Hey guys, happy Sunday!So, I saw a great documentary yesterday -- American Teen. It premiered at Sundance earlier in the year and is now in theaters nationwide.
Though posters tout the movie as a modern-day Breakfast Club, the kids are much more complicated than the fictional characters of the John Hughes classic.
One teen in particular, Hannah, seen in the photo as the Ally Sheedy freak-girl character, is heartbreakingly awesome. An artist who dreams of film school and lives with her grandma, Hannah is just like the girls I write into my novels -- the girls on the edge of knowing who they are and accepting themselves. Hannah has troubles with an ex-boyfriend that throw her into depression and threaten her graduating school and then, when she dates a popular jock, Hannah learns the hard way that peer pressure can ruin a relationship. So Pretty in Pink, but real life. I loved Hannah. In many ways, I feel like I *was* Hannah in high school, so maybe that's why...
The other kids are equally complicated and each struggling with their own family pressures and worries about the future. In Warsaw, Indiana, they are growing up and learning who they want to become. The geek boy wonders if he'll ever have a real girlfriend. The jock is trying to get a scholarship for basketball because his dad won't pay for college. The popular girl is especially screwed up and the film does a good job of suggesting just why she's become that way...
Anyway, can't say enough about this great movie. I hope you get a chance to see it.
Hugs,
Heather
Heather Davis is the author of
Never Cry Werewolf
Coming in April 2009 from HarperTeen!
www.heatherdavisbooks.com
Posts
2 comments:
This is one movie I really want to see!
teri
i really want to see this movie. a couple of these kids were my patients.... i never thought of warsaw as a place to do a documentary...
Post a Comment