Kidulthood is a British crime drama film directed by Menhaj Huda. The plot focus on the lives of a group of high school students in Ladbroke Grove, London who lives seem to be shaped around crime, violence and chronic drug use.
There is something of a morbid charm to these films, yes on the surface they are horribly bleak and if you are easily upset or offended by films you probably shouldn’t watch this, however despite being disgusted by what you see on screen you also can’t look away. This is true to such an extent that when I finished the first film, I immediately put on the next one (review coming soon).
This film does not sugar coat its views on life and youth behaviour, it shows it all and doesn’t apologies if we don’t like what we see; it makes Boyle’s Trainspotting look at happy by comparison. The creatives went out of their way to show us a version of lived reality closer to our own then what we normally see in these sort of crime films, to show us how bad, desperate and sad this sort of life style is, and I think they resoundingly succeeded.
The performances in the film are all serviceable, with one exception, they are neither good nor bad, not memorable in any real way. The one exception of course is Noel Clarke as Sam, Clarke was heavily involved in the series and would go on to direct the later instalments, but it is his scene stealing performance that cements him as a star. Clarke conveys emotion with such intensity that you forget that you are even watching a film and you believe this character to be a real person.
Overall, despite this being an incredibly hard watch for a number of reasons, if you do watch it there is something of merit here.
Pros.
Clarke
The message of the film
Showing us a closer reality then that which we would normally see
A morbid fascination that is hard to describe
Cons.
It is very, very, very bleak and upsetting at times
4/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 