Locations in Teen Angst Films

A lot of teen angst films are set in schools. Different teen angst films use different characteristics to represent the fact that the setting is a school. For example:

Mean Girls
Several scenes in Mean Girls are set in the High School in the film. Some scenes are in a classroom and some are in a 'cafeteria', which, while uncommon in Britain, is a very stereotypical element of American High Schools. The cafeteria scene in Mean Girls is famous for showing the cliques of high school, which is another stereotype of high school.

Juno
Another stereotype of High Schools/Secondary Schools in teen angst films are lockers. Most high schools have them, so including them in a scene suggests that they are in school. Juno uses lockers to represent that one scene is taking place in a school corridor. 

 

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
Another example of a school setting in a teen angst film is the classroom in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is a British film, meaning that it is more relatable to a British audience. While American classrooms are usually set out with singular desks, British classrooms tend to have bigger tables with several students sitting round each.

Wild Child

In Wild Child, Emma Roberts portrays a rebellious American school girl, Poppy Moore. She is sent to boarding school in England and at first, fails to get on with any of the girls at the school. She cares about her appearance and exaggerates her life in America. She hates her boarding school and tries her hardest to get expelled, and the girls in her dormitory agree to help her. However, throughout the film, her personality begins to change and when she dyes her hair she seemingly becomes a completely different person. At the beginning, Poppy is a stereotypical teenager, only caring about her appearance and her mobile phone, however towards the end she becomes more caring.

Poppy's 'enemy', Harriet is played by Georgia King. The character is Head Girl and believes that she is popular, but in reality most of her classmates think she is stuck up. She is incredibly manipulative and tries to get Poppy expelled, but ends up getting expelled herself. While Poppy finds the value of true friendship in a positive way, Harriet only finds that she has pushed her few friends away. 

Poppy's friends Josie (Linzey Cocker), Kiki (Sophie Wu), Kate (Kimberly Nixon) and Drippy (Juno Temple). Although at first they don't get on with Poppy, they soon all become close as Poppy tries to get herself expelled. Although they all have completely different personalities, together they are really supportive towards Poppy, until they think Poppy was 'slagging them off'. Although hurt by what Poppy allegedly said, they come together to realise that she didn't say anything against them and go and support her in her expulsion hearing, remaining loyal to her. Before Poppy arrives, they don't care very much about their appearance, making them a countertype. They shop at charity shops, which is unlike most teenage girls, who like to shops like New Look and River Island.

The main setting of the film was a large boarding school, and it was filmed at Cobham Hall in Kent, which is a boarding school for girls in real life. This is an appropriate setting because it has all the equipment needed and school is a stereotypical setting of a teen angst film. The location is relevant to the audience because the target demographic of this film is 12-18 year old girls, all of which will go to school or will have gone to school at some point. Although not all of the target audience will go to boarding school, elements of the setting, especially the interior will have some relevance to the viewer.

The main teenage characters in the film all have to wear school uniform. Poppy's friends all wear their school uniform correctly, as seen in the picture of them above, however when Poppy is new to the school she attempts to customise it in order to appear more fashionable.

Mean Girls

Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen angst film directed by Mark Waters and starring Lindsey Lohan. Cady Heron, a 16 year old girl who has been home-schooled in Africa for 15 years, moves to a high school in Illinois. Early on, she makes 2 friends – Damian and Janis, who are viewed as being unpopular. However, the ‘Plastics’ soon take a liking to Cady and invite them to sit with her. Janis and Damien tell Cady to remain friends with the Plastics so they get revenge on them.

As Cady spends so much time with the plastic, she then begins to become one, however she and Regina are out to destroy the other. To try and ruin Regina, Cady does many things. For example, she gave Regina a Bar telling her it will help her stay slim when it actually makes her put weight on.  Regina responds by spreading the whole contents of the Burn Book, a book full of rumours written by Regina, however she blames Cady. Regina then gets hit by a bus, and people believe that Cady pushed her. Cady tries to fix everything by making up with Janis and Damian, as well as making a truce with the plastics and takes full credit for the Burn Book.

The film is so relatable to a teenage audience because it covers major issues seen in high school, the main one being bullying. It also looks at relationships, friendships, parties, drinking, sex and more. However, it is also a really funny film, and even after 10 years, is highly quoted. Therefore, many teenagers just watch it because it is so funny. Nevertheless, the fact it is set in a high school, and portrays the issues of cliques and staying inside your accepted social circle. Although this issue isn't such a big deal in this country, it still has a relatable factor when comes to choosing friends.