Kidulthood (2006) Movie Information:

Kidulthood (2006) Directed by: Menhaj Huda Kidulthood (2006) Written by: Noel Clarke Kidulthood (2006) Cast: Nicholas Holt, Jaime Winstone, Rafe Spall

Kidulthood (2006) U.S. Distributor: Not available at this time Kidulthood (2006) U.K. Distributor: Revolver Entertainment

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Kidulthood (2006) Synopsis:

It’s just another day at school for West London teenagers Trife (AML AMEEN) Jay (ADAM DEACON) and Moony (FEMI OYENIRAN): beatings in the classroom, sex on the playing field and drugs in the schoolyard. But things are about to flip sharply for this tight trio and their crowd. With school cancelled following the tragic suicide of bullied pupil Katie, the teenagers are all forced to face their own responsibilities and blame. 15-year-old Trife is facing a crossroads in his life. His uncle is tempting him with fast money, easy women and the gangster lifestyle; while his girlfriend Alisa (RED MADRELL) offers an escape to perhaps a better life. Trife must make a choice. But with word spreading that Alisa has slept with someone else, will he make the right one? Along with Jay and Moony, he also has the school bully Sam (NOEL CLARKE) to contend with. Sam is out for revenge after Jay steals his girlfriend Claire (Madeline Fairley) who he has been physically abusing and the threesome humiliate and beat him in his own house. Trife’s girlfriend Alisa is also having a bad day. She’s just learnt that she’s pregnant. But her best friend Becky (JAMIE WINSTONE) is only interested in dragging her out on a drug and shopping binge. With the brother of dead Katie set on revenge and everyone heading to the same party, the scene is set for a decisive collision. It’s step up or back down time… A harrowing, shocking story that finds humour in its narrative and set to a blistering UK Hip Hop and Grime soundtrack, KIDULTHOOD is a new kind of British film. Based on real kids. Real stories. This is real life.

Kidulthood (2006) Movie Review:

The mean streets of teenage London are the setting for this gritty drama. While based on the headlines, the film is rather overwrought, compressing every conceivable horror into 24 hours in the life of a handful of kids.

After a bullied student commits suicide, school's out for a day and the students roam on their own. Trife (Ameen) is a 15-year-old with two sidekicks (Deacon and Oyeniran) and an ex-girlfriend Alisa (Madrell) who might be pregnant with his baby. Or it could be the child of the school bully (Clarke). Trife and pals are tempted to join the drug-dealing, gun-slinging gangsta lifestyle; Alisa and her friend (Winstone) are on a sex and drugs odyssey of their own; and the dead girl's brother (Spall) is out for revenge.

There are lots of tangled, intricate relationships and connections, and the script is fairly adept at keeping them all straight. Although this self-contained structure feels somewhat artificial at times. As do the strained attempts to make everyone look and sound street tough. Some of the cast makes this kind of dialog work, while others struggle badly with it. But overall, director Huda keeps things feeling urgent and realistic.

The main problem is the way every issue is loaded into the story--guns and knives, sex and teen pregnancy, drugs and violence, bullying and suicide, plus of course utterly useless parents. Watching these kids swagger through the streets on their opportunistic crime sprees is quite shocking. It's authentic but also exaggerated in the way everything is wedged into such a limited number of teens over such a short timescale.

The quality of production is high, and the film looks extremely natural. The most bracing aspect is the way the filmmakers have captured the severe lack of respect among these young people--there's no code of honour, no sense of loyalty, no understanding that there are opportunities for positive actions. As a result, it's impossible to root for anyone, and as the plot builds to the climactic party it drags badly. By the time it tries to become an impassioned teen love story, it's already lost us.

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Kidulthood (2006) review written by: Rich Cline