Fiery, immersive actor Stephen Graham has teamed up with screenwriter extraordinaire Jack Thorne to make Adolescence, a four-episode series revisiting the terrain of Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, transplanted into the age of social media. A twelve-year-old boy, Jamie, is arrested for the murder of an older girl. His working-class family suffers. Those two sentences of plot description encompass a semi-thriller (did he do it?), a morality play (what is evil, is it nature or nurture?), and a gritty look at modern adolescent life. To complexify a simple plotline that is anything but simplistic, Adolescence is directed by Philip Barantini, fast becoming famous for single-take long scenes, and each of the four episodes is one seamless, choreographed weaving of the camera between characters. The four episodes (without any spoilers) are diverse, encompassing a murder investigation; a school exploration; a single-room, two-person drama; and a family postscript. All four work well; one is chilling (this viewer experienced nightmares). Throw in superb acting, especially by Owen Cooper as enigmatic teenager Jamie, and Adolescence feels like 2025 cinema at its peak, albeit a most uncomfortable and cryptic peak.
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