After lamenting never having seen an Oscar winning - and probably an Oscar nominated short film - I chanced upon the Oscar sub section on The Short Of The Week website and found this one . Somewhat typically the first Oscar winning short film I have ever watched would also be one that I wouldn't instinctively like or watch - a British social realist drama probably made by the middle class who feel guilty about not being born in da ghetto and feel ashamed that they've never been the victim a fatal drive by and feel the need to do a fictional misery memoir . That said WASP is made by Andrea Arnold who did go on to have a mainstream career where as sadly most short film makers seem to end their short journey in to the cinematic world of directing a couple of obscure shorts and then disappear never to be heard of again . If nothing else if I watched WASP at least I could impress associates with a trivia question as in " Name the Oscar winning film that Danny Dyer starred in ? "
All expectations were turned on their head by this short film . I did expect WASP to be something along the lines of victim culture to make the grief whoring Guardinistas feel good about themselves but this isn't in fact what it is . Interesting to see how different people on this page have interpreted it . I don't think politics comes in to it because of the focus of the audiences sympathies fall firmly on the children and not Zoe . Poverty is a terrible thing but many people can rise above it via strength of spirit in bringing up children in a very adverse environment . It's not just merely social economic environment that's causing problems for the children here but the p*ss poor parent skills of Zoe . The children are victims - Zoe is not end of . It's not often I get rather angry and feel great sympathy for characters in fictional films but WASP is one of those few films that has done to me recently . Add to this Danny Dyer starring in an Oscar film and you've got something remarkable . I can't however rate it more than a seven because it's depressing and I thought 7:35 IN THE MORNING deserved the Oscar
All expectations were turned on their head by this short film . I did expect WASP to be something along the lines of victim culture to make the grief whoring Guardinistas feel good about themselves but this isn't in fact what it is . Interesting to see how different people on this page have interpreted it . I don't think politics comes in to it because of the focus of the audiences sympathies fall firmly on the children and not Zoe . Poverty is a terrible thing but many people can rise above it via strength of spirit in bringing up children in a very adverse environment . It's not just merely social economic environment that's causing problems for the children here but the p*ss poor parent skills of Zoe . The children are victims - Zoe is not end of . It's not often I get rather angry and feel great sympathy for characters in fictional films but WASP is one of those few films that has done to me recently . Add to this Danny Dyer starring in an Oscar film and you've got something remarkable . I can't however rate it more than a seven because it's depressing and I thought 7:35 IN THE MORNING deserved the Oscar