Short Term 12

Short Term 12 directed by Destin Daniel Cretton is a film that I had never heard of until I came across it while looking through Netflix for something to watch, but I am so glad I did find it because I really enjoyed it.

Short Term 12 is about a foster-care facility for at risk teenagers. Not only do the kids at the care home have troubled pasts, most of the staff do too. Which of course helps them to understand and help the children in their care but can also causing a few problems too because they get too involved. One member of staff in particular, Grace (Brie Larson), makes it her own personal mission to help a girl that is new to the home. The girl continuously runs away from the home and has a history of hurting herself. Grace feels more of a connection to the girl as she has experienced similar things and so she starts digging to find the root of the girls unhappiness and Grace tries to save her from drowning in whatever’s going on. 

The film is quite dark and reflects on issues most children in care have to deal with, it helps people who have never had to experience such things to understand how it must feel, which creates a lot of empathy for the characters. It also makes you realise how much care workers have to go through and how difficult it must be. Destin Daniel Cretton has created a great storyline and I advise that everyone watches this, but don’t forget your tissues because its bound to make you cry. 

Side Effects

Side Effects directed by Steven Soderbergh was the last film I watched. The film starring Jude Law, Channing Tatum, Rooney Mara and Catherine Zeta-Jones was released in the USA on the 8th of Feburary 2013. The film is about a young woman called Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) who’s husband (Channing Tatum) has just returned home from serving time in prison. However although Emily seems to be happy to see him and have him back, it becomes clear that she is quite severely depressed and even attempts to kill herself by driving her car straight into a wall. So after this incident, she seeks the help of a psychiatrist (Jude Law), he speaks to a previous psychiatrist Emily had called Dr Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones). After speaking to her previous psychiatrist, he decides to prescribe her with various different anti-depressants that appear to give her side effects such as nausea or that she claims just simply don’t work. Due to these various anti-depressants causing problems Emily asks to be put on a new drug called Ablixa, everyone is talking about it, saying how good it is and how much it has helped them with their depression. However the Ablixa seems to have the side effect of putting Emily into a “sleepwalking” state, where she can’t  remember anything she has done whilst in this state. When in the “sleepwalking” state Emily tragically murders her husband by stabbing him with a knife she was chopping vegetables with in this Ablixa side effect state. She wakes up from the state having no idea her husband has been killed and immediately calls the police when she sees him laid on the floor with a knife in his back. Furthermore, due to this horrific incident, Emily is emitted to a mental hospital where she awaits the verdict of the murder case as it is very clear to the police she killed him, but she ends up not getting charged because her psychiatrist explain how this “sleepwalking” state effects her, how she doesn’t know what she’s doing and doesn’t remember anything that happens whilst she’s in the state. The whole murder case completely ruins Emily’s psychiatrists career though because he is blamed, by the public, for the murder as he prescribed the drugs to Emily. However Emily’s psychiatrist can’t accept what has happens and starts digging further to find out more about the murder, he ends up revealing some quite troubling information that explains a lot and the whole story about the tragic truth starts to unfold. 

I enjoyed watching this film, although it was slow to get going, it’s worth a watch because the plot twist that reveals the truth behind the whole film is very cleverly done, it makes the whole film make so much more sense. If you like films with completely unpredictable endings, one that are quite thought provoking then Side Effects is definitely one for you.

Hello world!

My name is Megan Jackson and welcome to my blog, I am a student studying AS Media Studies. This school year I am most looking forward to planning and filming a film opening. I will update this blog as and when I complete media tasks or if I have something interesting to share with you about different media things e.g films or music.