Analysing social realism

Arnold highlights the gritty realism of living in poverty. This is shown when their kitchen is full of mouldy bread and how unsanitary they're whole flat is in general. The children are having to share a bag of sugar at the beginning and a packet of crisps when she's at the pub which she just managed to afford. This makes us symphasise with Zoe as she's barely managing to get by and helps her children the best she can even if sometimes it leads to the children getting into trouble. The audience can already guess they're living in poverty and are struggling to afford food and clothing for the children as when the family go outside the baby has no nappies on and they have no shoes on. The camera is quite shaky as it uses a handheld camera which makes it more realistic like its actually happening right in front of us as its filmed in a documentary style way. There is no sound used which makes the fight scene at the beginning more intense and realistic. They are shown to be quite a dysfunctional family as they don't walk down the stairs together in one wide shot instead of individually.  Arnold also uses close up shots which highlights the poor state they're in and that they're living in poverty. Arnold highlights social realism with the close up shots.

The children are also shown to be playing outside while the mum is in the pub showing they're a dysfunctional family as the mum is not around to supervise the children. This highlights the social realism of a family in poverty with the mum not having enough time to look after her children and her having to tell them to wait outside. The editing is fast paced as it keeps cutting back from the children outside to the mother in the pub. This sets up for the rest of the story as the children are later to be seen eating a bag of ribs on the floor. The acting is naturalistic as it shows a family getting into a fight and as well as the mum getting quite angry with her children at times with Danny Dyer playing the ex boyfriend of Zoe very well and with an accurate performance. Arnold also demonstrates social realism with the accents make it accurate to the setting of the film with a family living in a council flat. The location is naturalistic as it shows a block of council flats with her having a dirty kitchen with gone off food, highlighting the social realism with the dirty flats and the mouldy bread. As the film goes on the lighting becomes more darker as so does the story as the wasp goes into the baby's  mouth. Zoe is seen to be caring in this scene as she gets out the car with Dave which  exposes the fact her children are here to him but she doesn't care as she just wants to make sure her children are safe and make sure nothing bad has happened to them as it was her who told them to wait outside in the first scene so is rightfully responsible for any disasters.