The Myth of the American Sleepover

NO ADULTS ALLOWED

This is a movie that I can't wait to see (thank you Dustin Rowles) and not just 'cause I am the parent of 4 teenage girls.  I often agree with Rowles' assessments and he gave The Myth a great plug this morning (though other critics have not been quite so enthusiastic).  See the trailer below; you'll want to see the film.

"Man, they sold us a bill of goods as teenagers, huh? Why were so many of us so goddamn anxious for adulthood? Crushing debt, mortgage payments, eternal responsibility, work, routine, taxes, and making dinner every night? That’s what we were looking forward to? David Robert Mitchell’s The Myth of the American Sleepover reminds us now of what we’re missing, of what we were anxious to escape, of what some of us wish we could get back, if only for a night.


You remember those nights, right? The sleepovers? The sneak-outs? The languid parties where anything could happen or nothing? It was all the same. Where were the parents? How did so many of us get away with it? I don’t know how many weekend nights I spent trolling the streets in the dead of night, vandalizing houses, damaging property, breaking into cars (once, even “borrowing” a car), skinny-dipping, knocking on girls’ windows, making out in a drainage ditch at 3:30 in the morning. It was a magical time. Brief windows of freedom, the thrill and excitement of danger. Those nights always had a way of working out, in the end. Something intoxicating always happened even when nothing happened. Those nights out were like the late night thoughts of an insomniac — always a good idea until the sun rises and we come to our senses. But that was the wonderful nature of our teenage years, wasn’t it? We never came to our senses. Did our parents know? How could they not? Was there some sort of parental understanding? A tacit agreement to let us experience life, as long as we didn’t let on to them what we were doing?


The Myth of the American Sleepover is a mood movie, a contemplation not on the loss of innocence, but on hanging on to it . . ."

Want more?  see the full article by Rowles at Pajiba