When I saw the documentary American Teen at Sundance this year, I was totally wowed, and I knew I was watching something special. It's truly one of the most insightful documentaries on American life to come out in years. The film is in select theaters now, and I highly recommend you check it out. As you can imagine, it was a delight to sit down with the director of American Teen, Nanette Read more

Tuesdays are big in entertainment-ville: Not only do all the new DVD releases hit Netflix, but new music also pours into stores, including iTunes. So I take a spin through each week's iTunes music releases and pick out some albums and tracks worthy of a download. Here are today's selections: The provocateur: Finally the album that made headlines long before it was ever released is here, and Read more

Man, people love to push the whole "this generation's Breakfast Club" angle with the documentary American Teen (though the poster for it, ah, doesn't help). I suppose this makes sense, but only in that The Breakfast Club featured timeless high school themes and characters. Yet, The Breakfast Club was still fiction, and a documentary is always going to be more complex and more nuanced than the Read more

I often find it interesting to debate just how "real" so-called reality series like Laguna Beach and The Hills are, given that the lives of these wealthy young people are far from any reality known to most of America. While shows about the very rich provide their share of glamour and intrigue, there are plenty of compelling tales to be mined from the rest of America, especially when it comes to Read more

What is it about teenagers that fascinates us so? In the case of many TV shows — from The O.C. to My Super Sweet 16 — there's an obsession with wealthy teens, kids who seem to have way too much way too young. We love seeing the spectacle these kids provide, their outrageous demands, their bratty tantrums that make us tsk-tsk even as we turn up the volume. We love affirming (in certain cases) Read more

Buying started slow at Sundance this year, but things started picking up on Tuesday. Check out a rundown of some recent acquisitions: Hamlet 2, which stars Steve Coogan as a high school drama teacher, sold to Focus Features for $10 million — making it one of the biggest deals ever in the history of Sundance and putting it in the same league as Little Miss Sunshine. I didn't get to see this Read more

It's cold! It's crowded! It's the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah! I've been here a couple days now and have luckily managed to the avoid black ice and nosebleeds. On the downside, this year's festival seems to be so popular, it's hard to get into the film screenings! Still, this is my first time here at Sundance and I am in awe of this experience. So much great art, so much Read more