Clarke wrote the film between 1999 and 2000, inspired by his own upbringing and American films such as Boyz n the Hood (1991), Clerks (1994) and Kids (1995), and began developing with director Menhaj Huda and producer George Isaac between 2001 and 2003. Filming began on 14th November 2004 and was filmed on location until 16th December. The film explores themes, such as sex, drugs, bullying, violence, suicide, teenage pregnancy, gun control and racial issues. It also features breakout performances for Ameen, Clarke, Deacon, Winstone, Oyeniran, Spall and Hoult.
Made on a budget of £560,000, Kidulthood was released theatrically on 3 March 2006 and received praise and controversy for its depiction of teenage life in London. The success of the film led to two sequels: Adulthood (2008) and Brotherhood (2016), both of which were written and directed by Clarke.
Plot
In 2002, at Ladbroke Grove, local school student Katie suffers intense physical and emotional bullying by a group of girls, as well as by another bully, Sam Peel. When her father picks her up from school that day, Sam quietly threatens to kill her if she ever tells anyone. That evening, Katie's older brother Lenny breaks into her room to discover that she has hanged herself.
The following morning, the students are informed of Katie's death and are given the day off to mourn. Trevor "Trife" Hector and his best friends, Jay and Moony, decide to spend it smoking weed and drinking alcohol. Trife's pregnant ex-girlfriend Alisa decides to spend the day with her best friend Becky.
Becky performs oral sex on an older man in return for drugs, and aggressively coaxes Alisa into joining in. The boys make their way to Sam's house on an estate to retrieve a Game Boy Sam had stolen from them the day before. Realising Sam is out, the boys also steal Sam's cannabis and Jay has sex with Sam's girlfriend Claire. Sam returns unexpectedly, but is beaten unconscious by the boys and they knock down Sam's mother as they flee.
Alisa and Becky unexpectedly run into some of Katie's bullies aboard a train. Alisa, feeling bad that she was not there for Katie, berates the girls for the suffering they caused. Becky accidentally reveals that Alisa is pregnant, information that the bullies threaten to spread around school in an effort to humiliate Alisa. At the next station, Alisa hurries off the train to vomit, whilst Becky scorns her for putting her life at risk. Having successfully sold the drugs they acquired earlier, they head to a shopping centre to buy dresses for a party later that evening, before meeting up with the boys. Jay, convinced by Trife that Alisa's baby is Sam's, falsely informs her that Trife wants nothing to do with her. Heartbroken, Alisa asks Becky if they can leave, but Becky insists on going to the party.
At the same time, Trife visits his uncle Curtis, who presents him with a revolver, the same one Trife had drilled the barrel for earlier at school. Downstairs, Andreas, a customer who earlier missed a drugs payment, is tied and beaten by Curtis and Trife. Curtis then orders Trife to carve a "C" into Andreas' face with a Stanley knife in order to test him. Though visibly terrified, Trife carries out his uncle's order, and flees the house traumatised. Trife desperately tries to call Alisa, but is unsuccessful in doing so. On her way home, Alisa runs into a classmate and persuades her to go to the party with her. At the party, Becky is stood up by Moony and fails to convince Jay to have sex with her.
Trevor interrupts Alisa and the other classmate who are kissing outside, and confesses his love for her. Alisa informs Trevor that the baby is definitely his – she had never slept with Sam. The two rekindle their love, but a vengeful Sam arrives at the party and attacks Trife. Alisa hurriedly tells Jay and Moony, who intervene to help Trife. Outside, Sam beats down both Trevor and Jay, whilst intimidating Moony into not interfering. Sam challenges all the other party goers who come out to watch, however Alisa, the only one unafraid of Sam, slaps him. When Sam grabs her by her hair, Trife gets to his feet and fights him to the ground. Alisa pleads with him to stop, and he ambles over to her. Sam takes this opportunity to grab his baseball bat, and delivers a critical blow to Trife's stomach.
As this occurs, Lenny arrives at the party; brandishing a gun, he forces Sam to the ground at gunpoint, and produces the note Katie wrote before she hanged herself. Lenny prepares to kill Sam but Trife stops him with his dying breath, telling him that Sam is not worth it. Sam is almost killed when he insults Lenny after the latter begins to walk away, however the gun fails to fire. Sirens are heard in the distance, so Lenny, his accomplice, and Sam all flee the party as Trife dies before the ambulance and police arrive.
Following brief stints at his local West London sports centre as an athlete, gym instructor, waterslide attendant and lifeguard, Noel Clarke first came with the idea for Kidulthood, due to being rejected lead roles in films and TV shows and instead offered minor roles as the stereotypical black robber. He was also encouraged to write films about his own experiences by his mentor Rikki Beadle-Blair, who had given Clarke his first acting role in the Channel 4 television comedy drama series Metrosexuality (2001).
The script for Kidulthood was the fourth Clarke had ever written; the first two, Remembering Jessie and Society, were undeveloped and the third, the wedding-centric comedy The Knot, was later released in 2012. According to Clarke, a large majority of the film is an autobiographical depiction of him and his four friends growing up in Ladbroke Grove, West London, with the expection of the character of Uncle Curtis and the gun drilling, which was added later on.
Upon completing the script, Clarke initally showed the script to Blair and Timothy Spall (whose son, Rafe, was cast as Lenny, in the film), but when he showed it to Ray Panthaki, who played Mark in the film, he forwarded the script to Menhaj "Hoodz" Huda, who began helping Clarke develop and pitch the film. Despite production nearly collapsing and being rejected by studios for its promiscuous portrayal of British teenagers, the film received funding from producer George Isaac and filming finally began in November 2004, while Clarke was filming the first series of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who.
The film was principally shot in the actual areas in which it is set around London W11; for example, some of the school scenes are shot in Twyford CE High School in Acton, similarly Alisa and Becky's journey on the London Underground is between Ladbroke Grove and Royal Oak stations.[3]
Kidulthood has received a generally positive critical response. Writing in The Guardian, Miranda Sawyer called the film "a rollicking UK youth ride, cinematically filmed, persuasively acted and bumped along by a fantastic all-British soundtrack... It's also very funny, laced with a humour of the slapped-in-the-face-with-a-kipper sort: you can't help laughing because it's so outrageous".[5]
Stephen Armstrong in The Times, said "the only people who should be shocked by this film are people who have never been teenagers. What Kidulthood does is take all the violence, sex and intoxication experienced in a teenage year and condense it into a single day, because that's far more marketable than a film about eight kids spending four hours sitting on the swings wondering what to do".[6] The Daily Mirror described it as being "as potent as a shot of vodka before breakfast – a harrowing, uncompromisingly bleak but thoughtful look at the anguish of being young and poor in Britain".[7]
The film spawned a trilogy, receiving two sequels: Adulthood was released in 2008, which was written and also directed by Noel Clarke, and then Brotherhood in 2016.
Raymond Andrew Winstone is an English television, stage and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perhaps best known for his "hard man" roles, usually delivered in his distinctive London accent. The first of these was That Summer! (1979) for which he received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer. He rose to prominence starring as Will Scarlet in the series Robin of Sherwood from 1984 to 1986.
Noel Anthony Clarke is an English retired actor and filmmaker. Rising to prominence for playing Mickey Smith in Doctor Who (2005–2010), he received critical acclaim for writing, directing, and starring as Sam Peel in the films Kidulthood (2006); Adulthood (2008); and Brotherhood (2016) and for starring in, co-creating, and writing Bulletproof (2018–2021), which all depicted black working-class characters in London.
Jaime Margaret Winstone is an English actress, best known for her roles in Kidulthood, Dead Set, After Hours and her portrayal of Barbara Windsor in Babs.
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Aml Ameen is a British actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his roles as Trevor (Trife) in Kidulthood (2006), Malcolm Davies in Harry's Law, Lewis Hardy in the ITV television series The Bill, Capheus in the first season of the Netflix original series Sense8, and Alby in The Maze Runner (2014). His directorial debut was the 2021 romantic comedy Boxing Day.
Femi Oyeniran is a Nigerian-British actor and director who started his career in the cult classic Kidulthood, playing the role of "Moony" in 2006. It was followed by the 2008 sequel Adulthood. His first feature film as a director It's A Lot was released theatrically by Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment in 2013. Oyeniran sold his second movie The Intent to Netflix for a worldwide release; it appeared on the platform on 15 May 2017. The film had already peaked at number three on the iTunes Movie Chart and opened to sold out cinemas. It was funded, shot and distributed completely independently.
The Syndicate is a British television drama series. It was written by Kay Mellor and is broadcast on BBC One. It sees five members of a betting syndicate win the lottery. Each series follows a different syndicate. The first series is set in a Leeds supermarket; the second, a public hospital in Bradford; the third, a crumbling stately home near Scarborough; and the fourth is set between a dog kennel in Yorkshire and Monaco.
Adulthood is a 2008 British teen crime drama film starring, written and directed by Noel Clarke in his feature film directorial debut. The second installment in the Hood Trilogy, it is a sequel to 2006's Kidulthood. The film co-stars Adam Deacon, Scarlett Alice Johnson, Femi Oyeniran, Red Madrell, Jacob Anderson, Ben "Plan B" Drew, Nathan Constance, Cornell John and Danny Dyer. In the film, Sam (Clarke) tries to change his life following a six-year prison sentence for killing Trife but a new gang led by Jay (Deacon) intend to avenge Trife by killing Sam.
She's Out of My League is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Jim Field Smith in his feature directorial debut, and written by Sean Anders and John Morris. It stars Jay Baruchel as an average man who begins a relationship with a very attractive woman, played by Alice Eve, and is warned by his friends that it is doomed to fall apart because of their differing appearances. T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel, Nate Torrence, Krysten Ritter, Geoff Stults, and Lindsay Sloane also star.
West 10 LDN was a one-off BBC Three youth drama, written and created by Noel Clarke and directed by Menhaj Huda, first broadcast on 10 March 2008. The screenplay was based on the novel Society Within, a short story collection by Courttia Newland. The film was the second collaboration between Clarke and Huda, following their work on Kidulthood, which gave Huda the idea for a television series based upon a similar format. West 10 LDN is set entirely in the fictional Greenside council housing estate in West London, which in reality, is the White City Estate. Ashley Madekwe and Duane Henry served as lead actors for the project.
Bachelorette is a 2012 American comedy film written and directed by Leslye Headland, adapted from her play of the same name. It stars Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, and Isla Fisher as three troubled women who reunite for the wedding of a friend who was ridiculed in high school. The play upon which the film is based was originally written as one of Headland's cycle of "Seven Deadly Sins" plays.
Demons Never Die is a 2011 British slasher film starring Robert Sheehan, Jennie Jacques, Jacob Anderson, Jason Maza, Emma Rigby, Ashley Walters, Reggie Yates and Tulisa Contostavlos.
Grown Ups 2 is a 2013 American comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Adam Sandler, Fred Wolf, and Tim Herlihy, and produced by Sandler and Jack Giarraputo. It serves as a sequel to the 2010 film Grown Ups. The film features the returning cast of Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, and many more. Lenny moves his family back to his hometown, where he reunites with his old friends. Together, they face bizarre situations and new enemies in the form of a local fraternity.
Cornell Solomon John is a British actor who has appeared in various film and television productions since 1999. He is most renowned for his role as Trife's uncle, Curtis, in the films Kidulthood (2006), Adulthood (2008) and Brotherhood in addition to later starring in the BBC soap opera EastEnders as Sam James, during 2013. He is also known for having originated the role of Mufasa in the West End production of the musical The Lion King.
Love, Rosie is a 2014 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Christian Ditter from a screenplay by Juliette Towhidi, based on the 2004 novel Where Rainbows End by Irish author Cecelia Ahern. It stars Lily Collins and Sam Claflin as two young star-crossed lovers who are separated by circumstances following their high school graduation. Christian Cooke, Tamsin Egerton, Suki Waterhouse, Jamie Beamish and Jaime Winstone also appear in supporting roles. The film addresses themes such as teen pregnancy, adoption, grief and adultery.
The F Word is a 2013 romantic comedy film directed by Michael Dowse from a screenplay by Elan Mastai, based on the play Toothpaste and Cigars by TJ Dawe and Michael Rinaldi, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Megan Park, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis, and Rafe Spall. It focuses on two young people who meet for the first time and, since she has a boyfriend, decide to be "friends."
Brotherhood is a 2016 British crime drama film starring, written and directed by Noel Clarke, who also produced with Jason Maza, who also supporting role. It is the sequel to 2006's Kidulthood and 2008's Adulthood, and is the third and final instalment of The Hood Trilogy. The film co-stars Arnold Oceng, Stormzy, Cornell John, David Ajala, Shanika Warren-Markland and Adjoa Andoh. Brotherhood follows Sam (Clarke), now a family man of two children, being driven back to his criminal lifestyle.
The Hood Trilogy is a series of British drama films. The film series began in 2006 with Kidulthood, which was followed by the sequels Adulthood and Brotherhood. The series focuses on the lives of several teenagers in the Ladbroke Grove and Latimer Road area of inner West London. The film series has earned over £7 million worldwide.
Summer of the Monkeys is a 1998 American-Canadian family adventure-drama film directed by Michael Anderson based on the children's novel Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls. It stars Corey Sevier as Jay Berry Lee and Michael Ontkean and Leslie Hope as Jay Berry's parents. It also stars Katie Stuart, Don Francks, and Wilford Brimley.
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