What are the themes of Detention 101?

Detention 101 covers many social themes. In general, it is about white classism and if you stick around through the whole film, you will find a final comment by the film itself on the characters in the film which I hope drives the point home about how broken we are as a society.

Yes, as the four main characters reveal their stories and the biggest issues they have had to face in the world, the film itself comments on them. The film plays it’s own role in expressing facts and opinions around the issues at hand sometimes with humorous visuals and other times with hard hitting images.

Overall, the film and the characters within it serve as a view into how economics divide people on such a deep level that almost nothing can bring them together to find common ground. Each character believes themselves to have more insights than the others, have more knowledge than the others and is in the end above the rest in terms of who is better.

The issues revolve around socio-economic themes such as:

• Religion

• Alcoholism

• Egotism

• Money

• Automation

• Freedom of speech

• Self-preservation

• Self-destruction

These above topics are the things that haunted me throughout lockdown and continue to haunt me. I can see various sides and so wish we could all come together….even if it is to agree to disagree instead of finding ways to take jabs at each other.

But don’t be scared away if these topics feel like “too much” as the film is very humorous and it is possible to just simply go along for the ride. I truly believe that if we don’t laugh at humanity’s flaws then we will never get a handle on them.

So I hope the film let’s you laugh a little and takes the burden off a bit.