Attack the Block

Attack the Block (2011) takes place on a housing estate in South London on Guy Fawkes night. A group of teenagers mug a nurse in the street. At the same moment something falls out of the sky. They kill it, and much larger ones follow. The film stays inside the building for the rest of the night. Its bravest decision is introducing its heroes while they commit a robbery. The woman they mugged stays in the story and has to survive alongside them; the film does not soften what they did while also explaining why they are there. It is Joe Cornish's first feature. He came from radio and television comedy in Britain. It is John Boyega's first major role, four years before Star Wars. The creature design is deliberately simple: entirely black, furred, with teeth that glow in a single colour. That was as much a choice as a budget constraint; black figures can be shot as real objects in low light and never look digital. It runs 88 minutes. Good for: short fast genre filmmaking, London street language, and low budget creature design. Less good for: the slang is thick and hard to follow without subtitles. The violence is sudden and the deaths are harsh. The film's social argument resolves quickly and lands too easily for some viewers.