While I enjoyed JJ Abrams' Super 8 earlier this summer (with the exception of one nitpicky detail I will only reference with the words "human eyes"), I didn't find it to be the the timeless ode to Steven Spielberg-ian youth that many reviews had declared it. That's because I don't remember seeing those Spielberg movies as a kid. Sure, I've seen Jaws, E.T. and Close Encouters of the Fourth Kind - or at least parts of them - by now, but they didn't create the foundation of my childhood.
The movies I remember seeing back then were the sci-fi flicks that aired on syndicated local stations every weekend. Whether it was the Hanes Furniture Creature Feature or some other sponsored block on our local UPN station (channel 44 in Tampa, also home of daily Full House/Step By Step/Family Matters reruns), I have lots more memories of being glued to the television for Short Circuit, Spaced Invaders, Batteries Not Included, Gremlins or whatever else they were showing on Saturday and Sunday. That's why I loved the hell out of Attack The Block, the first feature from British comedian (and Edgar Wright collaborator) Joe Cornish. It's a really great adult version of those smaller-scale adventure sci-fi films I grew up watching, and an impressive film debut for both the director and his star, 19-year-old John Boyega.
ATB is an alien invasion movie with a more personal scale, told from the perspective of a teen "gang" on the streets of South London. I put gang in quotes because while the group, led by Moses (Boyega) is still trying to get their cred up in the neighborhood by their housing complex (the titular block). They can bully around Sam, a local white woman (Jodie Whitaker), and talk on the level with drug dealer Ron (Nick Frost, the most famous face in the movie) but they also demure to the resident gangster and to their own parents.
The quest for respect takes a backseat, however, when an unexpected crash landing interrupts their mugging of Sam. The teens' first encounter with an extraterrestrial happens before we even see the title card, and the movie wastes no time getting down to business with a full-scale invasion of the housing project they call home.
All of the action takes place in or around the building and the film does a great job of using that confined space to keep the story moving and keep tension high. It also isn't afraid to draw blood or throw in some racy language, and that makes everything feel remarkably natural for a movie about teenagers fighting off aliens. There were a few times when it surprised me just by taking a logical step forward and keeping that "real" feeling. Right as I was saying "ok, how are they going to avoid doing _" they just went and did it, then let a beat or two pass so I could digest what happened. The crowd I saw it with ate it all up, reacting to nearly everything in the best way possible. They laughed at the creatively foul language and gasped when the aliens were bearing down on our heroes. That might be the most ringing endorsement of the movie: the whole room bought in almost immediately.
The cast of newcomers definitely helped you get immersed in the storyline. It actually takes a little while to get a handle on all the different characters in the gang, but their relationships with each other are immediately clear and you find yourself rooting for all of them. Boyega is especially impressive, playing Moses with a silent intensity from beginning to end, even as the curtain is gradually drawn back on his story. He commands attention in every scene, and you don't notice how quickly the rest of the group defers to him because as a viewer, you are always looking to see his reaction. I've been watching a lot of "Breaking Bad" lately so I've really learned to appreciate actors who can say a lot without speaking a word, and Boyega does that routinely throughout the film. It was his first acting role and he ought to blow up big-time in the next year or two.
One supposed criticism that Cornish mentioned publicly was the dense South London accents the kids had, but aside from a few slang terms (that I could pretty much figure out in context), I didn't find it hard to follow at all. It was no different from the "Ballmer" accents that were ever-present during the run of "The Wire", and like the epic HBO show, Attack The Block uses honest representations of local characters to help you connect with them. Real recognize real, as it were.
Of course, the comparisons between "The Wire" and Attack The Block pretty much end at the societal class of the main characters and the rawness in how they are presented. The movie doesn't have the same bleakness in its representation of inner city culture and although it dabbles in commentary on race relations and class systems, those are only asides to the main narrative of the locals banding together and doing whatever it takes to protect their home.
There are a few moments of heavy exposition (to fill in the backstory before they hit the climax) and the movie wraps up so neatly that it's almost off-putting at first, but it's all in the spirit of the genre. Whether you see it as a midnight movie or the spiritual successor to low budget alien flicks of the late 80s and early 90s, Attack The Block is incredibly fun and very well done from beginning to end. It was given the midnight feature award at South By Southwest in March, and it's a well-deserved accolade. Like his star, Cornish is moving on up after his feature directorial debut: he co-wrote the screenplay for Spielberg's upcoming The Adventures Of Tintin with Wright and the two are also collaborating on the Marvel-produced Ant-Man movie. If there is justice in Hollywood, Attack The Block will one day be viewed as the first of many entertaining films from a director with a real knack for what makes a adventure film feel like you are along for the ride.