Attack the Block - Review

Tower blocks, dialects, angry young men, Britain - all the ingredients are there but this ain't no slice of kitchen-sink social realism. No, this is Attack the Block and it's got aliens!

I've read a few reviews of this film and they've all be critical of other reviews that make 'lazy' comparisons with Shaun of the Dead, but while it's obvious, it's nevertheless a pretty good starting point. Essentially it is a story of some normal kids dealing with a brutal alien attack; the comedy lies in their coping with the invasion. However, unlike last months The Highness, AtB doesn't rely on vocal incongruencies (being critical of comedy is a sure-fire way of sounding like an utter twat, sorry) to generate laughs. Here, they merely complement a sharp and witty script that succeeds brilliantly in being in mimicking urban culture. Probably.

It's not a complaint as such, but I do worry that anyone that's older than 35, anyone that comes from a rural part of the country, every American - basically anyone that isn't bang up-to-date with the London slang will struggle to understand large parts of this film. First time director Joe Cornish, of Adam and Joe fame, researched the dialect extensively, and it shows. My hometown, Maidenhead, while being backwards is virtually every way, does happen to keep up with the trends so I faired fine, but people from Dorset for instance may struggle. Americans will need subtitles.

Balancing comedy and action is a difficult thing to do, and often films tip towards one end of the scale, but Attack the Block treads the line with ease. It never forgets to be funny, and it never descends into the gore-fest it could so easily have become. The young cast is very good, with the best of the bunch being Alex Esmail as Pest, the token white-guy. Also excellent are Brewis (Luke Treadaway) who plays a Volvo-driving, middle-class, unemployed stoner graduate, desperate to shed his posh image; and John Boyega as gang-leader Moses, who delivers a performance of real intensity. To further the Shaun of the Dead link, Nick Frost is present (along with Edgar Wright as a producer).

However, the thing I like most about Attack the Block is that Britain has finally produced something of real wit and freshness. The budget is typically British - a paltry £8m - and yet it has the feel of a much larger production. As with last years Monsters, the CGI is relatively light, limited mostly to the aliens, which, by the way, are absolutely fantastic. They're black gorilla-werewolf-dog mofos, absolutely black, blacker even than Jerome's cousin Candice, with luminous fangs. Vicious, enthralling, and original, they contribute immensely to an already strong production

I really recommend seeing this film. It's what the British film industry has been crying out for since Hot Fuzz came along in 2007. We can't compete financially with Hollywood, but talented individuals we can outsmart them. Happily, as mentioned previously, it makes no concessions whatsoever to the international market. It doesn't even make concessions for the beyond-the-M25 market. Go see it, because we may well have another long wait before something like this comes along again.

Thumbs UP!