Kidulthood

A girl at a school in west London kills herself, and the next day classes are cancelled. The film follows that one empty day. Fifteen year old Trife is pulled into his uncle's armed business, Alisa does not know what to do about a pregnancy, and Sam spends the day going after everyone. Menhaj Huda directs. Noel Clarke wrote it and also plays Sam. Aml Ameen plays Trife. Its release started an argument in Britain. Some critics accused it of aestheticising youth violence; others said it was the first film to describe this world without looking at it from outside. Clarke pointed out he had written it from the estate he grew up on. The tone refuses instruction. Nobody is rescued, nobody learns anything, and the last scene is not a resolution but a continuation. Two sequels followed: Adulthood in 2008, directed by Clarke himself, and Brotherhood in 2016. Together the three established a strand of their own in British youth cinema. Who it is for: viewers who want British social realism and stories of urban adolescence. Who it is not for: violence, drugs and sex are delivered directly and unadorned, and the performances are uneven.