SXSW 2011: Attack the Block Review
From the intention of newly minted director Joe Cornish, Attack the Block is an homage to The Warriors, Predator, The Outsiders, E.T., Rumble Fish, and just about every other great monster and child-gang film you can think of. From Cornish's mouth "Super 8... Mile'; a joke that comes nowhere near doing the film justice, but provides for a cheeky top-down.
Cornish, while popular in Britain for his comedic trappings and co-creation of The Adam and Joe Show may be a bit of an unknown to American audiences. This should hopefully change quite soon. Cornish is a long time friend and current writing partner of Edgar Wright, the two having worked on the upcoming The Adventures of Tin-Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn as well as the long in development Ant-Man together. He has had bit parts in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, but none of this is as immediately relevant as his gangbusters debut Attack the Block.
A stylish and suspenseful throw back to the great creature comedies, Attack the Block follows a group of South London teens who must deal with an alien invasion. The teens, all played by first time actors from the area, bring a jovial ghetto swagger to the screen. Each teen providing a captivating vibrancy and charm which instills an enthusiastic rooting, for their heroism and proof of self-worth.
The excellency of the kids is matched by the originality of the creature(s). Created using a rotoscoping technique that prevents them from ever looking out of place or contrived. Standing up next to the monsters are some beautifully disgusting practical blood and gore, the effects as a whole a complete knockout. Cornish likened the way the creatures were accomplished to the wolf at the beginning of 300 and some of the rotoscoping work done in Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings.
Creative, exhilarating, constantly funny and loaded with scares, Joe Cornish announces his arrival with the youthful roar of street wide power fantasy, children vs. aliens, samurai swords and fireworks, screeching beasts and the bumping beats of Basement Jaxx.
Watch the trailer, get hype and bug your distributors, you don't want to miss this.
