Pleasureland

Pleasureland was originally made for the UK broadcaster Channel 4 for their controversial 'Adult at 14′ season, looking at many issues affecting teenagers in 2003. Pleasureland was playwright Helen Blakeman's first teleplay and she uses the subject matter to explore teenage sexuality, teenage pregnancy, peer pressure, hypocrisy and the destructive course one girl goes through.

Joanna "Jo" Mosscroft (Katie Lyon) is a 14-year-old Scouser girl in Year 9 from a poor single-parent family and attends a private all-girls school. All around her, she sees that her peers have boyfriends and are having sex and one day decides to join in. Lead and pressurised by her class' popular girl, Sophie (Leah Whittaker) Jo goes down a dark path in a very troubling coming-of-age story as Jo rushes to grow-up in a world of sex, drugs and betrayal.

Jo begins as a shy good girl who is an easy target for bullies, someone who is easily used and manipulated by others. Early on the film she is only invited to a party so would 'cop off' with a boy she likes and pressured into performing oral sex publicly. That action leads to Jo being called a 'dirty whore' at school, exposing the lose-lose situation that a girl could be placed in, being seen as frigid if she does not have any sexual experiences and a slut if she does.

During Pleasureland, Jo goes through her first love with an older man, a man who uses her for sex. Her personality changes, becoming more aggressive and horrible to people around her, to which she eventually becomes the bully she was formerly a victim of. She ends up going off the deep end, with drugs and alcohol during the film. She begins backstabbing and abusing everyone, including her little sister and no one seems to know how to stop her. Yet, when Jo does have sex there is pain on her face, where we see that it becomes a hollow experience for her, thinking it something she needs to do.

Pleasureland juxtaposes the ideas of Jo wanting to grow up quickly while still being seen as a child by adults. Jo thrusts herself into a dark world, getting led by others, turning from the very inexperience girl who does not know much about sex, to being the girl in school who brags, exaggerates and lies about her sex life and becomes more sexually adventurous. She wears a school uniform yet puts on make-up and tarts herself up for nights out. Jo is a girl with romantic ideals when she is in a relationship and her homework still involve things like colouring maps. When the police take Jo home the officer asks "is this your little girl" and she is taken to a children's ward when she is severely beaten.

Katie Lyon is the centre of Pleasureland and she does give a really strong performance. A particular moment is when she is heartbroken and crying in her room. It is a shame that she never continued in acting as she was only 18 when she starred in the film.

Percival was not afraid to embrace the darker and crueler parts of the story. He was explicit as he could be involving the sex scene, showing more and more as the film progresses. There are brutal moments like a fight scene between two girls and someone burning Jo's hand with a cigarette. But Percival uses a hand-held approach and the low budget shows when he uses sudden zooms and very quick cuts, making Pleasureland look like a more amateurish effort.

There are also some little issues in the film like when Jo is becoming more aggressive to the point where she arguing with teachers and running out of exams leading to the question wouldn't the school contact her mother to discuss her behaviour? Pleasureland makes out that Jo to from a poor background when it could have been more bold and relatable for the intended audience, if she was made out to be from a Middle-Class background or at least she was in the school because she had a scholarship of some sort.

Pleasureland aims to be a cautionary tale for its target audience about the perils and hypocrisy of peer pressure and the destructive effect of someone rushing into sexual relationships when they do not have the emotional maturity.

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I remember watching this film when it came on channel 4. I found it very intriguing to say the least . It is quite shocking and i would say the British equivalent to 'Thirteen' but better. i recommend it, but prepare to be taken on a roller-coaster ride of emotions.I would say the acting is superb also as the emotions and determination of the characters is believable,although the story lines may seem far fetched through the eyes of those who live a more conservative life to which they may be may be appalled by the extremities that the the characters especially the main character goes through.It is sad to consider that the pressures faced on teens is truthfully as extreme as it was portrayed in this film.Excellent viewing if you are into British raw gritty down to earth documentary style narratives like me!BRITS KNOW HOW TO DO IT BEST!!

'Pleasureland' is a depressing look at the life of teen-aged girls in contemporary Liverpool. The plot unfolds as a simple progression through a parent's worst nightmares, and manages the near-impossible task of over-stressing the importance of peer-pressure as a motivating factor in teenage behaviour. No-one has any fun and overall, there's all the charm of a public information film. Just say no!

Pleasureland was an inspiring and extremely harsh but very true reflection of the dull atmosphere and dark circumstances that peer pressure can cause especially over sex, drugs and alcohol. When I was around that age in 2003 and had so many friends with plenty of similar experiences like the ones shown in this feature length drama I but that film had everyone talking and thinking about giving into pressures before they went too far. To say it affected parents worries I'm sure is true but in my opinion it was not made for parents and its not parents that reflected upon it throughout their left over teen years. I feel like that comment was a bit to one side and critical of what was at the time a very affective production. I need to find a copy :( x

I remember watching this film in sex education in school. I was very young, and quite shocked at some of the content. This was mainly the drug using, because at that time, I hadn't come across this. Although, even back then I understood that this could be a life of someone that was around the same age as me at the time. The acting is brilliant, and all the characters make the film believable. The sex scenes are done extremely well, and I had to skip on when I watched the film again recently, because the acting was so good that it brought back memories of the first few times you have sex when you are too young, and don't really enjoy it. The script, in my eyes, was written very well, as I can remember teenagers at school using the slang the characters use to state an opinion on a person for example "You are frigid" and somewhat mock them for not engaging in sexual activity. There is very realistic content in the film and it is almost like a teenager of 2003 had created the film. As a teenager I can remember myself, or a friend, going through the same things the characters in the film go through. For example if you were willing to learn at school you were considered a "Geek" and weren't in with the "Cool gang". The rebellious teenagers that didn't bother to go to school, or misbehaved at school were some sort of "Legends" in other teenager's eyes. The queen bee scenario was also very common when I was at school. This being the girl who controls all of her so called "Friends" and they do all that she says, even though she is bullying others. I also always remember pretending to be older than I was, and also wanting to older than I was. The charters in the film regularly lie about their age, and don't realize severity of not telling the truth about your age especially when sex is concerned. This was something people did when I was at at school, and it was very dangerous. The mum says a very interesting quote that highlights this "She is 14 and having sex.. it is illegal for a start". The actress playing the teenager looks at her mum with confusion like this hadn't crossed her mind. As far as wanting to be older goes, his is something I felt as a young teenager. This tends to disappear when you reach 18, and then you to wish you could go back to being the naïve, young teenager, with no responsibilities, you once were. Lying about where you were going or about where you had been also was part of my teenage years. The mother in the film is somewhat unaware of her daughter's whereabouts and the things she is getting up to until the teenager is caught out. The mum is left desperate trying to give her the best advice, and stop her from doing things she would later regret, but the advice is disregarded, and thrown back in the mothers face. I can remember my friends often doing these things and in the film it is highlighted very well.

These quotes from the film are also very familiar to me and brings me back to my teenage years "I had to learn to be in, I had to prove myself". "That was it, it was up to me. All I had to do is have sex, loose my cherry, find a fella. No backs". "If you wanna be anyone, you gotta have a piercing". "Was I the only person in the world behaving myself? Staying in being good Joanna? That wasn't me anymore". "No!! no! I don't care it's my life". "This is what you are supposed to look like". T he film can be upsetting, but at the end of the films things seem to get better for the main character. The teenager turns a path after a big wakeup call, and gets her life back on into a positive track. There is conversation between two teenagers at the end of the film that got to me, and is very true. They talk about how peer pressure can consume teenager's lives, and how it can force someone (obviously indirectly) to engage in sexual activity to be as experienced as their friends suggested they are. Often the teenager doesn't actually have the desire to perform sexual acts, but feel that they have to. They feel that this is necessary if they want to be in with the in crowd, and don't acknowledge their own views on sex.