Attack The Block (2011)

I'm sure that a few of the things I've written about some films, must seem very disjointed; e.g.  'i liked it but it was horrible. You should see it for yourself...' Attack The Block may suffer worse from this than any other posts i've written.
I was disappointed by it but it's incredibly well directed by Joe Cornish. I guess the crux of my problem is that i thought it would be really funny cos it's Joe from Adam & Joe.
Don't get me wrong - there are jokes, lots of jokes but the tone of the film is so hard-edged that the brief moments of broad respite don't really cover that.
On paper, it's a great idea - teenage boys on a council estate start a war with aliens and i've been excited to see it since I heard Cornish was making it. But I think there's an innate problem there, before you start- what does it mean if teenage gang members are killing aliens? I mean if it's just thugs beating up aliens, who do you root for? and this something the film never quite makes peace with.
Now obviously, the boys are plastic gangsters essentially and their intention is to be fairly heroic but they start off the film mugging the female lead character, played by Jodie Whittaker and though they become more likeable as they become more heroic in their actions, they still don't come across as nice people to be around, even if you were in the gang.
Maybe I feel uncomfortable with the fact, that though most of the dialogue is written in South London patios and I'm sure credible to how kids today talk, and it's probably inverted racism on my part but i couldn't get passed the fact this is written by a white guy in his late 30's (at least) from Cornwall or Devon or thereabouts. That just niggled away at me, i guess. That said, Cornish does include a severely middle class character called Bruce,  played by Luke Treadaway, who embraces black culture but knows full-well he'll never be embraced back.
So this means that Cornish is aware but persists with these messages of 'it's just these mischievous young men acting ' followed by 'Irresponsible actions have consequences' which confuse because then how much do these boys need to do to redeem themselves? Or is it not even that big a deal, how abrasive the guys are- they're a product of their environment and this is acceptable behaviour there?
Like I say, this could just be my perception and maybe it's just me but then there's this side plot where the local gangster wants to seek retaliation towards these boy for messing up his car- i don't understand what the point of that whole part of the story was meant to signify.
But I still say Joe Cornish is a major asset to British film and deserves to be supported and allowed to experiment with fun in this way. Maybe just another surehand on the writing prehaps?...

(This blog was only late because Blogger's server was and not because I started at 11pm)

I watched Attack The Block (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with A Woman Under The Influence (1974)...