Ryan McNeil
It’s within human nature to get overzealous…to bite off more than we can chew.
We take up the sword and get on to our theoretical steed determined to slay the dragon, only to get around the corner and find ourselves facing down an entire legion of dragons. What to do then? If ATTACK THE BLOCK is any example the answer is to run…and to hope that the mighty beast doesn’t follow you.
Late one night we meet Sam (Jodie Whittaker) on her walk home to the the lower-income tower block she calls home. Not far from home, she is mugged by a group of five young hoodlums. Before they can make off with their meagre spoils, they almost get hit by an unidentified object crashing out of the sky. After letting Sam walk away, the boys investigate the crash. It’s discovered that the object is in fact some sort of alien creature – a creature they waste no time in killing.
They haul the carcass back to the tower block (turns out they live there too), with the intention of stashing it at Ron’s place. Ron is the neighbourhood drug dealer, and seems poised to make the gang leader Moses (John Boyega) a foot soldier in his drug racket. It’s right around then that a few dozen more objects fall out of the sky.
having already brought back one as a trophy, the boys are feeling badass and go looking for more armed with bats, blades, and whatever else they have handy. The hitch is that these creatures aren’t quite like the one they already danced with. These ones seem…meaner.
Knowing that they’ve strayed into the deep end, the boys retreat back to the block, and run back into Sam in the hopes of getting away from the aliens. Soon the entire block is under siege, and everyone needs to work together to stay alive.
ATTACK THE BLOCK plays like a mosaic of many great – and seemingly unrelated – films. Within it are traces of FISH TANK, DISTRICT 9, GOONIES, and CHILDREN OF GOD. If that sounds like high praise…well…it is. The film brings together elements from all of those films (and more) and infuses them into a wickedly energetic narrative. The engine driving that narrative is clearly the gang of kids, who come across as true thugs when they first show up, but all show their true colours of immaturity before the night is out.
On the other side of the court from the kids stand the aliens. In the trailers I’ve seen for this film, I’m happy to see that the design of the aliens aren’t fully revealed. I won’t dare give more info here, except to say that the creature design is quite original and exciting. You never get used to seeing them attack, and the way they move might well make you forget you’re sitting in a theatre seat and give you the impulse to get up and run.
But what use is it bringing together memorable players if you aren’t going to make use of the stage they play on? To that end, director Joe Cornish makes great use of the apartment building much of the story take place in and around (“The Block” referred to in the title). One would think that using a filing cabinet of a community that the action would take on a claustrophobic feeling. Not so! The story never lets our heroes sit too long in one spot, and leaves us believing that no door can be bolted shut securely enough to keep the menace at bay.
Because of that, Sam and the boys never seem to stop running through the corridors, stairwells, and walkways. Bedrooms are traps…corridors are gauntlets…elevators are tombs. The characters are all filled with dread not just from the creatures, but by the way the creatures are turning their home – a place that should seem like sanctuary – into a slaughterhouse floor.
As intense as I have made this out to be, it’s not something that the faint of heart need to avoid. Quite the contrary, the script is filled with cheeky humour provided by the boys in the gang. Sometimes it’s as simple as letting their childish colours show, other times it comes courtesy of summing up the bedlam in the most poetic ways.
is part of my excitement over ATTACK THE BLOCK due to the experience of going in blind? Probably. It’s a mindset I don’t often find myself in outside of a film festival, and after the amount of joy it brought me, I almost wish i could find myself in this mindset more often. Whether you go in blind, or read every morsel of info you can find on the project, I venture that most audiences will have a fun time with this film…and find themselves wondering on when’s the time to flee, and when’s the time to fight?
I can’t believe you’ve seen this before me! Sooo unfair. There was just one screening in my local which clashed with a funeral – I wasn’t remotely impressed. But I’ve pre-ordered a special blu ray thang which is out in a few weeks
(Welcome to The New Matinee!)
The fact that I got to see such a splendid English film like this before you is an utter travesty…but it will be worth the wait. Now that the summer’s over, I must offer one note about the film. Of all the movies this summer that involved creatures from space (and there were several) this one had the best creature design by far.
Great review, Ryan! Although I feel differently about ATB. I loved the energy, the look, the music and the alien design but the characters (except Sam) bothered me greatly. There was no tension for me because I didn’t care if the kids survived or not.