Sep 21 2012
WASP: Weird (yet) Amazing Short Production
Loud, in your face and honest are the best words to describe the short film Wasp by Andrea Arnold. Wasp gives us a glimpse into the life of Zoe, a young struggling mother who has the burden of raising four young children. The oldest child being no older than eleven years old. Zoe is a completely dysfunctional and inadequate mother who has absolutely no money and apparently no moral standards. She curses frequently at her children and make them wait for her while she flirts with a previous boyfriend named Dave. However what makes the film so striking and affective is the way Arnold portrays Zoe and her family.
Arnold deploys many techniques in order to clearly depict the horrible living conditions and the tough reality that Zoe and her family face everyday. Arnold uses close ups so that the audience can get a clear look at the characters. You are able to see the dirt and grime on Zoe and the children and you can practically smell them. In the short, the shoulder mounted cameras gives the viewer the sense that they are following the family. Altogether Arnold puts together this short with scene after scene of cringe worthy material. From the scene where the eleven year old, the most responsible person in the film, feeds the family ribs from the floor to the scene where the baby almost swallows a wasp. This short is a cringe fest.
Arnold does this with a clear purpose. She strings together these shocking scenes to evoke sympathy from the audience so that one can understand the plight of Zoe. As the film comes to a close I started to sympathize with Zoe and understood that she was a child herself with too much responsibility and not enough help. I began to see that Zoe is only a twenty three year old girl that still has stickers of David Beckham on her shower. All she needed was to catch a break.Luckily enough she did catch a break when Dave came along and helped her by feeding the family and driving them home. As perplexing as it was that is why Arnold ended the film with an upbeat ending as the short closed with the song “Hey Baby.” It was because at that moment things seemed to turn around for this family. They had food. They had Dave. They had hope.
After watching the film once, if you were to watch it again, would you be able to sympathize with Zoe from the beginning? By the end of the film most people can sympathize with her situation, but what about the fight scene in the beginning? She isn’t holding her children lovingly like she does at the end, she is pulling the hair out of some other little girl’s mother.
I laughed when you said, “you can practically smell them” when referring to the dirty children. I like how you brought in humor to make your post more interesting. I agree with you that Zoe and children have hope at the end. Why do you think Arnold choose the particular song, “Hey Baby?” Are there any themes from the song that could tie into the short film? I understand the short film more after reading your post. Great job!
You mention the “cringe-factor,” – if you will – as an important decision on Arnold’s part. And yes, it was a very scary, cringe-y film. I wonder if Arnold thought that would be the best way to get her message across, or if she could have done it in a way that wasn’t as, again, cringe-y?