Kidulthood

Kidulthood is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and the transfer is representative of the film. Print anomalies, like dust and scratches, are not present. Contrast and colour rendition is excellent, preserving Brian Tufano's striking natural light compositions. Compression and authoring is professional and well done.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track is primarily used to showcase the British hip-hop movie soundtrack. All other sound is relegated to the front soundstage. Given the limitations of the budget, this is quite understandable and does not detract from the film's impact.

First up is a large collection (about 40-minutes) of video interviews with the cast and crew. It astonished me to learn that Kidulthood's budget was a miniscule £600,000. The movie looks 10 times more expensive.

Director Menhaj Huda is open and astonishingly lucid about the creative process and economy in storytelling. The actors are less conversational about their work, but occasionally deliver a solid nugget of sincere insight. This is the real meat of the supplements.

Eight deleted scenes serve up a few interesting, but wholly unnecessary, subplots. Highlights include an extended scene in the bedroom, with Sam and his horribly abused girlfriend and a guilty Trife handing back a stolen purse. Unintentional laughs are to be found.

The B-roll footage, making up the Behind The Scenes featurette, lends credence to the fast, efficient and entirely guerrilla philosophy of shoestring filmmaking.

The Premiere and Post Premiere party featurettes do pretty much what they say on the tin - decidedly dull.

The DVD also contains a bonus track and picture gallery by Arkane and a music video by Skinnyman for those who enjoy hip-hop. I do not.

Finally, the film's well-cut theatrical trailer is included.

This single disc DVD from Revolver Entertainment is an interesting package - over an hour of video extras and guerrilla filmmaker's information, if little cohesion. One can't complain about this when making a movie for peanuts.