Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Darydare I am a huge fan of Jena Malone and all of her movies and this is no exception. If you like drama then you will love it. There is also that little bit of very clever humor in it that makes it that much more enjoyable. One of the best things about the movie is the whole concept of the theme(s). Disappointment, acceptance, and family. Sometimes, you don't get what it is you're expecting to get. You have to see people for who they are and trust the people who have always been there for you and have your best interests at heart. This movie does not relate to everyone. Not everyone grew up in a trailer park. Not everyone's father is in jail. Not everyone has the same kind of problems and emotions that Jena Malone's character has. But I don't think the movie is supposed to relate to everyone. You can interpret the message any way you want, but what I get out of it is that whatever problems you have in your life, there is a way to make it better. See Confessions of an American Girl. Even if you don't get any message out of it, it is still a great movie.

aimless-46 If you like black comedy you should enjoy "Confessions of an American Girl". Rena (Jena Malone) is the embodiment of that old cartoon where the guy is sitting on the ground with a noose around his neck and a broken rope in his hand; captioned "some people can't do anything right". Rena lives in a mobile home with her somewhat "strange" family, is suicide challenged, is pregnant by a guy who doesn't want to be seen in public with her, and blames it all on the unfair eight year absence of her loving father, who is in prison for murder. Her dim memories of her father are somewhat biased. The highway and its exit ramps are metaphors for her life and her desire to end her life.Alica Witt plays Rena's half-sister. Because Malone and Witt are arguably the most intelligent actresses in Hollywood, you immediately wonder about the wisdom of casting them as moronic trailer trash. But Malone has a special talent for playing this kind of "slack-jawed" character and Witt's standard sarcastic teen character works fine even in this environment. Their scenes together are the best ones in the film; with their reconciliation scene toward the end especially good. Brad Renfro does a good job as Rena brother, O-Lon Jones (remember the waitress in Seinfeld's "Bubble Boy" episode) is excellent in a small role and Clifton Collins Jr. is great as Buddy, the prison trustee, who quickly sizes up the situation and sets the forces of change in motion.While "American Girl" is an above average film, its main scene (the picnic at the prison which actually takes up the majority of the film) pushes it into cinema classic territory. This scene is an example of the way storytelling should be done, and the pacing is absolutely inspired. It is staged perfectly as Buddy orchestrates a sequence of revelations that changes all four visiting family members. Even if you hate the subject of this film it is worth watching just to see how wonderfully they manage this climatic scene. The disastrous visit over, the family leaves the prison with the statement "it went better than it could have".Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Arthur Delaney Really honestly...apologies to Scott Sandoe's second cousin...but wow! It just doesn't get much worse than this movie. It really felt like a movie written, directed and cast by people who really like good, beautiful independent films (much like the rest of Jena Malone's body of work) but just doesn't have one single little iota of talent. Not a shred, truly. The writing is so bad I really had to laugh. And I'm not a person who immediately objects to cliché. I have more than a little fondness in my soul for melodrama. Particularly when it's Jena Malone. I can forgive a movie a lot when Jena Malone is in it. Not because she's God's gift to acting or anything but she's very pleasant to watch...doesn't do very much different in each role she is in, but in general picks good movies and is pleasant. Saved is fantastic. United States of Leland was pretty good. Heck...Life as a House had some nice moments. But wow! This movie...so bad. It was like the screenwriter chose a different cliché or hackneyed bit of dialogue for each scene and then structured each scene around it. I started cheering every time we reached the cliché for the season. It couldn't decide what genre it was in...it had no idea how to make us feel or identify with characters...it was offensively cliché towards the class of people it was...caricaturing (I can't bring myself to describe it as illustrating) And the father character? The movie would have made a lot more sense titled Ernest Goes to Prison.Please please please don't watch this movie. I watched it all the way through for the same reason one watches a car wreck...but please please get something else. Anything else.Might make a good drinking game...but be sure to have several drinks in you before you start. And to Scott Sandoe's second cousin...yes the director's camera work was odd at a couple of points. And yes...good on him for managing to write a screenplay and managing to get it produced. But let's be honest...it was a bad screenplay. What was wrong with the film more than anything else (even worse than the casting of the father....which actually may have been inevitable given how the character was written...I'm not even sure I can blame that on the actor) was the (I hesitate to even use the word) writing.If you're looking for a reason to not try to become a screenwriter and instead go get your law degree like your Dad wants you to...watch this film. Otherwise...walk into a rental store blindfolded and grab something at random...but make sure, when you're checking it out, to ask the clerk to make absolutely dead certain that the movie you are renting is not Confessions of an American Girl.

TorX0029 "American Girl" is a wonderful movie about the girl Rena (played by Jena Malone from Donnie Darko) who lives with her family in a trailer. She has to hide when she's with her boyfriend so nobody sees him with her, and her father is in prison for life. After various attempts to kill herself, she decides to visit her father in prison to tell him the news: she is pregnant...The film is funny in a tragic sort of way, and it takes up some serious issues in life. Very recommendable.