Growing up is hard to do

Kidulthood follows the chaotic lives of a group of London teenagers, let out on a schooday in commemoration of a classmate's suicide, Steven Martin tried to win the affections of Claire Danes and 'possibly the sleaziest film ever made' is re-released...

Kidulthood
****
Kidulthood races round London after a bunch of potty-mouthed, fiendishly insecure 15-year-olds who have been let out on a schoolday in commemoration of a classmate's suicide. Needless to say, the teens spend the time living their own chaotic lives rather than pondering the end of Katie's; but the shadow of her death and the reasons for it add grit to this wry, fleet-footed film.

Its promising young writer, Noel Clarke, plays Sam, the bully whose viciousness is the catalyst for most of the day's events; Trife (Aml Ameen) and his two mouthy friends are on the run from him while selfish Becky (Jamie Winstone) and her fraught pal Alisa (Red Madrell) mooch around, taking drugs and having sex, uneasily half-aware that they too are caught up in Sam's cycle of violence.

But if anger is the engine, love is the fuel of this unusual and poignant film: it's the split between Trife and Alisa - she's pregnant, he's terrified and they're both forced to grow up brutally fast - that really resonates.

Extras: Deleted scenes, behind-thescenes footage, cast interviews and more.

Shopgirl
***
Now, why would fifty-something Steve Martin be writing novellas about beautiful young sales assistants falling in love with glamorous, rich, older men? Or adapting said novella into a film, Shopgirl, and casting himself as the millionaire? Hmmm? This is not pure wish fulfilment: Ray (Steve Martin) is no Prince Charming but an emotionally unavailable businessman who wants company and sex but not marriage and happily ever after.

The object of his desire is Mirabelle (Claire Danes), who also has young Jeremy, puppyish, inadequate - and impecunious, natch - wooing her. Which should Mirabelle go for - love and eternal pizza or coolness and caviar? It's not quite as obvious as it sounds, largely because of Danes's lovely performance, but it's not nearly as fun as it might have been, either.

Extras: None.

Tales Of Ordinary Madness
**
Revered LA poet Charles Bukowski never seemed completely satisfied with film adaptations of his work, which can't help but cloud one's view of Tales Of Ordinary Madness. In Marco Ferreri's adaptation of Bukowski's set of short stories Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions And Other Tales Of Ordinary Madness, Ben Gazzara plays Charles Serking, an alcoholic down-and-out LA poet who is more at home in the company of society's low-lifes than in the cultivated confines of a New York publishing house.

We view Serking's life, essentially a thinly disguised version of Bukowski's, through a series of random and grubby sexual encounters with various women about whom we learn little. Because of this, and the stiffness of the acting, it's a movie that feels distant, charmless and cold. Maybe that's the point, and it's the director's way of playing with Bukowski's notions of freedom and fatalism - the trouble is, it doesn't make for a particularly satisfying film.

Extras: Bonus feature Touche Pas € La Femme Blanche - a modernist take on Custer's Last Stand, featuring Philippe Noiret, Marcello Mastrioanni, Catherine Deneuve and Alain Cuny.

Last House On Dead End Street
***
Once called 'possibly the sleaziest film ever made', Last House On Dead End Street is a forgotten 1970s exploitation flick that built a cult reputation by blurring the line between snuff movie and hardcore horror. Yikes. Released from jail, young drug dealer Terry Hawkins (director Roger Watkins - who, like most of the cast and crew, have pseudonyms) decides to make porn flicks where 'ending up on the cutting-room floor' takes on a new, bloody meaning.