Attack The Block

In a potentially star-making performance, John Boyega plays a charismatic gang leader whose attempts to mug a pretty nurse played by Venus’ Jodie Whittaker are rudely interrupted by the unexpected appearance of a fearsome alien monster. Whittaker, Boyega, and Boyega’s gang must subsequently put aside their gender, racial, and class differences for the sake of a common cause: fighting off a mysterious alien plague. Frost is funny as a low-level drug dealer and National Geographic buff, as is Luke Treadaway as a student who stops by Frost’s weed spot to pick up some marijuana, and gets more than he bargained for.

Attack The Block has an agreeably scrappy early John Carpenter Dark Star/Assault On Precinct 13 vibe, rich in moral ambiguity and gleeful, smartass genre-mashing. Boyega begins the film as a heavy, but by the end the filmmakers have persuaded viewers to root for a troubled teenage criminal committing violent acts in the name of the common good. Attack The Block turns its modest budget into a virtue by focusing on character, especially the surprisingly charged, complicated dynamic between enemies-turned-allies Whittaker and Boyega. As a high-profile A-picture, Paul had stars and a big budget, but Attack The Block has a clever script and winning underdog spirit that ultimately proves much more important.