Ellen(2016) is a one-off drama on channel 4 and was written by Mahalia Belo . The main character Ellen played by Jessica Barden is a 14 year old teenager growing up in Croydon south east London. She comes from a poor working class background and lives in a council estate with her mum ( Jaime Winstone). Who ignores and neglects her and prefers to have parties with filthy men, also her grandma who is down in the box room on her deathbed . With no father around Ellen is exposed to hard-core drugs and alcohol which is offered to her more than a decent meal .
Ellen adhere to her archetype of a 'chav' , she's perceived as a loud mouthy greasy haired delinquent but it's just a masquerade, she is truly vulnerable and just wants to be noticed.
However the day she meets Kayla(Yasmin Monet Prince ) everything changes, she is able to form a deep true relationship with someone she could call her best friend. Their crazy adventure and girly chats seems memorable for decades to come. On the other hand Jason (Joe Dempsie) who is always a phone call away, seems to show confinement but could trusting her guardian angel Jason be a good choice for her naïve teenage fantasy.
Although 'Ellen' is able to show different types of moral panics which can be used to identify our society today, one in particular is the fact that young girls are defiant and are disappearing. There is a lot of foreshadowing which brings tension between the audience especially in the last 20 minutes of the film. Unfortunately there is a cliff hanger at the end which doesn't tell me much about the outcome of the end of Ellen's summer.
Ellen adhere to her archetype of a 'chav' , she's perceived as a loud mouthy greasy haired delinquent but it's just a masquerade, she is truly vulnerable and just wants to be noticed.
However the day she meets Kayla(Yasmin Monet Prince ) everything changes, she is able to form a deep true relationship with someone she could call her best friend. Their crazy adventure and girly chats seems memorable for decades to come. On the other hand Jason (Joe Dempsie) who is always a phone call away, seems to show confinement but could trusting her guardian angel Jason be a good choice for her naïve teenage fantasy.
Although 'Ellen' is able to show different types of moral panics which can be used to identify our society today, one in particular is the fact that young girls are defiant and are disappearing. There is a lot of foreshadowing which brings tension between the audience especially in the last 20 minutes of the film. Unfortunately there is a cliff hanger at the end which doesn't tell me much about the outcome of the end of Ellen's summer.