“High School Confidential”, an article written by film critic David Denby for the New Yorker in 1999, accurately disputes and criticizes that high school related movies get their genre clichés from other high school movies that are out, as well as emotions of writers from their own high school years. Denby backs this claim up with multiple examples showing the stereotypes of high school movies, and explaining how those stereotypes are incorrect, such as the stereotypical princess in the school, the standard jock-antagonist, and the outsider/nerd character, and then he shows that all of these examples stem from the “Brian de Palma masterpiece Carrie”. David Denby’s purpose is to show readers how most high school movies are over-stereotyped
In Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About - and to - Students Every Day, Mica Pollock provides readers with fact-based information to “flip the script” of the misrepresentation of students in the education setting. Pollock demonstrates how race, gender, and ethnic labels can be detrimental to student achievement. She, then, dives in to 600 years of myths regarding social race labels and how they continue to affect humans today. By correcting race, gender, and ethnicity label myths in our minds, we can effectively advocate for these students. To conclude the book, Pollock focuses on how to devise a plan to correct our own misconceptions and foster a supportive environment for diverse students. Throughout
The author starts off the chapter by writing about a man named Carl N. Karcher. He is known as the founder of the fast food restaurant called Carl’s Jr. He dropped out of school at the age of 14 and a few years later, his uncle offered him a job in a city in California called Anaheim. One of the themes is workforce because he was an employee for his uncle. He was a very good worker at his uncle's work place. He once spotted a woman who he was attracted to and he asked her out for ice cream. He soon changed his job and started to work elsewhere. Carl married the women (Margaret) a few years laters and they had their first child.
Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink have more in common than Molly Ringwald. Stereotypes, different economic backgrounds, and feminism all have some part in these 80’s teen films. The themes are all the same, rich vs poor, popular or unpopular and changing yourself to fit into the ‘norm’.
This film contains some classic examples of the kinds of real life issues adolescents deal with. Issues such as popularity, peer relationships, family/sibling relationships, sex, and struggles with identity are all addressed in this ninety-minute film.
For my first film review, I have chosen to watch and discuss Mean Girls, a movie about a previously homeschooled girl from Africa, Cady. Cady is portrayed as the stereotypical shy and naive “new girl” who is introduced to the pecking order of public high schools and the stereotypical cliques with which the student body divides itself when she befriends outcasts, Janis and Damian. Janis and Damian become Cady’s genuine friends, and we see examples of gender stereotypes and sexual orientation immediately with them. Damian is her hysterical gay friend, who Cady makes the mistake of mentioning is “too gay to function” in front of the Plastics, after hearing her other friend Janis say it. Janis is
York, Ashley E. "From Chick Flicks to Millennial Blockbusters: Spinning Female-Driven Narratives into Franchises." The Journal of Popular Culture 43.1 (2010). EBSCO. Web. 08 Mar. 2012.
Archard, N. (2008). “Always Be Yourself”: Identity and acceptance in Billy Elliot. Screen Education, (49), 137-140.
The American black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street directed by Martin Scorsese was released December 25, 2013 and stars the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie. While on face value The Wolf of Wall Street looks like a film about excessive cocaine binges, long evenings filled with men with cigarettes, large portions of alcoholic consumption, having many sexual escapades with various women and even dwarf tossing from time to time, the film is deeply rooted in perception gender within the genre of The Wolf of Wall Street. The word ‘genre’ is rooted into a similar category as
I chose Mean Girls to analyze because this film is relatable and I have been quoting it since 2004. Mean Girls is set at North Shore High School in Evanston, Illinois. The high school in the film does not actually exist but is based off of New Trier High School located in Winnetka, Illinois. I am originally from Northbrook, Illinois and attended a high school only ten minutes away from New Trier High School. Therefore, I find this film to showcase what I went through in high school in the north shore suburbs of Chicago. The culture depicted in this film accurately shows cliques, stereotypical mean girls, and gender relationships. I knew what it was like to see mean girls yet didn’t truly understand how it affected others. I was intrigued to analyze the communication and culture throughout this film. After watching Mean Girls, I chose to
The film, The Breakfast Club, introduces five students, each perceived with a different stereotype which is commonly found in American high schools.
Smith, Stacy, and Crystal A. Cook. Gender Stereotypes: An Analysis of Popular Films and TV. Rep. Geena Davis Institute. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. .
In my old elementary school, Shipley’s Choice, I used to be bullied. Though people still try to push me around, I learned not to pay my mind to them. Shipley’s Choice Elementary school is considered to be on the higher end of middle-class public schools, with all its snotty brats, it felt like Hell. This situation began around second to fourth grade. There was a lot of hatred towards me because I was and kind of still am, a weird person. I had long hair and acted like a weird, modern-day 2010s kid. I was essentially before my time. However, people used to pick on me, call me horrid names, and even hit me! I was depressed, hiding behind a fake smile. Some of my former bullies are now some of my closer friends. But, I was like an outstretched rubber band about to snap. Luckily I never did. I had expected the school to help me, but I was the only one in a major amount of trouble, as I verbally retaliated.
Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Class-passing : social mobility in film and popular culture (Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 2005).
Of all the 1980’s films, that can be described as “Eighties Teen Movies” (Thorburn, 1998) or “High School Movies” (Messner, 1998), those written and (with the exception of “Pretty In Pink” (1986) and “Some Kind of Wonderful”(1987)) directed by John Hughes were often seen to define the genre, even leading to the tag “John Hughes rites de passage movies” as a genre definition used in 1990s popular culture (such as in “Wayne’s World 2” (1994 dir. Stephen Surjik)). This term refers to the half dozen films made between 1984 and 1987; chronologically, “Sixteen Candles” (1984), “The Breakfast Club” (1985), “Weird Science” (1985), “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” (1986), “Pretty In Pink” (1986) and “Some Kind Of Wonderful” (1987) (the latter two being directed by Howard Deutch). For the purpose of this study, “Weird Science” and “Some Kind of Wonderful” shall be excluded; “Weird Science” since, unlike the other films, it is grounded in science fiction rather than reality and “Some Kind of Wonderful” as its characters are fractionally older and have lost the “innocence” key to the previous movies: as Bernstein states “the youthful naivete was missing and the diamond earring motif [a significant gift within the film] was no substitute” (Bernstein, 1997, p.89). Bernstein suggests that the decadent 1980s were like the 1950s, “an AIDS-free adventure playground with the promise of prosperity around every corner … our last age of innocence” (Bernstein, 1997, p.1). The films were very much a product of the time in terms of their production (“suddenly adolescent spending power dictated that Hollywood direct all its energies to fleshing out the fantasies of our friend, Mr. Dumb Horny 14 Year Old” Bernstein, 1997, p.4), their repetition (with the growth of video cassette recorders, cable and satellite with time to fill, and also the likes of MTV promoting the film’s soundtracks) and their ideologies.
In conclusion, the film "10 things I hate about you" directed by Gill Junger explored a wide variety of themes and issues such as peer Pressure, the value of individualism and the elements in a relationship. These themes directly correlates to issues displayed in high school society, and can potentially aid teenage into making correct decisions.