Attack the Block

For his feature debut as writer/director, Joe Cornish - of comedy duo Adam and Joe - combines his love of 1980s creature capers like Gremlins with a more contemporary concern: fear of teenage hoodies. His south London update of The Goonies features characters who are all patois and machismo, first seen mugging nurse Jodie Whittaker. However, they are soon forced to find the hero within when their "block" is targeted by sharp-toothed alien invaders. Cornish stages the nonstop siege action around the estate's walkways, garages and recycling bins like a master, and manages not to patronise his young protagonists, skilfully drawing upon his local, relatively inexperienced cast's ear for street language. Led by John Boyega's hardman Moses and Alex Esmail's stoner Pest, the cocky quintet - along with Luke Treadaway's over-caricatured posh boy and Nick Frost's avuncular dope dealer - are deftly exposed as three-dimensional. The slang, drugs and council-estate setting may put some audiences off, but they would be missing a socially conscious, energetic horror comedy that's scary and very funny.