Attack The Block is a lot of fun, and a pretty impressive debut feature from writer/director Joe Cornish. The film was produced through Big Talk Productions, known for films like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and possess the same filmmaking smarts (setting an alien invasion in a South London council estate – what an idea) and relentless energy that made those modern comedy gems so instantly memorable.
The endlessly quotable Attack the Block features a simple premise and wastes no time throwing us into the action. It blends the comedy and creature film genres pretty effectively. Full of tense and exciting heart-in-your-mouth chase sequences, there are also plenty of laughs (love that South London youth lingo) and clever popular culture references (“It’s raining Gollums”). Throw in an unconventional gang of heroes, interesting and effective creature design, and a killer soundtrack, and it is hard to dismiss Attack the Block as anything other than a supremely cool film and essential cult viewing.
On her way home from work on Bonfire Night, an attractive young nurse, Sam (Jodie Whittaker), is mugged in the streets near her council estate apartment block in Kennington, South London by a gang of teenagers. Led by Moses (John Boyega), who carries a flip knife, the gang is also made up of Pest (Alex Esmail), Dennis (Franz Drameh), Jerome (Leeon Jones) and Biggz (Simon Howard). A falling object that lands in a nearby car interrupts the robbery. Seeing it as an unexpected opportunity to loot the car, Moses starts a search but is attacked by an abnormal creature – which he and his gang pursue into a nearby park and kill. Unsure what to do, but convinced it is an alien of some kind; they decide to take it to Ron (Nick Frost), a drug dealer with an interest in National Geographic (and the only one they know capable of identifying the creature) living in the Penthouse apartment of their tower block. While they decide how to profit from their discovery, they hide the alien in his fortified ‘weed room’.
When more creatures begin to fall from the sky, the group is eager to fight them – collecting any weapons they can find, forging alliances with unlikely fellow tenants (including Sam) and taking it to the streets to confront them head on. What they discover is that these beasts are bigger and meaner, have jet-black fur, rows of sharp fluorescent teeth and are beset on taking down anyone who opposes them. They throw around radical ideas about to the origins of the creatures, but the real reason, hypothesized by a stoner in a state of high, is actually pretty plausible. It is simply bad luck for the aliens that they land in an area where the local residents are intent on fighting back.
There is a challenge for viewers – identifying with and accepting the gang as the film’s unlikely heroes – having first been introduced to them mugging an innocent block resident. This is not difficult because we soon warm to their larger-than-life personalities and comic chemistry. We find their enthusiasm infectious and their motivations to go badass on the invaders totally believable. Forming an alliance with their earlier victim works in a redemption theme, but amidst their bloated egos and disillusioned beliefs that they are saving the world (though they are defending their block – which is essentially their entire existence) they establish level-headedness and prove to be resourceful with makeshift weapons and objects. Of the performances John Boyega (quietly powerful here, and recently tied to a HBO special involving Spike Lee) and Alex Esmail (as the motor-mouth, but often-hilarious Pest) were the standouts, while Jodie Whittaker, Nick Frost and Luke Treadway (as Ron’s loyal weed customer) turn in solid supporting work.
Attack the Block, in my opinion, is a superior meshing of youth culture and monsters to J. J Abrams’ Super 8. While Abrams’ characters had their video cameras and an admiration for classic cinema, this feels fresh and new and features immature troublemakers tearing around on pushbikes, mo-peds and pizza delivery vehicles and taking their enemies down with firecrackers, baseball bats and blades. It’s all very exciting, and the rapid editing and innovative photography creates heightened tension. Of course, the film would not be as cool without an awesome synthesizer soundtrack from Basement Jaxx. Worthy of your time, Attack the Block is the real deal. Believe.
Attack the Block is currently playing at Dendy Newtown. I rate the film 4 Stars.
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You can read more of Andrew’s reviews at his weekly updated blog: Andy Buckle’s Film Emporium
