Inside America tells a
documentary story through the lens of a narrative feature. The stories are all
too real, but that's what makes for a great feature film.
There are six teenagers all attending the same high school. Some
of them are friends, but mostly they don't know each other except for chance
encounters. The stress of being a teenager confronts all of them while they
live their lives in Brownsville, Texas.
Watching Inside America
was like reliving high school. We all have known these six kids for whatever
reason whether we liked them or not. The amount of accuracy this film had was
what made it almost like a documentary. The dialogue, the acting, the settings,
all helped build that realistic feeling. It was appreciated that they could
capture certain aspect of teenagers without suffering from over-the-top
stereotypes.
Living in Brownsville puts residents on the border with Mexico,
so naturally there are more Hispanic kids attending the high school. When they
spoke Spanish, there were English subtitles that cleared up any dialogue we
might have missed. Unfortunately as the movie progressed, the subtitles weren't
timed exactly with the conversation, which caused me to fall a little behind.
It often overlapped with English dialogue, so you sometimes couldn't tell where
you were in the conversation. There's no excuse for this poor timing.
Inside
America told a story about living
as a teenage through hardships. Struggling every day, these kids are trying the
best they can. The film may have messed up here and there on the subtitles, but
overall the story commanded your attention. And while the ending is left mostly
up to the audience, Inside America
still gives you a clear message about life.
