I remember watching this film in sex education in school. I was very young, and quite shocked at some of the content. This was mainly the drug using, because at that time, I hadn't come across this. Although, even back then I understood that this could be a life of someone that was around the same age as me at the time.
The acting is brilliant, and all the characters make the film believable. The sex scenes are done extremely well, and I had to skip on when I watched the film again recently, because the acting was so good that it brought back memories of the first few times you have sex when you are too young, and don't really enjoy it. The script, in my eyes, was written very well, as I can remember teenagers at school using the slang the characters use to state an opinion on a person for example "You are frigid" and somewhat mock them for not engaging in sexual activity.
There is very realistic content in the film and it is almost like a teenager of 2003 had created the film. As a teenager I can remember myself, or a friend, going through the same things the characters in the film go through. For example if you were willing to learn at school you were considered a "Geek" and weren't in with the "Cool gang". The rebellious teenagers that didn't bother to go to school, or misbehaved at school were some sort of "Legends" in other teenager's eyes. The queen bee scenario was also very common when I was at school. This being the girl who controls all of her so called "Friends" and they do all that she says, even though she is bullying others.
I also always remember pretending to be older than I was, and also wanting to older than I was. The charters in the film regularly lie about their age, and don't realize severity of not telling the truth about your age especially when sex is concerned. This was something people did when I was at at school, and it was very dangerous. The mum says a very interesting quote that highlights this "She is 14 and having sex.. it is illegal for a start". The actress playing the teenager looks at her mum with confusion like this hadn't crossed her mind. As far as wanting to be older goes, his is something I felt as a young teenager. This tends to disappear when you reach 18, and then you to wish you could go back to being the naïve, young teenager, with no responsibilities, you once were.
Lying about where you were going or about where you had been also was part of my teenage years. The mother in the film is somewhat unaware of her daughter's whereabouts and the things she is getting up to until the teenager is caught out. The mum is left desperate trying to give her the best advice, and stop her from doing things she would later regret, but the advice is disregarded, and thrown back in the mothers face. I can remember my friends often doing these things and in the film it is highlighted very well.
These quotes from the film are also very familiar to me and brings me back to my teenage years "I had to learn to be in, I had to prove myself". "That was it, it was up to me. All I had to do is have sex, loose my cherry, find a fella. No backs". "If you wanna be anyone, you gotta have a piercing". "Was I the only person in the world behaving myself? Staying in being good Joanna? That wasn't me anymore". "No!! no! I don't care it's my life". "This is what you are supposed to look like". T he film can be upsetting, but at the end of the films things seem to get better for the main character. The teenager turns a path after a big wakeup call, and gets her life back on into a positive track. There is conversation between two teenagers at the end of the film that got to me, and is very true. They talk about how peer pressure can consume teenager's lives, and how it can force someone (obviously indirectly) to engage in sexual activity to be as experienced as their friends suggested they are. Often the teenager doesn't actually have the desire to perform sexual acts, but feel that they have to. They feel that this is necessary if they want to be in with the in crowd, and don't acknowledge their own views on sex.
These quotes from the film are also very familiar to me and brings me back to my teenage years "I had to learn to be in, I had to prove myself". "That was it, it was up to me. All I had to do is have sex, loose my cherry, find a fella. No backs". "If you wanna be anyone, you gotta have a piercing". "Was I the only person in the world behaving myself? Staying in being good Joanna? That wasn't me anymore". "No!! no! I don't care it's my life". "This is what you are supposed to look like". T he film can be upsetting, but at the end of the films things seem to get better for the main character. The teenager turns a path after a big wakeup call, and gets her life back on into a positive track. There is conversation between two teenagers at the end of the film that got to me, and is very true. They talk about how peer pressure can consume teenager's lives, and how it can force someone (obviously indirectly) to engage in sexual activity to be as experienced as their friends suggested they are. Often the teenager doesn't actually have the desire to perform sexual acts, but feel that they have to. They feel that this is necessary if they want to be in with the in crowd, and don't acknowledge their own views on sex.