American Teen

All the recognisable teen-movie characters are here in this film: the popular, princessy blonde, Megan, and her lady-in-waiting, Ali; the jock, Colin, hoping for a basketball scholarship and forever pushed onward by his sporty father; the nerd, Jake, who lives half of his life in the school corridors and half in the world of his video games; and the outcast arty girl, Hannah, now daringly embarking on a relationship with hunk Mitch.

Though there are a few unexpected twists here, you essentially know the plot - the blueprint for every teen movie is, after all, filed away in our heads somewhere between horror flick and romcom. But the disarming fact in this instance is that this is no John Waters movie, but rather a documentary filmed in Warsaw, Indiana by director Nanette Burstein.

Her subjects are staggeringly honest, openly discussing the intimate details of their young lives. It's an unguardedness that is perhaps only possible for a generation of teens reared on MTV, Facebook and MySpace, perpetually aware of how they present themselves and accustomed to sharing their personal thoughts with the world. As unsettling as this can occasionally be, it makes for an arresting and really rather wonderful film. ·