Adulthood (2008) Dir Noel Clarke. Vue Cinema Hull

Six years on and Sam (Noel Clarke) is released from gaol having been convicted for the manslaughter of a black contemporary at the end of this film’s prequel, the impressive commentary on inner city London youth, 2005’s Kidulthood.

 I was very enthused by the first pictures and felt that Clarke had made an important contribution to the debate about teenage, and particularly black male social exclusion, and illustrated the thesis, since validated by the Audit Office that the twin factors of socio economic status and whether your parents live together hinder and often destroy educational, and by extension life success.

But where Kidulthood was insightful, its bigger sibling was clichéd. Where Noel Clarke’s writing and direction were inspired, this film was laboured and where Kidulthood engaged the viewer in a roller coaster ride Adulthood was poorly paced and failed to draw me in for sustained periods.

Noel Clarke is a fine writer/actor/director but this film verged on self-indulgence, but given the woeful quality of the cast it’s perhaps unsurprising that he ended up carrying the thing almost single-handed.

His leading lady (Scarlett Alice Johnson) was wooden beyond belief, and her accent veered wildly between street patois and stage school cut glass Cheltenham Ladies College, in totally random ways.

One character was especially poor, and on scanning IMDB it transpires that Dabs was played by some wanna be gangsta rapper known as Plan B. He was absolutely hopeless and totally out of his depth.

Overall this film was a huge let down, with a weak story and a poor cast. Can anyone tell me what Danny Dyer’s cameo was all about? Pointless.

 Clarke is a major talent, and lets hope this is his Shane Meadows equivalent of the total stinker that was Once Upon a Time in the Midlands.