Teenage

Director: Matt Wolf
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 1.0

Mediocre 'essay' type film by Wolf combines stock footage and tacky reenactments to try to make the case that the state of being a 'teenager' is a 20th century invention manufactured by the Western World. Entirely too broad and ambitious to make its points convincingly (especially not in less than 80 minutes), it relies on nostalgia, breathy voice-over and a wistful soundtrack by Deerhunter's Bradford Cox to make an emotional statement instead of an intellectual one ... and as 'poetry' it's as vapid as much of youth culture tends to be. Having spent too long a period of time working with teenagers I'm glad they're no longer working slave-labor jobs and enjoying their time of experimentation and joy at being youthful (time should be allotted for them to figure out who and what they want to be in life) ... but I must say they are still pains-in-the-ass.