Incredible archival footage. Excellent soundtrack by Deerhunter's Bradford Cox. It's available on Spotify.

Soda Pictures DVD from the U.K.

Ended up liking this thanks to the serious treasure trove of archival footage of teenagers from various points of the early 20th century, but it's compiled in a mostly uninspired and (sorry) pretentious fashion, with voiceover narration to match.

Also, awkwardly timed erections aren't even touched upon, serious omission.

Do all these teenagers not age like in The Simpsons?

A look at teenage culture from the establishment of child labor laws to the end of World War II.

The archival footage is always interesting but the overlying narration is, maybe appropriately, full of angst. It got to the point where I just wanted to yell at the screen "Oh, grow up already!" Perhaps if I was still in the most important demographic I would have drank this up like Kool-Aid. As it is though, it comes across as a sometimes interesting, sometimes annoying work that tries too hard at times and not enough at others. Read into that however you will.

Especially poignant in today's political atmosphere, the youth have the power, we just need to take it.

Let's end neoliberal capitalism (and let's not descend into fascism, kay? Cool)

ben whishaw: hello welcome to my asmr channel, per usual i’ll be talking about adolescent sadness, beating up fascists, and being Totally Straight, Bro, For Real

ni idea si teenage es una "buena" película o no, pero su poesía –hecha de rimas tenues y metáforas aún más tenues- me atrapó muy cabrón.

[dos cosas sirvieron a ese atrapamiento: 1) que yo tuve el plan de hacer una 'historia de la adolescencia'; la comencé en la revista código hace como diez años y nunca la terminé: teenage me llenó de envidia pero también de alivio: no me hubiera quedado tan bonita. 2) kavafis, sandro penna, luis antonio de villena y todos esos poetas.]

si me quejara de algo en teenage sería de que le faltaron unos añitos. ¿no hubiera debido terminar en 1951?

Its very well put together, theres copious amounts of real stock footage from the early 19th century and a brilliant score to compliment it all.
I do wish it spread across the decades into our times too, but the film seems to mainly focus on the early years of the "teenage age".

Artful and exuberant, a racing collage of youth.

Way dumb

“The old had sent us to die....and we hated them”

The most extraordinary film I’ve seen in a long time. Truly enlightened my mind and reignited my passions. After doing a politics and social policy degree for four years this documentary has been the most lovely reminder in hard times that the youth truly are the future. Every fight, every riot, every protest will always take us that one step closer to change. The young do not live for the old, they live for the now. 

Also, the most BEAUTIFUL euphoric soundtrack by Bradford Cox that I shall never stop listening to for the rest of my days.

"First we were just children and then all of a sudden we were supposed to be adults"

A rather unique yet very impersonal documentary looking at the early years of teenage life after definition was coined in the turn of the 20th century. With some great use of archival and stock footage of teenager from the 1920's to the present day.
Its narrators Jena Malone, Ben Whishaw and Jessie Usher all do good work tho they do add to the impersonal and distant nature of the documentary, tho they are able to convey the beliefs, attitudes and perceptive of teenagers on how they see the world and how the world sees them.

kinda boring. didnt finish lol. heres my thought anyway though xoxox

a solid, genuine, loving look at teenagehood and young people finding their place in the world in the 20th century.

- i dont think there needed to be such screentime for the german footage... i only say this because it's hard to be joyful and reminisce with the speakers about how great the training camps/jaborees were when we know they were literally being indoctrinated and weaponised... i think this should have been a different movie maybe? idk its tones and themes were much heavier than i think the overall work was going for

totally undercooked. if this thing was as experimental as people are saying it is it wouldn't have also been totally unimmersive. something deep in the fabric of this is jamming it up completely.

First-person narration makes it feel claustrophobic — and I don't see the point of taking such great pains to make the filmed inserts feel texturally 'authentic' when the forced staging and performances within so clearly belies that authenticity. Some nice archive footage, definitely not a substitute for Jon Savage's book.

EDIT: A lot of other reviews on here seem to have missed that a large portion of the narration is taken directly from autobiographies of the subjects in question. It seems like it would have been a wise decision to make that clearer in the film itself — like with the filmed inserts, Wolf's hybridised approach makes the piece feel patchworked and compromised.

- have you truly lived your teenage years?

- Ben Whishaw's voice can be use anywhere you want it. I won't mind.

watched this mostly for the bradford cox soundtrack (which is great). this is a survey of euro/american teenagehood through the 20th century comprised almost entirely of archival footage. a movie scored by bradford cox comprised almost entirely of archival footage of teenagers should be a 10/10 movie, but unfortunately, director/writer matt wolf's narration script read by various "teenagers" is horrible. totally detracts from the movie. I'd probably never watch this again because of the narration but I'd maybe put it on mute and listen to the soundtrack.

Most of this movie is a really moving montage made from archival footage with bland commentary but man. What a montage.

The score rules.

Amazing archival footage and a fascinating look at our past, but feels surprisingly shallow.

This documentary came to me courtesy of a subscription I was gifted to the Oscilloscope Films catalog for a calendar year, and I finally got around to giving it a spin recently.

Told in a combination of vintage footage, narration and other techniques, we learn that the idea of 'teenagers' didn't exist as a demographic until the mid-20th century. It was around this time that the older generation began to struggle with the youth of the '40s and '50s as they tried to establish their own identities, which is when the term 'teenager' came into being.

I enjoyed the movie overall, but aside from the revelation that no one knew how to relate to these kids at this awkward stage, there's not a lot of 'aha!' moments to be had. Certainly an interesting look at history through very specific eyes, and something I am happy to have checked out.

Rental.

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) but make it about those young whippersnappers. 

Great footage, however, the narrative of this is super loose. It’s like an 80 min montage. Koyaanisqatsi for old children.