ATTACK THE BLOCK (Joe Cornish). 88 minutes. Opens Friday (July 29). See listing Rating: NNNN
I can imagine discovering Attack The Block at a TIFF Midnight Madness screening circa 1987 or 88, or watching it on a crappy VHS screening copy even. And I think I would have loved it then as much as I love it now.
Joe Cornish’s tremendously assured debut takes place over one night in a low-rent South London housing district under siege by an invasion of extraterrestrial beasties. A bunch of local thugs, an off-duty nurse (Venus’s Jodie Whittaker) and a pot dealer (Nick Frost) band together to fend off the threat.
It plays like the rabid love child of John Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13 and Stephen Herek’s Critters… and I mean that as the highest compliment.
Attack The Block has some of the most endearing practical effects I’ve seen in a decade, including a terrific creature design that’s no less effective for being ingeniously simple. Cornish – an English TV and radio personality making his first movie – understands that CGI isn’t the solution to every problem. You can accomplish an awful lot with well-crafted suits, a resourceful cinematographer and a clever script.
Attack The Block has all of those in spades, along with a breakout performance by charismatic young actor John Boyega as an impulsive but principled gangster.
It may not have Johnny Depp or giant robots, but it’s got everything a summer movie needs. Trust.