it's a fucking preview. Take a look around, how many former geeks, nerds and weirdos do you see in positions of power and authority compared to the number of jocks and bitchy prima donnas? Learn to suck it up, because most people never get to taste the mythical "revenge of success".
it's not ALWAYS the truth by oisin5199	Jan 25th, 2008 03:38:37 PM
What KidZ and Sledgehammer talk about is certainly true, but not always. Sometimes the whole "they peaked in high school" observation is also true. I remember at my 10 year reunion seeing a guy who used to be the ultimate pretty-boy jock varsity quarterback and at 10 years was fat and balding. Regardless, some of the social realities may stay the same, but some of the petty shit that goes down in high school doesn't matter anymore. Sometimes people do change or mature. Not always, but sometimes. About the movie, this sounds awfully close to a fantastic documentary/reality show on PBS a few years back called American High that looked at a group of kids in a Chicago suburban high school. I believe it started out on Fox, but got cancelled and continued on PBS. So, no, not very original. I guess it depends on what the film says overall about the teen experience.
What about Bigger, Stronger, Faster Quint? by TheIronGiant	Jan 25th, 2008 04:03:19 PM
I heard that was an awesome doc that screened at Sundance as well. Will we see a review?
It all depends on CLASS, folks by deathbird	Jan 25th, 2008 04:05:35 PM
Average I.Q. scumbags from middle-class/upper-class families can expect to do well in life; average I.Q. scumbags from the working class/poor should not. Face it: this is not a world for the virtuous.
Node32774 by WickedMonster	Jan 25th, 2008 04:12:36 PM
Sudan is not East Africa, and I wasn't looking for pity. I was giving out some perspective on what goes on outside this country. Like I said, this was a few years ago. When I checked back there recently, they have dropped corporal punishment completely. Now they just overload work on children and pay high salaries to teachers who are supposed to teach the "American Standard of Education" but don't know shit, kinda like here. Anyway I am going back to lurking.
BTW by WickedMonster	Jan 25th, 2008 04:13:55 PM
Wasn't this documentary a plot point of STORYTELLING? Paul Giamatti's perspective of High School Students Documentary...
Are nerds always the good guys, anyway? by deathbird	Jan 25th, 2008 04:21:14 PM
Who designs all the weapon systems? Who dreams up the cluster bombs and daisy cutters? NERDS. Shit, I'd rather be an ex-jock haulin' produce.
Yeah HS was bullshit by Dr. Egon Spengler	Jan 25th, 2008 04:31:53 PM
For whatever reason, I was able to get along with almost anyone I came across in HS, but after 4 years of inescapable drama, it became very exhausting; graduation day was such a relief!
How can you praise this? by CyberBeavis1326	Jan 25th, 2008 05:16:11 PM
Seriously as far as a documentary goes his sounds really pretentious and annoying. There's no way I'd waste my money or time on it. This documentary seems like a rip-off of Laguna Beach and those other terrible MTV teen reality shows. I don't watch those pieces of shit, so why in the hell would I care to watch this pretentious dreck? What happened to compelling documentaries like "Bowling For Columbine", "Super Size Me", "Jesus Camp", etc.
The sad truth... by Biggie Kaiju	Jan 25th, 2008 05:28:14 PM
The very same obnoxious have-it-all-on-a-silver-platte r assholes who you envied and despised in high school will very likely be the same kind of obnoxious have-it-all-on-a-silver-platte r assholes who you'll envy and despise in adulthood. Some earn it, most don't. We live in a world where the bad guys usually win and the assholes ALWAYS triumph. Exhibit A: New England Patriots. Watching John Rambo slowly tear Tom Brady's throat out would literally give me an erection. Exhibit B: George W. Bush. In his case, a diagnosis of inoperable, untreatable bone cancer would provoke the previously-described boner. The key is DO NOT LET THE ASSHOLES BREAK YOU. Break them, even if only in your own mind.
Actually Shallow Douches ARE Pretty Much What Life Is About by skoobyx	Jan 25th, 2008 06:44:27 PM
There's also desperation, hopelessness and customer service employment. Enjoy your twenties.
Go Hoosiers! by GravyAkira	Jan 25th, 2008 07:13:24 PM
Indiana high school doc? A must see! Thanks Quint!
This Just In... by MorbidObesity	Jan 25th, 2008 07:36:41 PM
AICN commentators are bitter nerds who've never gotten over high school...developing...
For all the haters above me, listen up by volleygrl56	Jan 25th, 2008 07:43:19 PM
I went to Warsaw where they taped this, I graduated with these guys. You guys think this was a Laguna Beach or Newport Harbor, when we found out the school was being taped we wanted it to be as different from that as possible, cuz really Laguna Beach isnt reality tv, its crap that is staged. This stuff isnt staged. The girl who went topless, dumb mistake, she's still dealing with it. You can say all you want about Megan "the popular girl" she was a bitch and not a cheerleader, dont give her that much credit. But ricarleite dont rag on Colin. He was a basketball player, not a jock. One of the nicest and funniest guys you ever met, he wont be selling carpet anytime soon. And Hannah is brillant. The kids they taped were taped for a reason, they were interesting. I'm sorry if you guys had bad high school experiences but this is a big thing for us, we have our yearbook in video form. I think you should just give the movie a chance. Things are so different in Warsaw. Just have an open mind that's all.
Quint- I'm dying to hear your thoughts on Hell Ride and by SkinJob69	Jan 25th, 2008 09:23:47 PM
Funny Games. Loved the first one, hated the second. I know you had planned to see both, and I'd be really interested in your review of those. And while we're at it: how about Mysteries of Pittsburg? The Last Word? The Wackness? Three other stand-outs at the fest, IMO-
Topless kid & Kiddy Porn by jbs0209	Jan 25th, 2008 10:05:23 PM
So, did Meagan (IIRC) go to jail for Kiddy Porn? Because if the topless kid is under 18, that is what it is. And mere (even unwanted) possession of it is a crime. Or since Meagan is female will she get a pass?
Skin by Quint	Jan 25th, 2008 10:37:05 PM
I'm hoping to see hell ride tomorrow, I have reviews in the works for Funny Games, Mysteries of Pittsburgh and The Last Word... The Wackness was one of my first reviews... it's my favorite of the fest, by far. It might be off the page now, but click on "cool news" above and scroll down to the 18th or 19th and my review should still be there. As for how different this doc is from the TV stuff (I've seen some of that, too), it's all in the personalities they picked to follow. The differences are in the individuals. Unfortunately it has to be seen to be understood... Or I'm just not a good enough writer to express those differences, which might be the case. You'll get a chance to see it, I'm sure, with Paramount Vantage releasing it and then you can see what I'm talking about.
Just go see... by thinboyslim.	Jan 26th, 2008 04:24:01 AM
...Kidulthood, pretty good portrayal of this kind of thing in the UK.
I went to high school in a small town by caruso_stalker217	Jan 26th, 2008 05:15:43 AM
And it couldn't have been more different than this shit.
And these children that you spit on by Moe Ron	Jan 26th, 2008 09:13:00 AM
as they try to make their way, are immune to your consultations, they're quite aware of what they're going through. Or something like that. I went to high school in Indiana, and it's a good thing nobody filmed me. Pretty boring, but with lots of gratuitous masturbation, interspersed with gratuitous pot smoking. Wow. Nothing's Ch-Ch-Ch-Changed.
God Forbid a child ACTUALLY JOINS THE MILITARY! by uss cygnus	Jan 26th, 2008 10:13:40 AM
Right aint-it-liberal-propaganda.com ?
Kidulthood was horrible... by Tourist	Jan 26th, 2008 10:23:16 AM
...Not because it was a bad film mind you, but because if its even one tenth true to life, than my fears that the UK has become a fat drenched cess pool of human slime are true and they need to be nuked off the map and re-started. Jesus, I was a pretty dumb fuck in High School, stole alot, did alot of drugs and generally made peoples lives around me miserable...But I was embarassed watching that movie. I really hope that was a sensationalistic, shallow view of chav scum in Britain. Otherwise thats a whole generation of human refuse.
uss cygnus by Tourist	Jan 26th, 2008 10:25:13 AM
Yeah. God forbid. I would expect better from my kids. Have to depend on the welfare of others and make your living doing other peoples dirty work, or being cannon fodder...awesome. Its sort of on the level of being a trash collector, only you get government handouts taken from hard working people, instead of earning your own way.
Nope, Megan didnt get arrested for topless photos by volleygrl56	Jan 26th, 2008 11:27:21 AM
"So, did Meagan (IIRC) go to jail for Kiddy Porn? Because if the topless kid is under 18, that is what it is. And mere (even unwanted) possession of it is a crime. Or since Meagan is female will she get a pass?" She never went to jail for it, her daddy is a surgeon and could get her out of anything. Too many people are afraid of him, which is sad. She almost did get arrested for something else she did to a friend of mine.
Warsaw is a weird place by jccalhoun	Jan 26th, 2008 11:43:46 AM
I interviewed for a teaching job at Warsaw high school several years ago and let me tell you, as someone from Southern Indiana, Northern Indiana is very different. Ordinarily I wouldn't have any interest in seeing this but since it is in Indiana I'll probably see it at some point.
My question is, how can this really be a documentary by smackfu	Jan 26th, 2008 01:24:00 PM
Generally speaking, people will act differently when being followed by a camera, and teenagers are the most self-conscious people on earth. For example, the forwarding of the candid photograph to all the other students. This may be something the girl would typically do, but there's no way she would do it on camera. Which means a lot of these moments are probably partially scripted or coaxed out of the subjects. It's sort of like that Chef Ramsay show where he goes to restaurants to fix what ails them. Invariably, the kitchens are a disgusting pile of health code violations. The thing is, any restaurant owner or chef with an ounce of sanity is going to clean up the place thoroughly for appearances, even before the show runners scout the place, so the fact that the kitchens are messy at showtime means the people directing the 'reality show' encourage them to mess it up for drama. Same with this 'documentary'. It's possible to coax people into relaxing and acting naturally for a documentary, but it's impossible for someone to ignore their innate instinct to hide their secret deplorable acts from others.
jbs0209 by Tourist	Jan 26th, 2008 04:55:29 PM
So we're going to send "Megan", the girl who took the picture of herself, the boy she sent it to, and all the subsequent receivers of the photo to jail for kiddie porn now? Even if there was no kiddies involved? Man, I'm damn lucky we didn't have camera phones back when I was in school. The amount of times I'd been naked and drunk, I would have been like a mini pornographic empire.
kiddie porn laws... by jccalhoun	Jan 26th, 2008 09:35:07 PM
Well since Genarlow Wilson got arrested when he was 17 for having oral sex with his 15 year old girlfriend and spent 2 years in jail before getting released, I wouldn't be surprised if a teenager circulating a picture of another under 18 teenager could be distribution of child pornography.
Nothing that can't be solved... by Sleeperkid	Jan 26th, 2008 10:06:57 PM
...by staring at a lake.
You will get laughed at, you will get burned by performingmonkey	Jan 27th, 2008 10:04:42 AM
That's life, unfortunately. If you have a certain individual spark about you then that's actually quite dangerous at HS. The parents are often to blame by allowing their kids to grow up with asshole attitudes toward people. That's because THEY are assholes toward their own colleagues/friends etc. If a girl is treated too 'princess-y' all her life, when she hits HS she's gonna have problems. Same with parents who neglect their kids. Teens are often too wrapped up in themselves because their family life sucks. It's human nature to push out the weak and look up to the strong. Now fuck you all.

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Quint flirts with AMERICAN TEEN, the best documentary at Sundance!

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