Sep 21 2012
She wasp definitely not mother of the year.
I mean, any woman who leaves her three young girls plus a baby outside of a bar for hours on end as she flirtatiously plays pool deserves to be smacked, yes? Not to mention enabling two of the girls to play bumper strollers (with a real baby in one) on a parking lot close to a busy road with no adult supervision in addition to the nonchalant cussing embedded in their daily vernacular and the violent example of how to solve problems by rushing to the enemy camp barefoot and pulling hair finished with a synchronized flip of the finger. I guess it’s obvious that this film angered me. But I also loved it.
Zoe is a woman whose background and motives are mysteries that one can only wonder about. She represents a sub-sect of society that we all know exist but only laugh at and shrug off. Most people are quick to judge these people, shoo them into a category called Trash, shake their heads and be off with their own lives. But if one really thinks about each person, Zoe for example, you can’t help but feel sympathy. Most of us do not know what it’s like to be alone and really have nothing and no one. Well that’s Zoe, times ten. She holds her children close despite her inability to properly take care of them because they are all she has. They are all who provide her the respect, love, and attachment she yearns. Furthermore, she lives in this lower class pocket of society where economic and social factors proliferate this type of lifestyle. In no way do I think her decisions are wise or right but I do acknowledge her reasons. She loves her kids and she’s raising them as well as she knows how.
I’ve watched another short film set in the same type of town and culture. I highly recommend you watch this little boy named Frankie.
I saw your recommendation and watched “Frankie,” an interesting film. I think there is some connection (in a contrasting way) between “Wasp” and “Frankie.” The protagonists seem to have opposite reactions to their childhoods. One might assume that Zoe grew up in a broken home, which perhaps lacked a father figure. Her home, though, as depicted in “Wasp,” is also dysfunctional; she did not succeed in creating a “normal” household in which to raise her own family.
Frankie is dissatisfied with the way he sees households and families being run. He doesn’t want his children to grow up the way he and his family members grew up. He wants to make a positive change and he works at preparing to be a good father. Perhaps in eight years Frankie’s family wouldn’t resemble Zoe’s at all, because of the effort he puts in to learning about child-rearing at an early age.
Did you only suggest this film because of its similarity in setting to “Wasp,” or also because of its plot?