"Attack the Block": Outer-space monsters attack South London thugs. With a lot of amateur hunks and Doctor Who

  

For movie night this week, we saw  Attack the Block (2011).

On Guy Fawkes Day, when there are fireworks all over London, a group of teenage thugs and their robbery victim run afoul of monsters that fell from the sky -- hairy beings the size of gorillas, not sentient, with no eyes and rows of glowing teeth (what is the evolutionary benefit of teeth that glow in the dark)?

For some reason, they all land in the same Block, a poor neighborhood in South London, and target only Moses, the head Thug, and whoever he has touched.

Moses is played by John Boyega, top photo, who would go on to gay-subtext Finn in the Star Wars franchise (he would have been gay, but the suits are a bit homophobic).

The other Thugs are:

1. Pest: Alex Esmail, left who doesn't have any girl-hugging photos on his Instagram and can therefore be identified as gay. (Most youth gangs draw members from a single race, but this one is mixed).

2. Jerome: Leeon Jones, who appears only in this movie and a short.

3. Dennis: Franz Drameh, who would go on to play Firestorm on DC Legends of Tomorrow

4. Biggz: Simon Howard, who has only four IMDB credits.

The Victim is Jodie Whittaker, who would go on to play Doctor Who.

In addition to fighting, running from, and being killed by the monsters, the group is harassed by the police -- when the monsters kill two cops (Joey Ansah, Adam Leese), guess who gets blamed?

And by head drug dealer of the neighborhood, Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter), who thinks that they have invented the monster story to rip him off.

More after the break

Their allies include Ron (Nick Frost), the neighborhood's marijuana supplier, whose greenhouse is the most secure spot on the block, and and his main customer; Brewis (Luke Treadaway, left), who just happened to be there when things went wrong; and two kids who want to join the gang, but are rejected as "too young," but end up saving one of the gang members from a monster that has him trapped in a dumpster.

Several thugs and a dog die, but Moses lives, and there's no fade-out boy-girl kiss, for a change.

Heterosexism: A few glimmers here and there.  Moses is told that a girl is into him, and a voicemail message says "If you're a girl, leave a message."  Pest flirts with The Victim after she joins their group.  

Plus there's a heterosexist explanation for the monster attacks: 

The monsters that Moses killed was a female, so he got covered with female pheremones that draw all the male monsters.

Gay Characters: None specified, though almost everyone has the gay code of lack of heterosexual interest.

No homophobia, either.  Brewis suggests that the monsters are targeting Moses because of the female pheremones on his coat, so he should "take his clothes off," Pest misunderstands and asks "Do you fancy him?", but not in an accusatory way: it would not be a problem. 

Beefcake: I expected to find a lot of beefcake and n*de photos of cast members, but there's nothing out there except people who have appeared in nothing else and have private instagram accounts.  So here are some random hunks.

I'm guessing this was an all-amateur production.  It was written and directed by Joe Cornish, whose other writing credits include The Adam and Joe Show, Adam and Joe's Wonky World of Animation, Adam and Joe Go to Tokyo, Adam and Joe's American Adventure..Adam is Adam Buxton, who describes his wife and children on his IMDB profile.  Joe Cornish doesn't, which probably means that he's gay.

See also: Justin LeBeau: From "Doctor Who" to gay videos, with nothing in between but physiques

"Getaway": Nick Frost and his gay son vs. a creepy Swedish ritual and a transphobic stereotype. With Kit Conner and a stunt d*ck

"Sinners": Twin brothers fight vampires and klansmen in the Mississippi Delta. With Jordan junk and O'Connell