Edge of Seventeen

Americans are obsessed with high school. It’s got youth, drama, romance and a vicious hierarchy of relationships and roles. And it’s always been great movie fodder, from Rebel Without a Cause to Mean Girls. In this tradition comes Nanette Burstein’s refreshingly sharp documentary, American Teen (out July 25), which trails five 17–year–olds as they struggle through their senior year in small–town Indiana. Much like high school, the film is alternately funny, emotional, scathing and joyous.

Following the jock, the geek, the popular girl, the heartthrob and the artsy girl, Burstein’s cameras wake up with the kids, ride with them to school, trail along to house parties and ball games — all with surprising authenticity. Artsy and bracingly self-aware Hannah, who yearns to go to film school in California, emerges as the film’s hero. (When she confronts her defeatist — and mostly absent — parents, she rightly jabs, “This is my life, not yours!”)

There’s relationship trauma, bitchy rich kids, topless photos (one girl’s pics get emailed around the entire school!) and getting-into-college angst, all set to a thumping indie-pop soundtrack (Black Kids, MGMT, The Ting Tings). Is being 17 today harder than ever? Yep. Some things never change.

American Teen opens July 25 from Paramount Vantage.

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