Simone’s review published on Letterboxd:
Film #6 of the 30 days 30 countries challenge - UNITED KINGDOM
As a huge fan of the early Misfits series, I thought I would end up loving the formula Attack the Block seems to be emulating. There's such a wild mix of tones that I couldn't quite get into a comfortable watching perspective and ended up wishing it would just pick one direction to go in: do you want to be a comedy, a gross-out horror film, an exploration of class/race issues in London, or a hero's journey?
I came away enjoying the parts of the film when you get a sense of how the assumptions police and the outside world would react to an alien invasion happening in a neighborhood like this, but disliking the ham-fisted approach to characterization and giving the "hero" a satisfying arc. I thought the aliens looked really cool, they made sense logically but didn't remind me of any creatures from other films I've seen. I liked the specific dialect the young gang spoke in, but the dialogue was still delivered in the stiff and unconvincing manner of poorly directed amateur actors. Overall, I found it intriguing and compelling, but I thought it was just too convoluted and unfocused to be as great as it could've been.