With hotly anticipated follow-up Adulthood now showing at UK cinemas, there’s never better time to get reacquainted with the cast of 2006’s Kidulthood, a rough and ready tale of bored British suburban youths, which catapulted Noel Clarke to stardom for his direction and his portrayal of bullying bad guy Sam in the film, became something of a word of mouth phenomenon, and a success story for independent homegrown film-making talent.
Labelled by some as a poster movie for happy slapping, Kidulthood principally revolves around three teenagers and their associates, who are given the day off school after the suicide of a fellow student; what follows is a relentless run through a hyperreal 24 hours covering sex, violence, drink, drugs, theft, betrayal, knifing, gun toting, pregnancy…
Seasoned action man and all-round geezer Jason Statham (Collateral, Snatch) and Saffron Burrows (Frida, Deep Blue Sea) star in this comic thriller documenting the 1971 robbery of the Baker Street branch of Lloyds Bank. Oddly enough, the robbers’ walkie-talkie conversations were recorded by a radio ham, but when he reported the incident, no action was taken…
Italian for beginners is a touching and enduring romantic comedy set in a dreary suburb of Copenhagen. It portrays the lives of six lonely thirty-somethings looking for love and a sense of purpose who enroll in a beginners’ class in Italian run by the local council. Written and directed by Lone Scherfig (On Our Own), the film follows the guidelines of Dogma 95, the ascetic filmmaking code advanced by Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and others which forbids expensive and spectacular special effects in order to focus on the purity of storyline and script.
Recently, police in Japan arrested Tatsuko Horikawa, a 58-year old woman who had secretly moved into a man’s flat without him knowing; she had hidden in a cupboard and emerged during the daytime whilst the owner was at work. The 57-year-old man who owned the house became suspicious after food kept disappearing from his fridge, and so he set up a surveillance system, filming the woman as she walked around in his absence.
Those of us who have fond gaming memories of the original PlayStation will certainly remember Metal Gear Solid, the title which arguably kick started the so-called ‘stealth ’em up’ genre. Hiding in cardboard boxes, snapping the necks of enemy soldiers, smoking, a labyrinthine plot, this game had it all. Although the PlayStation 2 sequel, Sons of Liberty, is widely thought to be inferior, the series returned to form with Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, with its emphasis on camouflage, laying traps in the jungle and hunting for food. Now in glorious next generation, high definition graphics we have Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and it’s definitely been worth the wait.