Starring: Noel Clarke, Scarlet Alice Johnson. Adam Deacon

Cert: 18

Running time: 99 min

How you respond to the opening scene of Adulthood should be a pretty good indication of whether or not you will enjoy this film, which is the sequel to 2006’s Kidulthood. After a brief recap of the Kidulthood, the movie begins in a London rave where sex and drug use rampant. A group of youths become bored with the music and cavorting and decide to jack a car. The robbery does not go as well as they plan and shots are fired. This sets the tone for the movie. If you are offended by the sex, drugs or violence you see up to this point you should leave now because all of these themes will be touched on again several times over the 99 minutes of the film.

Adulthood is written by Noel Clarke, who also plays the lead role. Sam Peel has just been released from prison after doing six years for the murder of Trife. Sam finds it hard to get in contact with his family and the other people he wants to see. He also finds out that while he his looking for people, there are people looking for him. Jay was Trife’s best friend and he recruits the hoods who attempted the carjacking to make sure Sam’s first day out is a short one.

There has been a policy for a while now to try to tell Shakespearean style yarns and set them in the council estates of London using hip-hop and garage culture. This can be disastrous but Clarke seems to have gotten the balance right with a relatively large number of main characters whose stories overlap.

The main fault of the film is the dialogue. Many of the conversations are carried out in the London vernacular making some scenes impenetrable, especially if you are above a certain age.

All in all, it is a very watchable movie that doesn’t over run and keeps you locked in right to the end. Clarke’s writing, directing and acting are all top-notch so keep your eyes open for the name.