Sunday, 5 January 2014

Holiday task - a teen film that you've watched (Kidulthood)

Kidulthood

Kidulthood is a British teen film which was released in 2006. It was written by Noel Clarke who also played a huge role in the film and was directed by Menhaj Huda. The film is set in 2002 and follows a two day journey of 15 year old boys and girls from a mixed-income area of West London.

Like the majority of teen films, there are many stereotypical characters and social groups who get in all sorts of trouble. We have the typical victim of bullying played by Rebecca Martin as Katie who ends up committing suicide by all the stress and peer pressure by the typical bullies in school. The bullies use the coloquial slang language and have a certain manner of dressing: mini skirts, pony tail on the side, and huge gold hoop earrings. They have strong body language and know how to show their authority to intimidate others such as Katie. Another female stereotype is the girl who goes ‘around’. Her name is Becky in the film, played by Jaime Winstone, and she is very confident, straight forward and doesn’t care if people know about her history with men. She has a bad influence on Alisa who is played by Red Madrell because she gets her to smoke all sorts of drugs and lets Alisa feel that it is okay to be 15 and pregnant. Becky doesn't believe in love and does anything to get self pleasure.

Other stereotypical characters include the humorous individual who is never taken seriously but he does slightly have the right mind set to stay out of trouble. In Kidulthood, this character is Moons. He always tries and stay out of trouble but somehow ends up in the middle of it all. Also, he is taken the mick out of and isn't ever taken seriously. 

Kidulthood also has the stereotypical bad boy who is played by Adam Deacon as Jay. He likes to get the ladies, play it cool, and is always ready to make sure he proves his point whether he is right or wrong. He has anger problems which is clearly shown when Trevor is hit and no one helps. He chases after the bully's girlfriend as he finds it a challenge and thinks he can do a better job at being a 'man' then Sam.

The film is based around the stereotypical 'ghetto' settings and scenarios where there is always trouble in high schools because of the clash of personalities. In the end, someone is either badly hurt or dead because of something so small that gets bigger through the story. Although the film is based on a two day journey, it just emphasises what can happen in such a small amount of time.

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