Imperial Dreams, Clueless and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

1. IMPERIAL DREAMS
Of all the hazards that await the recently paroled convict, recidivism is one of the most difficult to escape, given the
ease with which a person on the fringes of society can fall into it. Consider the plight of Bambi (John Boyega), the
center of Malik Vitthal’s empathetic character study Imperial Dreams. After doing time for some kind of incident
involving a deadly weapon, Bambi returns home to the Watts neighbourhood of Los Angeles, to do right by his son
Day (twins Justin and Ethan Coach) while Day’s mother Samaara (Keke Palmer) continues to serve her own sentence
in county jail. Bambi has committed himself to living better than his past self, and even managed to get a short piece
published in McSweeney’s while incarcerated.
The messages and values is finding hope outside of prison life and avoid any trouble that could
potentially separate him from his son again. This film has really lived up to its genre (Social Realist
Drama). The narrative is linear and the underlined themes are:
- Redemption;
- Homelessness;
- Struggling to lead a good life;
- Most importantly, Family.
Representation: Class/Status- lower class/poverty. Ethnicity- Set in black neighbourhoods.
We can hear the police siren in the background at the intro of the film, instantly allowing the audience to
get familiar about the atmosphere and the neighbourhood its set in. The houses, the cars shows that he is
a lower class living in poverty trying to get a job to get back up on his feet so feed and send his child to a
good school. Then later we hear and see another police car circling the neighbourhood.
Message and Values: Hope outside of prison/hope for convicts. Challenging stereotypes.
Genre: Drama, Social Realism.
Narrative: Reconnecting with son- linear.
Theme: Redemption. Struggle. Homelessness. Family.
Style: Verisimilitude- close to reality.
Police siren in the background, instantly tells us about the atmosphere and the neighbourhood.
Narrative, short sentences. Monotone. Tells us how the character is feeling and his thoughts.
Another police siren. Hides the car keys under the car.
Walks in his mum is on the floor passed out. Intakes drugs.

2. Son is on his own, meeting after a long time since dad has been in prison.
Main character and his cousin talks about life and how protagonist needs a job that pays £8/h to have a
steady life and food. Cousin talks about life living in the hood and how he killed a 10 year old boy due to his
drug dealing job. Goes to child support doesn’t have money to pay outstanding £15,000 and when he goes
‘home’ finds his cousin with a laptop. Drug dealers chase them and kills his cousin.
This film clearly shows us how family and friends aren’t going to be helpful for ever, or even loyal. This is
clearly indicated when his brother whom he left his son with carelessly got distracted by a phone call this
lead to the boy getting spotted by child service outside the house. When confronted he told the protagonist to
get out of his house and go back to his ‘home’ referring to his car.
Representation: Class/Status- lower class/poverty. Ethnicity- Set in black neighbourhoods.
We can hear the police siren in the background at the intro of the film, instantly allowing the audience to
get familiar about the atmosphere and the neighbourhood its set in. The houses, the cars shows that he is
a lower class living in poverty trying to get a job to get back up on his feet so feed and send his child to a
good school. Then later we hear and see another police car circling the neighbourhood.
Message and Values: Hope outside of prison/hope for convicts. Challenging stereotypes.
Genre: Drama, Social Realism.
Narrative: Reconnecting with son- linear.
Theme: Redemption. Struggle. Homelessness. Family.
Style: Verisimilitude- close to reality.
When looking at representation the two scenes really backs it up. The lower class, poverty and the hard life
in black neighbourhoods. The first scene we watched it starts where the protagonist talks about life and how
he needs a job urgently to have a steady life and enough money for food. He’s opted out of the hood life in
order to keep him as well as his kid safe from gangs. Avoiding the same mistakes his parents did to him.
When looking at theme and style we can really sense this when Bambi (protagonist) goes to this office
where they state that he has to pay £15,000 for child support but impossible because without his driver’s
license he can’t get a job and without a job he can’t pay the outstanding £15,000 this is where we see the
struggle of being homeless. With no one to give you advice and show you a path that leads to happiness as
well as security.
Main character and his cousin talks about life and how protagonist needs a job that pays £8/h to have a
steady life and food. Cousin talks about life living in the hood and how he killed a 10-year-old boy due to
his drug dealing job. Goes to child support doesn’t have money to pay outstanding £15,000 and when he
goes ‘home’ finds his cousin with a laptop. Drug dealers chase them and kills his cousin.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:
- Instantly we encounter a voice that perhaps tells us who the main character is.
- Two people not interacting with anyone except

3. Frameworks for analysis:
- Representation refers to the processes of constructing images of different people, places and ideas in
films.
- Messages and values refers to the way messages and values are communicated to film audiences.
- Genre refers to the process of classifying films as being of one type or another by audiences and
institutions, for example, ‘horror’ or ‘action adventures’. Generic codes and conventions are
employed in the construction of films, enabling the audience to label and categorise them.
- Narrative refers to the development of a ‘story’, the roles and relationships of the characters within it,
the situations and dilemmas they confront and the methods utilised for problem-solving within
narratives.
- Theme refers to the overarching ideas conveyed in a film. Examples of common film themes include
moral dilemmas, conflict, racism, love, betrayal and redemption
- Style refers to the deployment of techniques in film production- for example the use of chiaroscuro
lighting in film noir (strong tonal contrasts between light and dark).
- Authorship refers to different conceptualisations of authorship- this can be applied to directors,
producers, cinematographers, sound designers and starts together with the influence of different type
of film companies and production studios.
Micro-technical elements:
- Cinematography is the use of camera shots, angle, movement, composition and lighting.
- Editing the organisation of sequences to construct meaning. This should include transition of image
and sound, continuity and non-con systems, cutting.
- Sound is diegetic and non-diegetic sound, synchronous and asynchronous sound, sound effects,
sound motifs, sound bridge, dialogues, voice over.
- Mise-en-Scene.
Themes
- Focus on the plane when talking about the past. Theme of nostalgia
- The way they introduce to themselves especially the girl. Comfortably stealing a stranger’s food
without his consent. Chilled.
- Their clothes speak for themselves. The man wears dark clothes. Makes him look mysterious, shy,
and moody in some ways. The girls wear an orange hoodie with green hair friendly and easy going.
He seems more of an outsider and because he’s quiet and finds it hard to interact with people makes
him look and feel invisible. Even though in this clip the girl seemed to be more chilled and easy
going she even states that it is also tricky for her to talk to people. She’s different to him in a way
that because of her bright attire and bright blue/green hair it makes her stand out and unique and that
could also make her look like an outsider.
Representation is more about gender, age, disability, sexuality, race/ethnicity, social class/status, and
religion/politics. Theme is issues characters are going through- outsider, nostalgia.
Clueless
Age: Teens (girls) very normal for them to have hate towards PE. Very realistic as they would do or come
up with an excuse to avoid any physical activities. Sexuality one of the three girls came up with a sexual
joke.