Fish Tank & Wasp

During the week we had been watching two films, one short and long; and we had begun to analyse the differences, similarities and more. I will be writing a personal review on the similarities and differences I had found. They had been quite a few similarities between both films; most common similarities were relationships between the family, love and chances.

Fish tank had been created in 2009 by the director and writer - Andrea Arnold. It had been released in September 11 2009. The genre of the film had been drama. The main plot of the story had been based on a 15year old girl called Mia when her mother bring a new boyfriend home, her life changes. Also the short film wasp had been directed and written by the same director in Fish Tank. However, it had been released in 2003 which had been 26 minutes long. It's based on a mother " Nathalie Press" as a struggling mother determined not to let her four young children prove an obstacle in the pursuit of rekindling a relationship with an old ex-boyfriend. 

Similarities 
The similarities between both of the films is relationships because the sisters seem to have a better bound with each other;other than their mothers. The sisters seem to always look out for each other, although it is not clearly shown in the fish tank but in wasps it's clear because the older sister will do anything for her siblings to eat food and they are safe. She shares whatever she has with her siblings from the sugar to the chips the drunken boys had dropped off. Whereas, in fish tank the sisters bound isn't clear enough until the end of the film before the older sister is about to leave hoping for a better life they share an emotional moment together because her little sister doesn't want her to leave. In society we have that attitude towards our siblings we may not always get along but we love having our siblings around because they make us feel complete and not alone. Another similarities, both families are from broken homes because the dad is not present and the mothers both feel lonely in their lives while coping with the stress of looking after they're children's and where the film is set, it tells the audience that they are not from middle class because you see a lot of abandoned homes, mostly flats which have not been refurbished, the way they dress is not sophisticated, their clothes are mostly old fashioned and dirty this also defends the point about the mothers being stressed because they maybe living of income support which isn't enough to provide for their children, so they feel to find a boyfriend who may be able to provide for them both. this shows the audience that this type of situations still occurs in our modern life today nothing has changed. And the writer wanted the audience to become aware and maybe to contrast they're own lives to how the families are living. The children seem to follow the wrong footstep because most of their language is inappropriate they already know how to swear from an early age this shows that the mother isn't setting a good example to her children; also, the children don't have good role models to look up too apart from they're mothers so they follow because they think its the only way forward for them in life. Both of the children in both short films seem rebellious because they don't always listen to their mother they seem to do things their own way. In wasp, they didn't share the food equally, they would interfere with their mothers date because of the baby. In fish tank the sisters don't seem to respect their mother they both swear at their mothers leave the house when they please. This could suggest that the y feel the mother does not care for them. 
Differences 
On the other hand, the are different between both films. In wasp, the mother shows more love towards her children more affectionately because she fights a woman because one of her children had been hit, she tires her best to make sure her children are always okay this is shown because she takes her children out on her date with her and she tries to provide for her children while on her date. Where as, in fish tank the mother is quite distant with her older child, they don't seem to always get along the mother seems to abuse her daughters right and she shows more love to the younger child. Until the point where the older daughter is leaving home the dancing moment they share is way to say goodbye and farewell because they both seem stubborn to tell each other they love one another or show their feelings through tears and the mother feels hurt but she hides her emotions because she tells her to "fuck off" trying to show her daughter she doesn't care but deep down she does. Also, in fish tank the mother is jealous of her daughter because when her boyfriend stares at her she becomes jealous so she tells her to "put clothes on" this suggests that she can't compete with her daughter because her mother tries to dress young but it doesn't seem to attract her boyfriends attention. So she wants her daughter to be more dressed so that the mother can feel more confident about herself. The main similarities and difference between both films is the boyfriends. In fish tank the boyfriend had been aware the mother had children and he normally looked after them but he had left towards the end to join his own family where as in wasp the boyfriend didn't seem interested in dating her again if she had children towards the end he finds out and he helps her, this suggesting that he is still looking to be with her and her children. 

Both films express the lifestyle people live among us clearly because we are blind to see what is going on in the world since we are so used to knowing what's good around our own lives and others who live the similar lifestyle we do. Our society doesn't seem to be interested in wanting to know sad, depressing situations because they don't like feeling sorry for people since they know they have the lifestyle they wanted and either way we are distracted by other un-important problems in the world. 

I completed this review an I shall be emailing you the pre-production to post-production work and the work I missed last Wednesday by tomorrow afternoon.