After ten years, plenty of lesser imitators and a fair bit of controversy, Noel Clarke is finally bringing his Kidulthood trilogy to a close. So does Brotherhood live up to the original? I'm happy to say it does, even if there are a couple of missteps. Much like the 2008 sequel Adulthood, Brotherhood has Clarke’s character Sam taking centre stage (after being the bad guy of the first movie). Sam is now settled down with a wife and two kids, working several jobs to make ends meet. But then his brother is shot by a mysterious assailant, and the criminal underworld he tried so hard to escape quickly starts to drag him back in…
Honestly, it’s a very entertaining, highly polished London crime movie. But there is one little thing that bugs me, that I have to get off my chest first. While Sam was obviously a very important part of the original Kidulthood, it was far from just his film. It was an ensemble piece. Actually, it was even more about the kids Trife, Mooney and Jay. Adulthood pulled the Terminator 2 trick of making the bad guy the hero, and did so pretty well. But if this is meant to be the finale of the saga, then focusing almost exclusively on Sam seems slightly disingenuous. There are some very understandable storyline and real-world reasons for this choice, but it still makes it slightly unsatisfying. If this was just Noel Clarke’s new crime movie, this wouldn’t be an issue, but this is meant to be Kidulthood 3.
And whereas in that film the kids’ exploits felt drawn from Clarke’s real life experience, there’s a lot here that it feels like it’s just influenced by other crime movies. That’s not a criticism per se, though — it’s just different. For instance: Jason Maza plays the slimey gangland boss manipulating Sam, and he’s hams it fantastically, swanning around with a hareem naked girls and acting like a James Bond villain — but it’s a long way from the realism of the first film. Then there’s a man to man fight to the death between Sam and returning Kidulthood bad guy Uncle Curtis that gets crazy melodramatic — it’s great, but it feels more like a John Woo movie than the council estate grit of part one. You just have to accept that the film is going for something a bit different. Yet, despite that change, it’s still a very personal script from Clarke. When I interviewed him earlier this year, he spoke at length about becoming a dad has changed him, and that’s a major theme of the film — Fatherhood would have made a good alternate title, thinking about it. The driving force of story is how far he’d go to protect his family, and while that’s hardly the most original character motivation, it comes across as very genuine and heartfelt, and gives the film real weight.
It’s also a film about getting older, and that comes across in two of the film’s best new elements. One is Arnold Oceng as Sam’s comedy sidekick, a happily married dad way out his depth in the criminal world. On paper, giving Sam a ‘comedy sidekick’ seems like the worst idea in the world, but it works, as it kind of ends up in a way making Sam look like the ridiculous one for still wanting to act like a wannabe gangster in his forties — there comes a time when we all need to grow up and start acting our age. Plus Oceng is genuinely, utterly hilarious in the role, stealing every scene he’s in. And these two dads goofing about are perfectly contrasted with a group of new kids that are introduced, with none other than Stormzy in his acting debut amongst their number. It would have been easy mistake to make this film and act like Noel Clarke was still the same kid he was wrote the first one — but instead these kids openly make fun of this old dude trying to roll with them (there’s a particularly great bit where they rip him for trying to call them “blood”). It shows the franchise still has the pulse on the city of London, even if it’s coming from an older perspective now.
Stormzy also doesn’t embarrass himself at all — far from looking like he was cast just to cash in his success, and grime in general, he actually fits in really well. His 6 ft 5 stature and natural charisma make him a great henchman, and while he obviously isn’t given too much to do acting wise, he has one big scene with Oceng were he shows both dramatic talent and comedic timing. Overall, Brotherhood is not a disappointment. It’ll never have the impact the original had, but it’s a big, enjoyable, and sometimes powerful British movie that captures its London setting and has enough call-backs to Kidulthood to keep fans happy. We couldn’t have expected much more. And now let's see where Noel Clarke goes as a filmmaker from here.
Brotherhood is in cinemas August 29.
