I didn’t enjoy watching American Teen but I couldn’t help but be affected by it.

This new documentary from Nanette Burstein promises to expose what American teenagers are really like in the new millennium.

The film’s poster proudly quotes one reviewer who calls American Teen, “A modern day Breakfast Club that will make you stand up and cheer.”

The Breakfast Club was a classic 1985 fiction film that offered insights into the lives of five high school students, representative of the different stereotypes, who met in detention and discovered they had a lot more in common than first realised. Burstein’s five real-life teens certainly reflect the model:

1. Hannah, is the rebel of the piece. She is smart and beautiful, but something of a misfit in her high school – a liberal, atheist living in a conservative Christian town with dreams of leaving to study film after graduating.

2. Megan, the princess, is student council vice president and comes from a wealthy family. Her good looks and popularity ensure she rules the social structure of her high school.

3. Colin, the jock, is the star of the high school basketball team who experiences enormous pressure from his school and father to win the grand final and get a college scholarship.

4. Mitch, the heart throb, is a charming and attractive but puts his popularity and reputation on the line to date Hannah.

5. Jake, the geek, is funny and sweet at times but painfully shy in groups. Despite self-doubt he vows to find a girlfriend by the end of his senior year.

Though their school experience is somewhat different from Australian teens, it’s sober to reflect that in many respects our youth culture is tracking ground broken by their American counterparts. It’s not surprising then that the five overlapping stories provide valuable lessons for teens the world over.

First, anti-conformity costs and we have to be prepared to pay the price. If what the documentary portrays is true, American teen life really is just like the movies. Social cliques do sit at separate cafeteria tables, the homecoming dance is merely an opportunity to spotlight the school’s most popular couple and the whole town actually does care about the achievements of the senior boys’ sports team.  The expectation is to conform to the town’s values. Australian communities can be just controlling, but joining God’s kingdom will sometimes mean leaving our workplace, our cliques and even our close family. However Mark 10 outlines the ultimate benefits for being anti-conformist: “I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age.”

Second, from the popular to the geeky, almost everyone desires to be in a relationship. In Genesis 2, the common pattern for humanity is set: “A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” However, the Bible tells us that the most important relationship we must have is with God through Christ. Despite the town’s fundamentalist Christian landscape, for the majority of the film Christianity is strikingly absent. Whether it be America or Australia, wherever culture and the media combine to venerate romantic relationships, it is very counter-cultural to challenge the happiness they bring. However Christians teach that any satisfaction gained through romance is at best life-long whereas satisfaction in Christ is eternal.

Third, parents are immensely influential the world over – for good or bad. Colin has a vexed relationship with his father who consistently pushes him to strive for a scholarship or otherwise it’s off to the army. Hannah’s over-protective mother aggravates her by pushing for a safe, pre-determined life path rather than encouraging her filmmaking dreams. While parents may lament the impetuousness of youth, it is abundantly clear that when they project themselves onto their children it can do great damage to the child. In Ephesians 6 Paul writes “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord”. Christian parents ought to be careful that they choose the right hills to die on, so to speak, when raising their children. Unlike the examples in this film, they must face up to the possibility of sacrificing their aspirations for their child for the alternate path God might have planned.