2nd
Wasp (2003)
A harsh one today. Wasp is a British short film found on the Cinema16: Eurpoean Film sampler dvd. Many people, apparently, find this film radiant and overwhelming in its compassionate observation of a welfare mom and her Raggedy Anne litter. The filmmakers, hearing that, would probably laugh along with Carroll’s Walrus: audiences, like oysters, were made to be shucked. The film is no more compassionate towards its subjects than the latest media gossip is towards Rihanna. It’s exploitation filmmaking of the worst sort, preying on the uncovered edges of society like housing speculators on rotten-walled, “beach access” Miami condos. The film uses a broad, single-syllable visual vocabulary to argue, not demonstrate, that “run down mums need luv too.” Sensational, stupid music-video-style filmmaking is fine, but the unspoken rule has always been to keep sensational, stupid subjects in front of the camera - if you’re going to be talking down to your characters and their situations, at least make your characters cartoony enough that no one’s feelings get hurt. A good film can be made out of this material, but it would take a much more patient, much more considered camera; an editor willing to hold takes long enough to let the actors act; and a script with the guts to follow its set-up through to an honest conclusion. The sad way in which the film tries to redeem itself (with bad cgi, no less) is, in the end, probably a result of the same character flaw that has brought liberalism to its knees worldwide: both are pleased to appear compassionate so long as it takes less than a soy chai latte’s worth of energy to achieve, but otherwise they’re more interested in catching the latest episode of 24 and reloading Perez Hilton.
