Synopsis: a youth is kicked to death on the top floor of a Tower Block. All residents, bar one, shun the event. The one who gets involved also gets assaulted. Three months later the same residents find themselves under attack from a sniper. But who? And why? And will they get out alive?
‘Tower Block’ has been, for me, the find of the Christmas/New Year film-watching catch-up fest.
Written by James (Cockneys v Zombies) Moran, and directed by James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson, ‘Tower Block’ feels like a high quality thriller.
Set, almost exclusively, on the top floor of a condemned, empty/not empty apartment high-rise, the film shows us aspects of life in the urban sprawl, before opening us up to the plot, after character introductions.
It’s difficult to pull out aspects of ‘Tower Block’ for praise, and this is a directorial credit.
The cast did a tidy job, the script was lean (despite a slight outbreak of dialogue clunkiness), the sound quality/audio engineering was just short of brilliant, and the lighting/cinematography was way above average (for the average Hollywood big bucks flick).
You remember the crushing disappointment of ‘The World’s End’? And you remember the stunningly presented ‘Welcome To The Punch’? ‘Tower Block’ soars like an eagle above the former and is just about on a par with the latter. But grittier. Harsher. More realistic. Less glossy.
To be this pleasantly surprised by a non-blockbuster release, has been one of my film highlights of 2013.
I would like to see cinemas show a Best of British feature.
It would start with ‘Attack The Block’, move on to ‘Welcome To The Punch’ and finish with ‘Tower Block’. What an amazing bill that would be.
Exhausting.
But an amazing show.
A few brief words about the cast, before I sum up.
Although you might not know all of the names, you will know most of the faces (in a ‘ooh, that’s so-and-so off of that programme!’ kind of way).
All of the performances are professionally acted, one or two are surprisingly delicious (Jack O’Connell/Kurtis and Sheridan Smith/Becky).
The directors of ‘Tower Block’ have worked hard to draw together, and pull stunning performances out from. a British company of back- and front-of-house professionals.
What you need to do now, is to make some time to see it.
Tower Block: an easy
9/10
