To what extent can the contemporay British Films Fish Tank and eden lake be said to offer a negative representation of youth

Fish Tank:

Fish Tank offers a range of different representations towards British youth culture, this primarily includes Adolescence, School and education, work, acceptance/love/friendship, experimentation(violence, crime, drugs). Collectively this forms a expansive look into the lives of the characters and the way they interact with each other, for example Mia's rejection of the offer for a chance to enter into school shows her lack of interest and her strong feelings against being put into a environment which she does not have full control over. Her need for freedom and the ability to act in anyway she fits would be put at risk in a learning environment, this portrays her as a reckless and uneasy youth who will only look out for herself and always put her interests first in most situations. This selfish appearance is a popular negative representation of youth who are often portrayed to only ever be interested in their own problems and not caring or understanding of the problems they create for other people. Another example Fish Tank gives towards negative youth representations is the experimentation with drugs, violence and alcohol with are referenced to constantly throughout the film. An example of this is the scene where Mia and Billy go to Connor's work to get money off him. They claim that it is money for food, however they just go and buy alcohol with it instead. This expresses the typical youth representation of abusive alcohol use, and also the use of deceitfulness.

Eden Lake:
Eden Lake focused alot more on the violence aspect of youth representaion, displaying extreme levels of  violent youth behaviour. A good example of the portrayal of violence is the scene in which they have Steve tied up with barb wire against a post, they all take turns knifeing him making there "mark" while recording it on one of their phones. This portrayal of youth violence plays on popular sterotypes of moralless over the top behaviour. The extreme level of this scene is intented to make a shocking lasting impact through out the film giving an idea on just how cruel youths can be. Alongside violence, there is also a strong representation of bad language, theft and disruptiveness. Examples of this are at the scene by the lake when their music in on full blast and refuse to turn it down, despite being told to. This also links in to the idea shown in Fish Tank, that youths are selfish and always put themselves before other people's needs.