Part 1 Essay

Authors Avatar

Part 1 Essay

Ella Park

My devised theme is The Truth about Teenagers and it’s directed at teenagers to show them a different side of what they may think and know teenagers to be about. The films I have researched are Kidulthood, directed by Menhaj Huda; and Juno, directed by Jason Reitman. The theme of both films is teenagers, however they’re about completely different things

Kidulthood is a British Drama about deprived teenagers who make trouble, it’s very dramatic and serious. However, Juno is an American Comedy-Drama about a very independent-minded teenager who becomes pregnant by accident. It’s a lot more light-hearted and cheerful than Kidulthood. This is shown by the music, language and storyline of the films. Throughout Kidulthood there is swearing, violence, drugs and sex shown in dark and uneasy situations with a lot of tension and fear. It’s naturalistic because it is shown in an ordered progressive way. It focuses on only one day in the life of teenagers. Juno is quite the opposite with no drugs or violence, but more about how different people, like Juno’s parents and boyfriend, respond to her situation shown in a less dramatic, easy-going way. Juno is more non-naturalistic because it shows events in different orders with flashbacks. However Juno is about pregnancy, which is a main part of the storyline in Kidulthood but because of the settings and characters of the films, the situation couldn’t be more different. The main themes in Kidulthood are violence, solidarity and power. In Juno the main themes are pro-life, choices and relationships.

Join now!

Both films are set in the modern day. Kidulthood is set in Central London and Juno is set in Canada. London is busy, potentially dangerous and full of youths whereas the place in Canada is portrayed as quiet and friendly. We know it’s set in the modern day because of the language and the sights we see in the film and some references to famous people in this day. In Kidulthood the teenagers use words like ‘innit’ and ‘wagwan’ and swear a lot and use slang in aggressive ways. Whereas in Juno they use modern-day American slang like ‘dude’ ...

This is a preview of the whole essay