Wednesday night's screening of American Teen at the Los Angeles Film Festival opened with a really fun, energetic set by Sunny Day Sets Fire, whose song "Lack of View", from upcoming July release Summer Palace, is included in the film's soundtrack. Sunny Day Sets Fire paid tribute to the night held at the Henry Ford Amphitheater by totally rocking out in front of the expectant movie screen, their shadows exaggerated on the walls around us, and framed by the trees in the back, all and all painting a very nice picture.

The band was well into "Stranger" as we arrived, and launched into "Wilderness" next, singer Mauro's voice and each backing vocal ringing out nicely. The band's other singer Onyee was tiny and feisty in her short shorts and sneakers, whether beating the hell out of the tambourine, switching to drums, or manning the keyboards and xylophone. Guitarist Max joked with us about "being the best seated crowd ever" and that this was an amazing place for them to play; "we're really a small band" he explained. That kind of modesty made it really funny later when he suddenly leapt off the stage and ran down the aisle, banging a cowbell and whipping up the crowd's energy. The whole band had seriously fun stage presence - Onyee sang "Adrenaline" and "Map of the World" with a piercing voice and mesmerizing presence, and during the former, she leapt at every chance to tambourine as hard as the guys hit their guitar strings. Here is a rough video clip of "Adrenaline":

When their set had ended, I felt like it had already been a fun night, if maybe a bit short, so the movie afterwards seemed like a mere bonus. As it happens, it turned out to be quite a serious bonus.

American Teen starts out a bit rocky, with quick cuts that give it that MTV's Real World feel, especially in the sense where people seem to be over-reacting to incidents because the details have been skipped over. Having attended a small, inner city magnet school myself, I also wasn't sure I could relate to this "average midwestern" adolescence, (it is set in Warsaw, Indiana), where the seeming stereotypes of teen comedies were indeed not only real, but an everyday fact of life.

About a third of the way in, however, something clicked and the film no longer seemed like a documentary. I almost forgot I was watching a movie. Because the kids in "American Teen" are actually riveting personalities, and the emotions they go through, even in those situations that occasionally seem set-up, are still devastatingly relatable. Director Nanette Burstein gives us: Jake, the monotone, matter-of-fact geek, who explains calmly that he and Colin, the basketball player, are having entirely different high school experiences; Hannah, the lovable, artsy, soft-hearted misfit, who is repeatedly duped by guys and longs to get out of Indiana; Megan, the "queen bee" (read: seriously immature, spiteful, popular girl), desperate to get in to Notre Dame to please her dad, and Colin, the good-natured basketball star, whose own father insists that if he doesn't get a sports scholarship, his only choice is the army.

The parents repeatedly make terrifying statements like this, apparently oblivious to the flawed parenting they're exposing to the world. Hannah's mother tells her "You can't get everything you want. You're not special", in reference to an out-of-state college preference, not something actually materialistic, like begging for a fancy car. Colin's dad tells him, "Not all kids go to college", insisting that they can't afford to send him, because they are only "comfortable", not wealthy. (Which painfully implies that he values his comforts over Colin's education.) When Colin argues admirably that he "doesn't have it in him to kill anyone", his dad suggests being an army cook. Wow.

Obviously, not everyone will subscribe to the American Teen version of high school as the quintessential experience, since it verifies right from the get-go, in Hannah's narration, that Warsaw and the school's student body are mostly white, Republican and Christian. Even so, each of these kids elicit real sympathy by the end of the film, even Megan, whose lowest moment is vandalizing another student's house because he dared to counter her suggestion for a prom theme. This sounds like something right out of an episode of one of the worst reality shows out these days, and most of Megan's scenes do venture into that territory, but the moments of insecurity, and real anguish over the lost of a sibling in the past, lead you to still root for her to get that Notre Dame acceptance letter. You still care about Mitch, the open-minded jock who dares to date Hannah, and then sadly caves in to peer-pressure. (Spoiler alert:) You feel like giving a standing ovation when the updates at the end of the film reveal that Hannah does actually make it to California. And there's nothing like that scene where love-starved Jake get to party with girls in Mexico with his older brother. It's not all angst and drama; some of this movie will really make you laugh.

There are animated sequences interspersed throughout the film, which act out the teens' fantasies, some of which work and some of which are a little clunky. Hannah's anxiety attack after her first heartbreak is pretty convincingly illustrated, but Colin's college basketball fantasy sequence fails to add much to the scene. Overall, LAist recommends American Teen very highly. Hopefully, it will reach theaters beyond the film festival and be enjoyed by a wider audience.

Image via Nanette Burstein's myspace