AMERICAN TEEN
Year: 2008
USA: Paramount Vantage
UK: Optimum Releasing
Cast: Hannah Bailey, Colin Clemens, Megan Krizmanich, Jake Tusing, Geoff Haase, Mitch Reinholt, Ali Wikalinska
Director: Nanette Burstein
Country: USA
USA & UK: 95 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for some strong language, sexual material, some drinking and brief smoking - all involving teens
UK Certificate: 15 contains infrequent strong language
USA Release Date: 25 July 2008 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 6 March 2009 (Limited Release)
Synopsis
Sundance hit AMERICAN TEEN is the touching and hilarious films that follows the lives of four teenagers: the jock, Colin Clemens; the popular girl, Megan Krizmanich; the artsy girl Hannah Bailey; the geek, Jake Tusing.
Synopsis (from UK Prod notes - Maria Carras OR email)
AMERICAN TEEN is the touching and hilarious Sundance hit that follows the lives of five teenagers - a jock, a popular girl, a heartthrob, an artsy girl and a geek - in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. We see the insecurities, the cliques, the jealousies, the first loves and heartbreaks, and the struggle to make profound decisions about the future.
Filming daily for ten months, filmmaker Nanette Burstein (ON THE ROPES, THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE) developed a deep understanding of her subjects. The result is a film that goes beyond the enduring stereotypes of high school to reveal complex young people trying to find their way into adulthood.
Hannah Bailey is smart and beautiful, but a misfit in her high school. She is a liberal living in a traditional, Christian, conservative town and dreams of moving to California after graduation. Colin Clemens is the star of the high school basketball team - and in Indiana, basketball is everything. Colin is under enormous pressure this year playing not only to make his town, his school, and his father proud, but for a college scholarship. Jake Tusing is considered to be a nerd in high school. Though quite funny and charming one-on-one, he is painfully shy in group situations and crushed with self-doubt. In his senior year, he vows that nothing will stand in the way of him finding a girlfriend. Megan Krizmanich is the student council vice president and the youngest daughter of a prominent local surgeon, anxiously awaiting word from the University of Notre Dame admissions. Wealthy, pretty, smart and popular, she rules her high school - just don't get on her bad side. When Megan's peers challenge her authority, she can't help but take action, even if it means risking her future. Mitch Reinholt is an attractive and charming Varsity basketball player with a soft side. When he puts his social status on the line, avoiding his popular friends for dates with artsy Hannah Bailey, he strains to maintain his reputation while discovering a new side of himself.
Hailing from one small Indiana town, AMERICAN TEEN follows their trials and tribulations through their senior year of high school, as their insecurities, cliques, jealousies, first loves, heartbreaks and the struggle to make profound decisions about the future are laid bare on the big screen.
With extraordinary intimacy and a great deal of humour, AMERICAN TEEN captures the pressures of growing up - pressures that come from one's peers, one's parents, and not least, oneself.