Teen Dreams: Reading Teen Film and Television from ‘Heathers’ to ‘Veronica Mars’

Jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, goths and stoners - the American teen movie is peopled with types and tribes yet manages to speak interestingly about hopes and dreams that do not have just to do with skipping detention or going to the prom. In her new book, Roz Kaveney charts the development of the teen movie from a marketing category to a full-blown genre obsessed with smart answers to its own past. Starting with the groundbreaking John Hughes movies of the 1980s, and with Lehman and Waters' sardonic comedy “Heathers”, Kaveney discusses the evolution of themes like the Mean Girl and the loss of virginity. She examines the metamorphosis of Jane Austen's novel “Emma” into the Beverly Hills comedy “Clueless” and the way the “American Pie” trilogy has subverted the gross-out sex comedy into a lesson in sexual manners. She looks at the link between these films and some of the most innovative teen television of the last two decades, including “Popular”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the teen detective show “Veronica Mars”. In the process, she demonstrates, with characteristic wit and intelligence, how teen films and TV series deal with the tragic and comic undersides of the American dream.

In this pioneering and entertaining book, Roz Kaveney examines the crucial films and television shows in the teen-driven genre and reveals the inner workings of their consistent themes. From John Hughes' early films, to the cheerleaders of Bring It On, the films and their characters deal with sex and gender relations, presenting a picture of the hidden life of teenagers. Hit teen films can also promote products, launch bestselling soundtrack albums, and be career-makers for young actors. Kaveney also shows how the teen genre has absorbed classic material in the case of Clueless, has made up gender etiquette manuals like American Pie, and how teen films and TV series deal with the tragic and comic undersides of the American dream.

An entertaining study of the teen-driven genre of film and television explores consistent themes, including sex and gender relationships, that reveal the hidden life of teenagers and the complexities of American popular culture, as well as their use as an opportunity to promote products and music. Original. For large parts of the developed world, and much of the rest of it, America provides, through the lens of Hollywood, significant parts of the vocabulary of our dreams.