
In 1984--before cell phones, the web, and reality TV, a young filmmaker set out to document a year in the life of a typical California high school. The result was "All American High", an unusually honest and humorous look at 80's teen life. Told through the eyes of a visiting exchange student, the film presents an uncensored view of senior year in the era of big hair, punks, and parachute pants. Thirty years after they lived it, the film's original subjects return in "All Ame... (Full plot summary below)
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In 1984--before cell phones, the web, and reality TV, a young filmmaker set out to document a year in the life of a typical California high school. The result was "All American High", an unusually honest and humorous look at 80's teen life. Told through the eyes of a visiting exchange student, the film presents an uncensored view of senior year in the era of big hair, punks, and parachute pants. Thirty years after they lived it, the film's original subjects return in "All American High Revisited" to look back at one of the most memorable chapters of their lives.
Leave your thoughts about All American High: Revisited.
| Time OutCath ClarkeA hugely entertaining, indispensable celluloid time-capsule. |
| Total FilmKevin HarleyAs they look back in wistfulness, a tale of change, American excess and pre-internet teenage innocence becomes almost exotic: to them and to us. |
| Austin ChronicleKate MesserThe film does a great job of penetrating the after-school lives of these teens and setting the tone of the day. |
| Times (UK)Wendy IdeA fascinating time capsule of school life before social networking, mobile phones, reality TV and the internet. |
| GuardianLeslie FelperinNeither the 80s material nor the followup digs terribly deeply into the subjects' psyches or has much to say about the sociology of American high schools, but it's an amusing, easily digestible exercise in time travel. |
| Little White LiesAdam Lee DaviesAn enigmatic snapshot that loses its charm under too much scrutiny. |
| User ReviewWayne CI really loved this film. I've always loved coming of age movies, teen movies, or movies revolving around high school kids and the lives they live. I guess it was and always will be the most intense and exciting time in life, for both good and bad. Even though this movie is a time capsule of a particular american high school in California in 1984, I still felt like I was taking a trip down memory lane. I went to high school in the late 80's and early 90's, and my memories of life at that time are still very vivid and powerful. At the same time, it was interesting to see some of the ways that life at this high school were different than life at the various Canadian high schools I attended - for example, I never had an arcade in my school, I'm pretty sure we didn't have a class called Survival of Singles, and I don't remember the army ever recruiting at my high schools. I also thought it was amazing how the central voice of this film was the voice of a foreign student from Finland who was an incredibly bright and exceptionally lovely person who was constantly making interesting observations about the differences between life in Finland and life in the US as she experienced them. All in all, this is a very entertaining, funny and interesting look at american high school life in the 80's, before the dawn of the cell phone, internet and social media. |