School life in film

I'm feeling kind of bored so i thought id take the time just to write about two movies which somewhat represent life as a teenager in school nowadays :)
Two very different films in many rights, "Get real" being a British independant movie which focuses upon not only the struggle of growing up as a teenager, but as a gay teenager. "Mean Girls" being the funny American comedy which focuses upon the bitchy/slutty side of high school and the different cliques/stereotypes that all of us as teeenagers can identify with to a certain extent.

I think that more-or-less every person i know has seen Mean Girls and most people seem to love it. The way in which the "popular" girls seem to be at the top of the student body heirachy and every other clique is somewhere beneath. Us teenagers (mainly girls for this film) who go to a typical school full of typical kids can see it as abit of a relity show; just looking into another school and somehow identifying ourselves with the characters on screen. It also tackles the evil malicious bitchyness that goes on in more-or-less every school i know of, and having had many of my girl mates cussin down the "skets" to me i know that bitchyness is rife in mainstream school society :D Also i gotta say i love how naive Lindsay Lohans character was at the start; coming from a home schooled environment in Africa into a mainstream school and progressing to become one of the "plastics" just because of her looks. Which i do think could happen in any school because everyone is extremely judgemental in their own ways, especially teenagers >:3

Whereas "Get Real" almost every person ive asked if they've seen it has been like "whaaa? no". Which i didn't find too surprising because i don't think that it's an amazing film in terms of entertainment and comedy, but more of a tender romance story between two boys who are constricted by majority of their school and societies homophobic views. Having looked on IMDB about it i found a comment from a user which said this:

"Could a more realistic demonstration of what it is like to be young exist than this film? Don't think so.

A lot of talk centers around how hard growing up is for teenagers. Yet seldom is it mentioned that however hard it is for straight kids to grow up, it is a million times harder for gay kids, who have no one to turn to for help - not friends, not teachers, not parents, not the church, not books, not counselors, not ANYONE. This film shows what it is like. And it further shows the horrid situation that a young gay athlete finds himself in, torn between being able to do what he enjoys (sports) and being able to be himself. When you're gay, you can't have both, thanks to the homophobia which still rules athletics with an iron fist.

The two main characters of this film struggle to maintain a relationship, because they are in love - yet ultimately the homophobic attitudes of the world force them to part. Tragic, yet it is a tale that plays itself out in every little town on the globe. In spite of this, it is a tale never before told on film. It's about time. This should be required viewing for all high school students."

Which i thought summed up the film entirely and saved me from going on.

I think both films are both good in their own right, and show the bigotry and single-minded judgemental views that are held by alot of kids nowadays. Albeit Get Real was produced nearly ten years ago, i still think that it communicates its message very well because yeah, society has become more accepting towards people who were once discriminated against: Such as the recentintroduction of gay marriage and the new-found presidency of a black man. But in all honesty if what happened in this film was to happen at Welling in the lower school then the kids would most likely be cussed and ridiculed.

But yeah, out of the two i believe that Mean Girls is the one thats the most entertaining. Thats because it's made more to provide humour for everyone of all ages because its just a well scripted jokes film :D abit overplayed and everyones seen it but nontheless its well good, and the whole concept of scopophilia and the male gaze could be brought in because of the four "Sexy" and "Desireable" plastics.

And even in the posters we can see the differences in the messages that each film is trying to put across, the whole "what if you cant avoid....etc" line in the Get Real poster lets us all think about our own place in the world whilst/when we were growing up. Which is different to the mean girls one which places Cady in a dominant position and having the three slutty looking ones in the background being smaller, paired with her evil glare shows us her contempt for them and shows that the film will be what the film title is. A film completely about "Mean Girls"

But there we go: a long typing session for me donw and out the way. I'm gonna start on my case-study thing for film later on and i still need to decide what film to do it on. So yeah :D Have a good weekend everyone

xxx