American Teen: Documentarian Nanette Burstein follows five Indiana high school seniors who could have come straight from Central Casting - or The Breakfast Club. Burstein ultimately tells us nothing about senior year in the heartland of America that we didn't already know, but the film's insights about our media-soaked society are revelatory.
- Marjorie Baumgarten
Hamlet 2: Steve Coogan, a household name in his native England, stars in this spoof of inspirational-teacher movies like Dangerous Minds and Dead Poets Society, and he was born to play the role of a high school drama instructor with much more enthusiasm than talent. The movie has a lot of fun with genre conventions, but the acid-tongued Catherine Keener, as Coogan's had-it-up-to-here wife, is in a place all her own; she's corrosively hilarious.
- Kent Williams
