Adulthood

Sam served six years. He had killed a boy from his school. Now he is out and back in his old part of London. Everyone remembers him. The dead boy's family is there, his old friends are there, and nobody has forgiven him. That same day someone arranges to have him killed. Sam does not run; he goes and talks to them one by one. The narrative follows a single day and through it who will do what is uncertain. Noel Clarke writes, directs and plays the lead. Danny Dyer and Adam Deacon are in the cast. The film is a sequel; an earlier film told the school years of the same characters, and this one takes up six years later. The matter it works at is the continuity of violence; each generation inherits the same order and the narrative says so directly. Its language and setting are local; particular parts of London and the youth speech of the time are its material. It was made cheaply in Britain and did better business than expected. The narrative saves no character and the ending offers no solution. Its limit is the script; the plot rests on coincidence and some characters are one dimensional. Who it is for: viewers who like British street drama and realist youth narratives. Who it is not for: the violence is explicit, the language heavy, and the narrative requires knowing the first film.