Kidulthood

Kidulthood

Sub-genre: Youth-drama

Directed and produced by Menhaj Huda

Produced by George Isaac

Written by Noel Clarke

The First Opening Titles

This film has titles on a black screen and moving images, it has moving images for the main cast and white writing on a black screen for all the other information that's on the credits.

The producer is more independent production as kidulthood was a low budget film.

The plot is a day in the life of a group of teenagers living in west London. During the film you see how some teenagers maybe pressured to do things that they may not want to do, a character called trife is being tempted into gang lifestyles by his uncle who is making him do certain illegal tasks.

The Plot:

Set in 2002, the film follows two days in the lives of a group of 15-year olds from a mixed-income area of West London. The story focuses mainly upon Trevor, known as "Trife" (Aml Ameen), and Alisa (Red Madrell). One of the themes of the movie is Alisa's pregnancy. She states that Trife is the father.

School bully, Sam Peel (Noel Clarke), is portrayed as the antagonist in the film. Student Katie (Rebecca Martin), is being physically and emotionally bullied by a group of girls led by Shaneek (Stephanie Di Rubbo), and Sam also acts menacingly towards her. Her parents do not know the extent of the bullying. After being picked up from school, a distraught Katie flees to her bedroom, writes a note, and hangs herself. The students are then given a day off for mourning, but instead prepare for a party. Trevor and his best friends: Jay (Adam Deacon), and Moony (Femi Oyeniran) spend the day stealing, trying to talk to women, drinking alcohol, and smoking cannabis. Alisa and her friend Becky (Jaime Winstone ) decide to get drunk and high before the party, despite Alisa's pregnancy. Alisa has recently discovered that she is pregnant and she is unsure as to how to cope with the news. Becky takes Alisa to an older man's house where they perform sexual acts in return for drugs. Becky is the instigator and Alisa feels that she has to follow her friend's actions. Meanwhile, the boys trick their way into Sam's house in order to retrieve a Game Boy he had stolen earlier, they then proceed to steal Sam's cannabis and Jay has sex with Sam's girlfriend, Claire (Madeleine Fairley). When Sam returns and threatens them, the boys hit him with a keyboard, overpower him, attack him, and escape along with Claire. In the process, they knock Sam's mother to the floor, which is later used as a pretext for revenge by Sam.

Alisa and Becky arrive at a shopping centre, having sold their drugs to buy new dresses. They meet up with Moony and Jay; Jay tells Alisa that Trevor doesn't want her or the baby, and that she should get out of Trevor's life. Alisa decides to return home alone as Becky wants to stay with the boys. In the meantime, Trevor has gone to meet up with his Uncle Curtis (Cornell John). He sees Katie's brother, Lenny (Rafe Spall) at Curtis's house, but they do not speak. Trevor tells Curtis that he wants to work for him, and is then issued with a revolver, which Trevor had previously made by drilling the barrel of a starting pistol on a pillar drill at school. Trevor is then taken downstairs to a tied up man, Andreas, who is being tortured for failing to stick to an agreement about payment. Andreas is earlier seen purchasing drugs from Curtis. Curtis orders Trevor to cut the man's face with a Stanley Knife. Trevor carries out the order, but then flees from the house, throws the gun into the river and goes to find Alisa. Alisa is on her way home when she sees a classmate, who persuades her to come to a party with him to cheer her up.

Trevor arrives at the party, finds Alisa, and confesses he loves her. Alisa tells him that she never slept with Sam, and that the baby definitely belongs to Trevor. Sam later arrives at the party and beats Trevor up with a baseball bat. Alisa runs into the house to get Mooney and Jay. In the ensuing fight Trife attacks Sam when he tries to hurt Alisa and beats him to the ground, but Alisa tells him to stop. As he is leaving Sam picks up the bat and hits Trife, who falls to the ground, critically injured. Katie's older brother arrives, carrying a gun and asking for Sam. He is about to execute Sam but stops momentarily and asks for a reason why he shouldn't kill him. Trife uses his last breaths to shout "because he isn't worth it". Lenny begins to walk away but Sam insults him so he turns and fires, but the gun explodes in his hand. He gets back into his car and drives away. Trevor dies before the ambulance and police arrive.

In this film there are mostly two social groups, friendship  groups and gangs.The teens interact with adults as we would expect them to, Alisa has that mother and daughter relationship with her mum as normal and Trevor and his mum has a normal relationship. The only thing that maybe different is the relationship of Trevor and his uncle, they seem more like a boss and an employee more than uncle and nephew.

Camera: We see more group shots because its a youth drama, there are lots of scenes where there is friends interacting with each other. There is also mid shots to show the audience the characters body gestures.

Editing: The film is mostly fast paced with the main cast getting most of the screen time. Also there is continuity editing throughout.

Sound: The soundtrack is urban music, It links because the film is urban too and both media products link to youth drama. There is non-diegetic sounds like dialogue and the atmosphere sounds such as cars driving and wind blowing.

Mise en scene: The lighting is light and dark in some aspects of the film. In dark lighting it reflect the characters dark side that they have.

The key props that you see are weapons, the characters clothing which shows the audience what sort of person the character is.