France has La Haine, America has Kids — hell, even Brazil has City Of God. Considering the current rash of headlines warning us of muggings, happy-slappings and teen pregnancies breaking out around the UK, it’s high time we got our own trailblazing street drama. This, though, isn’t it.
Focusing on a group of loutish London teenagers, it’s shot and acted in an unflinching, verité style. But unlike, say, the ennui-fuelled drama of La Haine, the hyperactive Kidulthood packs so much incident — drug deals, torture, suicide, murder — into a 24-hour timeframe that any semblance of realism is lost. Jamie Winstone’s (yes, that's Ray's daughter) wretched, foul-mouthed youth is the most entertaining aspect of a film that, while compelling in places, chooses to sensationalise rather than contextualise.
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