Attack the Block, the directorial debut of the latter half of British surrealist DIY sketch comedians Adam and Joe, explodes onto our screen as a lo-fi comedic sci-fi blend of La haine, The Goonies and Predator. Set in the imposing tower-block estates of London on Bonfire Night, a far cry from the jolly trading geezers of Mandela House, it is the story of the incomprehensible violence meted out by the universe’s most misunderstood creature – the hoodie – when an extraterrestrial menace crash-lands on his turf. Coming off the back of a string of clever British subversions of the sci-fi genre (Shawn of the Dead, FAQ about Time Travel, etc.), Joe Cornish here strikes a chord with a well-paced film that makes the most of its modest budget and novice actors.
It opens with Jodie Whittaker’s Nurse Sam making her way home to her south London flat, unaware of the youths, faces concealed and zipping along on their bikes like a pack of hunting wolves, ready to mug her. No romantic highwaymen here, the boys, led by physically dominant and de facto Alpha male Moses (John Boyega), terrorise Sam in a chilling and calculated assault, and were it not for the car-crushing arrival of a meteorite meters away leading to her escape, the audience really isn’t sure how much worse it could have gotten for her. Instead, the boys turn their attention to the small grey alien creature hitching a ride on the space rock, cornering it in a park and bludgeoning it to death amid a chorus of cheers and elation. Hauling their bounty back to the high-rise hideaway of local pot-dealer Ron (Nick Frost doing his reliably solid supporting stuff), it’s not long before many more meteors, carrying significantly bigger payloads, come smashing into the flats. And suddenly the boys, bound by honour and sporting worryingly available weapons, decide to rid their block of these space invaders, teaming up with Sam along the way.
The monsters themselves are cleverly designed, if telltale of the modest financials of the film. In a world of CGI excess, where every freckle is fretted over in months of planning and computer rendering, it’s somewhat refreshing to have a hulking black furry beast with no distinguishing features bar a set of glow-in-the-dark gnashers and snarling growl. And credit to Terry Notary, the movement actor behind the costume, whose operation of the beast helps elevate the creature into something vicious and threatening, and actually there. Cornish also displays great cinematic flare, taking advantage of the films locations (essentially a couple of flats, a hallway, a lift and a car park) and finding thrilling ways to fill them, with stealthy chases and brutal fights, yet never losing his grasp of the comedy nor the characters.
And that is truly where the film succeeds, depicting these youths as balls-to-the-wall adults, and putting them in dangerous peril. It’s a very clever sleight of hand; building them up as violent cavaliers in control of their lives, before pulling back to remind us with a Spiderman duvet that they are still just children, and a very real monster lurks under the bed waiting to bite their faces off. Add to this a witty script with slang-spouting cast, and you're on to a winner, bruv.
Though Cornish missteps by moralising too much in the last 10 minutes, Attack the Block is a triumph of big filmmaking on a small scale, and a lot of fun too.
4 Likes.
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