Kidulthood (2006)
Budget:
£600,000
Opening Weekend:
£100,056 (UK)
Gross:
£453,876 (UK)
Run Time: 91 minutes
Certificate: 15
This film is the first of a two-series which gives the audience a look into the life of 15 year olds in inner West London. The writer is the well-renown actor for gritty youth London life; Noel Clarke. He also plays one of the main characters in the film, portraying a troubled thug who abuses his school peers inside and outside of school. The drug filled, fast paced film is still very successful and replayed on BBC 3 regularly and many phrases are repeated by teenagers today, such as Noel Clarke’s characters ‘catchphrase’- ‘’are you dizzy blud’’?
This genre would be appropriate for my age in particularly, as it is written by and for young adults. The trailer is very true in expressing the main areas of which the film focuses on such as gang crime, drug abuse and sexual relationships.
The film features a number of underground rap artists such as Bashy and Plan B; appealing specifically to inner city youths, who they are targeting for their audience. The criticism and reaction to this film when it was released was mainly positive, Stephen Armstrong in the Daily Mail summed up its minimal negative criticism expertly: ‘’ …the only people who are shocked by this film are people who have never been teenagers. What Kidulthood does is take all the sex, violence and intoxication experience in a teenager year and condense it into a single day…’’
This is a significant point- the whole film centres on just one day for each of the main characters. The film cleverly flicks between focus on what is happening around West London. All the storylines interlink and ultimately at the end all the characters are at the party of which Trife is murdered. All the violence, sex, alcohol and drugs attention boils down the penultimate scene, where Sam (Noel Clarke) hits Trife (Al Ameen) with a baseball bat, that he punctures his lung and kills him.
There is a deathly moment of which the audience realise the intensity of violence on the streets and how these events all happen in cities around the world. The film has just one more scene after Trife is left dead, sprawled out on the floor, where his killer Sam runs from the crime scene and the audience are left wondering what will happen to him and the other characters such as Alisha, Moonface and Jay who were close to Trife. There is a definite sense of a sequel, as the story abruptly ends with all the youths going separate ways, feeling the weight of Trife’s death on all their shoulders. I beleive that this film was made to reveal some haunting truths about the youth life in cities in the United Kingdom. It gives audiences a worm-hole into aspects one may not be exposed to in their own lives.
The film distributors of both 'Kidulthood' and 'Adulthood' was Revolver Entertainment which is well known for making teenage-drama films in the United Kingdom. Having such a reputation for this genre gives a effective platform for the distributors to make the film and be successful in appealing to their target audience. I believe these two films were made in order to speak to the youth of London in a way they would understand and appreciate. By subtly sending them a message about the dangers of knife crime and gang related violence in the UK it is deemed a very successful film.
- Non Diagetic sounds of heavy rap music
- Begins with extremely fast pace of film from many different characters but the audience are aware by the presence of guns and microphones.. the nature of the film already.
-High screeching sound when the baseball bat swings into the camera (close up)- symbolic of the danger.
- Another fast sequence of drug and alcohol abuse.
- Nudity and bad language are used- reflecting the 15 certificate.
