Soft and wasp analaysis

Soft is a short film directed by Simon Ellis, in which a father rediscovers his fear of confrontation at the worst possible time.It starts off with his son being bullied and beat up. This then goes on for the father to get home and go out and get beat up by the same people who did it to his son. It deals with the themes of bullying, isolation and negligence. Wasp, directed by Andrea Arnold , is about Zoë who is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids.Similarly to Soft, Wasp deals with the themes of negligence and isolation but it also deals with themes of poverty and shame.  

The opening scene in ‘soft’ appears to be filmed on a phone and shows a group of people chasing down a school kid. The people chasing him down appear to be dressed in stereotypically chav clothing whereas the boy is wearing his school uniform. The boy gets pinned against a wall and gets punched in the face. The fact that the ‘bullies’ are wearing stereotypical poorer clothing shows the class divide between the two groups. The fact that it is also shot with a considerably bad camera when the bullies are being shown also further indicates the class divide. Also when his dad arrives at home there is a cricket bag blocking the door, this further shows the class difference.  There is also a very similar underlying tone of social divide in wasp.  When Danny Dyers character pulls up on the curb and spots Zoë, it is clear to see, that although they may have come from similar backgrounds, that Zoe is clearly at a different social class then he is. He has a car, new shirt and a gold chain. Zoe on the other hand is wearing an old dress and she doesn’t even have shoes on. By the use of costume it clearly shows the social divide between her and her ex. This is later reiterated at the pub when he asks her to get him a beer and she can’t afford it.

‘Soft’ and ‘Wasp’ both deal with themes of negligence. In ‘wasp’ negligence is clearly showed within the first minute. Zoe takes her 4 kids out into the street barefoot to confront another mother in the area. She hasn’t even properly put her child’s baby grow on him. This shows how neglectful of her kids she is. One of her kids is crying and she doesn’t even stop to see if she’s alright. Later in the short film she searches through her cupboard, which is mostly filled with rappers and moldy bread, to see if she has any food for her children. All she has is sugar and rather being honest and spending the last of her money on the children she goes to the pub with her ex and leaves her children hungry and cold outside the pub. The extent of their hunger is shown when a man drops his chips as he’s walking past the pub and one of the daughters picks them up of the floor and feeds them to the rest of the children. Although I do feel like she is a neglectful mother there are also an under tone of care for her children. This is made clear of by when she is kissing her ex in the car one of the children shouts for mum as the baby has a wasp in its mouth. She immediately runs out of the car, despite lying to him before all of this, to help her children. Although she has done many awful things to her kids there is a tone of love and compassion but also a sense of embarrassment towards her lifestyle. Similarly in ‘soft’, the father quite ironically tells his son to stand up to his bullies but then gets beaten up by the same ones. The father is similarly shown as negligent but more caring. When the son shows his dad his wounds he tries his best to clean them up and help him by giving him some advice, but neglects the fact that the advice he is giving isn’t what he does in the same situation. The dad is also neglectful of the fact that his son seems to be more powerful than himself. This is reiterated when the dad tries to confront the bullies but ends up being beaten up more. The son then comes rushing out with a cricket bat and smacks the bullies in the head. This shows how unknowing and negligent the father is towards the abilities of the son. 

In conclusion both short films deal with the themes of negligence and class. Each do it in similar yet different ways whether it be through the use of camera or costume.