Teenage, 2013.
Directed by Matt Wolf.
Starring Jena Malone, Ben Whishaw, Alden Ehrenreich, Ben Rosenfield and Jessie Usher.
SYNOPSIS:
Teenagers did not always exist. In this living collage of rare archival material, filmed portraits, and voices lifted from early 20th Century diary entries, a struggle erupts between adults and adolescents to define a new idea of youth.
The concept of the ‘teenager’ was an American post-World War II invention and it’s everything leading up to this point that this short documentary explores.
The film roughly charts around 50 years of the early 20th century and starts us off at a time where child labour was commonplace and from the age of 12, most children were considered adults, something that nowadays is almost unthinkable.
From there the film charts the different child groups and movements such as the jitterbug, the flaming youth and the Hitler youth all the way up to the sub-debs, looking at various influences such as music, war and the great depression.
The film uses an incredibly impressive mixture of archive footage, adverts, recreated incidents and actors reading diary entries to give us a true idea of the time and the feelings of those under 20.
Simply put, this excellently put together film is a fascinating exploration of what it meant to be young and frustrated in some unbelievably tough times.
Hearing diary readings perfectly captures the spirit of the times and if you close your eyes and listen, you really can feel what these people were going through, whether it was the persecution of the Nazi party or the feeling they got when they entered a local ‘jive hut’.
The director manages to completely explain how the modern teenager came to be and made me feel in no uncertain terms how lucky I was to be born later on in the century. The hardships that teenagers went through in this times beggar belief and you can’t help but think of yourself in their shoes, suffering or celebrating as they would have.
As the film’s main goal is to explain how the modern teenager came to be, it ends when in the late 40s someone coined the term ‘teen-aged’ and although the ending is impressive, it does feel a tad abrupt. You find yourself wanting to see more of the ‘teenage story’ and think about other important cultural shifts such as the rock ‘n’ roll years or the punk movement. Having said that, that may just be because I was so enthralled with what was happening on screen that I just didn’t want it to end.
All in all, this is an incredibly well crafted work that gives you everything you may have ever wanted to know about early teenagers and is well worth a watch. With an excellent soundtrack, wonderful editing and superb recreations, this truly is an outstanding look at a time many people (especially teenagers) seem to overlook.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Ozzy Armstrong is a Stargate and Rocky superfan. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published October 9, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
