Wasp

MOVIE #1,076 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 07.24.23 Andrea Arnold is a notable British director whose only other work I’ve seen thus far is the very cinéma vérité 2021 doc on the life of a female cow, appropriately titled Cow, which now seems like even more of an outlier in the wake of viewing this 2003 short, her first widely available effort. Wasp is BLEAK. On paper, the story of a struggling single mother determined not to let her four young children prove an obstacle in the pursuit of starting a relationship with an old acquaintance doesn’t sound too bad, but this is a tough watch. I’m not sure there’s a ton of meat on the bone beyond “life is sure fucked up for some poor people” but that’s alright.

It’s sometimes refreshing to see a protagonist that’s just beaten down, stuck in a loop of bad decisions with no end in sight. I think these plots can be bogged down by overt socio-political messaging sometimes but here Arnold simply lets the plight take center stage and in that sense, drives home the message even deeper.

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Wasp is a 2003 British short film written and directed by Andrea Arnold. Released in 2003, it stars Natalie Press as a struggling single mother determined not to let her four young children prove an obstacle in the pursuit of starting a relationship with an old acquaintance, played by Danny Dyer. The setting is Arnold's hometown of Dartford. It was released on Jan 14, 2003.