This Terrific Documentary Blends '90s Nostalgia And Conspiracy Thriller — And It's Now Streaming On Netflix

You might have come across the concept of modern teenagers searching YouTube for old camcorder footage of high school students from the 1990s and 2000s, trying to get a glimpse of what it was like to live in the era before smartphones changed everything forever. If you have any such people in your life, or if you're just in the mood to watch something excellent, buckle up: A new documentary has landed on Netflix that will scratch that particular itch for youngsters, while also providing a compelling mystery at its center.

It's called "Teenage Wasteland," and it hails from filmmakers Amanda McBain and Jesse Moss, who made a great documentary called "Boys State" that won the Grand Jury prize at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Five years later, they premiered "Teenage Wasteland" at Sundance (we talked about it on our /Film Weekly podcast at the time, when the film was titled "Middletown"), and this time, they turn their focus back to the 1990s, when a high school teacher in Middletown, New York, noticed that a friend who lived near the town dump and was experiencing a bunch of ill effects and witnessing shady practices. So he recruits his students into investigating and making a documentary about what's really going on, and they end up uncovering a conspiracy that they never anticipated.

Netflix has developed a reputation for its addictive true crime content, and while "Teenage Wasteland" technically falls into that genre, it's also more artfully created than a lot of the crap that the streamer churns out. (Bonus: It doesn't make you question the ethics of whether the story should be told this way, like some other Netflix projects.) This is not your typical slapped-together doc built to capitalize on a headline-grabbing story. It's an inspiring tale about finding ways to open kids' minds and get them interested in things beyond just what's in textbooks. And in addition to the investigative journalism component (and the potential dangers associated with everything the kids discover), there's also a poignant aspect in which the filmmakers reunite several of the students with their teacher decades later to look back at the movie they all made together and recount their experiences.

But "Teenage Wasteland" is also more than a simple nostalgia play. As the trailer indicates, it also has something to say about civic courage — the idea that we should all act like we live in a real democracy, even though we're not in one that actually functions properly. As a myriad number of corporate forces constantly attempt to keep their boots on the necks of the average American, a message like that serves as a rallying cry for decency. I don't know about you, but when it comes in a package as gripping as this, I'll take that message any day of the week.

"Teenage Wasteland" is now streaming on Netflix.