Kidulthood (2006)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Menhaj Huda

Writer:

Noel Clarke (written by)

Release Date:

3 March 2006 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Before adulthood comes...

Plot:

A day in the life of a group of troubled 15-year-olds growing up in west London. |

Plot Keywords:

Growing Up | Cigarette Smoking | Stealing | Teenage Sex | Child Suicide

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Aml Ameen	...	Trife
Red Madrell	...	Alisa
Noel Clarke	...	Sam
Adam Deacon	...	Jay
Jaime Winstone	...	Becky
Femi Oyeniran	...	Moony
Madeleine Fairley	...	Claire
Rebecca Martin	...	Katie
Nicholas Hoult	...	Blake
Adem Bayram	...	Vinnie
Stephanie Di Rubbo	...	Shaneek (as Stefanie Di Rubbo)
Kate-Line Okoro	...	Carleen
Medhavi Patel	...	Sophie
Ben McKay	...	Rapper
Cornell John	...	Uncle Curtis

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive language, violent content, sexual material, drug and alcohol use - all involving teens.

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

UK:15 | Ireland:18 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R18 | Finland:K-15 | Portugal:M/16 | Germany:16 | USA:R | Norway:15 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Ladbroke Grove Underground Station, Notting Hill, London, England, UK

Company:

Stealth Films

Trivia:

The CD case that Becky racks out lines of cocaine on is "Out Of The Ghetto" by Isaac Hayes. She uses a Slipknot branded Visa card to cut them.

Quotes:

Uncle Curtis: [to Trev, holding a box cutter] I want you to carve a "c" from the corner of him eye to the corner of him mouth.

Movie Connections:

Features The House of the Dead III (2003) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Counter Evolution

British stereotypes run the show

Kidulthood explores the lives of teenagers in London in Huda's interesting and controversial 2006 British drama.

The British media runs riot on any story they can get their hands on and exploit, and in recent years have developed various forms of stereotypes, none more so than the stereotypical "gangster teenager" who swears every other sentence, drinks, does drugs and has a violent motive towards others and this ideology is explored by Doctor Who star Noel Clarke.

Clarke dives deep into the lives of numerous teenagers to bring out the personalities of the teenagers, and his character Sam is a stereotype of a teenager, the use of violence and swearing portray the villain of the narrative. I'm usually against stereotypes being used in films but in this case it is interesting to see how these stereotypes feel about being branded that way, when the teenagers walk into a shop and are accused of a crime they didn't commit just because of their image as this stereotype the media has created.

The stories centre around what is regarded as typical teenage lives, which involve Jamie Winstone's character messing around with older men for drugs, a guy and a girl in a complicated relationship where the girl is pregnant and the idea of suicide is also encoded which is very dramatic.

The acting, direction, dialogue and settings are all extremely poor and given the strong message it could have been done so much better. Regardless the message is there and I couldn't tear myself away even if I wanted to.

The stereotypical view does go over the top, I am 19 and have never seen anyone act as violent or swear as much as the characters in this film. I can see the point, but trying to convey realism was overdone. The stories of each character are interesting, if somewhat of a cliché. Considering everything about this film is poor, it is a surprising entertaining watch.