Documentary about the development of youth culture in the first half of the 20th century, examining how the concept of teenagers as a distinct stage between childhood and adulthood was recognised in different nations. Featuring rare archive materials, filmed portraits and readings of diary entries performed by actors including Ben Whishaw and Jena Malone
Archive footage and artful reconstruction shape this documentary on the creation of the teenager, marking a journey from the child labour of the Victorian era to the cultural recognition by 1945 of a transitional period between childhood and adult responsibility. Matt Wolf's film is fascinating for the way it shows young people sent off to work or off to war before they had a chance to grow up, seeking an identity in organisations like the Scout movement, and shocking their parents with wild new dance crazes like the jitterbug. It certainly makes a case that youth has always battled to find its own identity, even before the term "teenage" was coined, though the manner in which the narration reflects on growing up in Britain, America and Germany through a series of generic voices of youth does seem a slightly curious choice. Filtering writer Jon Savage's non-fiction doorstopper into a mere 78 minutes also makes this feel like a taster for a more in-depth TV series - but one well worth seeing, nonetheless.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| American girl | Jena Malone |
| British boy | Ben Whishaw |
| German girl | Julia Hummer |
| American boy | Jessie Usher |
| 1940s teenager | Alden Ehrenreich |
| Tommie Scheel | Ben Rosenfield |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Matt Wolf |
