American Beauty character analysis

Angela


Background
Angela is a teenage girl, that attends college in america. She is asthetically beautiful and thinks very highly of herself. Her best friend and seemingly only friend is Jane. Angela is Lester's midlife crisis crush and she plays a pivitol role in the story.

Beggining
At the start of the film She seems to some up a stereotypical 'plastic blonde' american girl. she is portrayed as this young, confident and attractive character. She regularly brags about her 'amazing' sex life and is very big headed and full of herself, she also seems very bitchy, and treats Jane like she is a piece of carpet.

Ending
However by the end of the film she has been 'found out' and although she seemed so perfect at the start, she is anything but that at the end. She falls out with Jane, as Jane realises how much of an ugly person she really is. She realises that looking past all of the makeup and bleech blonde hair, Angela is nothing but a pathetic little school girl. Ricky has a massive part to play in the down fall of angela, the first time Ricky met Amanda he didnt even look at her, it was as if he looked straight through her, he was fully focused on Jane, and he saw past Angela's fake personna and straight in to the inner beauty of Jane. As Ricky and Jane's relationship progressed Angela was rapidly losing control over Jane, and it was as if Ricky had pulled the cotton wool from over her eyes and made her see Angela for what she really is, weak and ugly. This is Ironic as the title of the film is 'American Beauty' and Amanda, the so called beautiful girl, was found out to be actually not very beautiful at all. The ironic relationship of the title and the ongoings in the film start to make the audience wonder wether this 'American Beauty' and the american dream of having a big house, a well paid job and a happy& secure family is really all that it is cracked up to be.

Scene analysis (2nd from Last scene, Angela and Lester 'sex scene')

There is diegetic music playing in the music player in the living room (Niel Young - Don't let it bring you down.') The music is very romantic and works parallel with the scene. Also
the rain is belting down on to the windows and is creating an intimate atmosphere.
The camera slowly zooms in to a close up shot, when the scene is at it's most intimate point, when Lester says 'So... are you gonna tell me, what do you want?' During this close up the camera uses the cuttaway technique and keeps cutting the angle of which you view the intimacy from (behind Lester, then behind Angela.


 

Kick Ass Analysis

Kick ass:

How it was made:

·        Kick ass has a budget of $28 million.

·        The director Mathew Vaughn invested his own money in to making the film, he therefore took the largest revenue, and he and Brad Pitt (alongside others) helped produce the film.

·        Script& development: Mark Miller& Jane Goldman were paid to help edit the script and develop it further, this including the deals cost around $3 million, and these writers were also known for developing the script of Stardust.

·        Above the line costs: $7.7 million

·        Below the line costs: $7.8 million

Marketing:

·        A series of posters presenting the individual characters were released to gain the audiences interest.

·        URL address’ were on these posters, which sent you to the official kick ass website.

·        They then firstly released a ‘teaser’ trailer, which introduced the idea of being a super hero with no powers. After this they released the extended movie trailer, this involved more scenes and clips from the movie, therefore enticing the reader.

·        The producers also released short clips about each of the main characters, apart from kick ass (as they didn’t want to reveal everything)

·        Prints& advertising costs were near to £10.5 million, Lions gate distributed the film taking in a large percentage of the final box office figures.

What it is based on:

·        Kick-Ass is a 2010 superhero action comedy film based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who co-produced the film with Brad Pitt, and co-wrote the screenplay with Jane Goldman. The film's general release was on 25 March 2010 in the United Kingdom and on 16 April 2010 in the United States.

·        The film tells the story of an ordinary teenager, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who sets out to become a real-life superhero, calling himself "Kick-Ass". Dave gets caught up in a bigger fight when he meets Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), a former cop who, in his quest to bring down the drug lord Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), has trained his eleven-year-old daughter to be the ruthless vigilante Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz).

Problems with making it:

·       It generated some controversy for its profanity and violence performed by a child, however Kick ass was still well received by both critics and audience.

Technology Used:

·        Double negative did just over 835 visual effects for the movie, using mostly CGI through green screens and other methods. Between $8-9 million was spent on special effects.

How rating affected performance:

In an interview with Total Film, Aaron Johnson confirmed that the film stays true to the adult nature of the comic series by featuring a large amount of profanity and graphic violence. The film received an R rating by the MPAA for "strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use—some involving children", and it received a 15 rating from the BBFC. Director Matthew Vaughn felt the 15 certificate was about right and expressed some surprise at the film having received a "PG rating" in France.