SO I figure the best way to get good at this blog thing is just to keep on typing and what better day for source material than a Wednesday. The day which could only be improved by getting slapped by the Tango man.

Went up to Hyde Park Picture House for an event new to me: BYOB (Bring Your Own Babies). This is a new concept for me and I spent at least half an hour figuring out what I might be able to pass-off as my baby. Luckily there was no shortage of Babies as not only would they be in the theatre but on the screen as well.

Now, I love babies so as soon as Thomas Balmes for his new doc Babies or (Bébés to be appropriate as I was seeing it with our French couchsurfer) I was pretty pysched and not a bit disappointed.

Understandably watching babies for an hour and twenty wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea being that most people's reaction to them is to shudder and deny they ever were one or will have one but this was something a bit special.

It's quite a challenge to make a film with no words because it makes it harder to ensure the audience know your characters' perspectives. In spite of that you have to contend with the fact the you, the audience, have no comprehension of how this baby thinks but Babies sinks you deep in their surroundings and not a second goes by that you can't relate to the each four of its stars.

Of the babies at the heart of the film, one lives in Mongolia, one in Namibia, one in San Francisco and one in Tokyo. The cityscapes and rural horizons are captured beautifully in incredible colour and texture. The closeup lenses are precisely chosen adding a warmth to capturing the babies' relationships with everything around them: a dog, cat, goat, stone, bone, brother, sister, anything. You feel with them in every step, never knowing what will happen next.

I loved the way the mothers were shown, in a pseudo Tom & Jerry style, keeping you at the babies' level but as a result Mother becames more divine as a body uncomprehendibly benevolent. Even the tough love of the Namibian mother, slinging the baby over her shoulder, shaving his head with a knife, wiping his arse on her knee. And how lovely it was to see such a healthy African child with no pitying eye but just an appreciation for their way of life.

Stunning photography and a fresh outlook make Babies a heartwarming insight into what life might really be about. Their awareness of the camera is lucid in the first months but adds a charm that undeniable and won't outstay a tight 80 minutes. Also perfect for the new arrivals as was proved by the attentive dummy sucking (and occasional cries of mutual agreement with the four on screen).

http://imdb.to/l0jWxB - Babies Trailer

Secondly on the list was a second viewing of Attack the Block. Seeing it once was enough to want more and more and over and over and I'm sure this will rank in legacy with Shaun of the Dead in British-Horror-Comedy. Unsurprising being that Joe Cornish (director) is a good friend of Edgar Wright, who is on board as exec producer; Nira Park as producer; a large amount of the wider crew, music supervisor Nick Angel are shared with the 2004 classic. Nick Frost stars. Out of a group of wider unknowns I was expecting Nick Frost could wind up a celebrity gimmick but not at all, if anything he underplays the soft bumbling South London gangster who rather enjoys watching wildlife documentaries than cappin' a fool. Besides, Nick Frost is not the focus in this hard-biting style-bomb. Pumped by the Basement Jaxx techy score Attack the Block is gripping from the get-go.

The creatures themselves are the right element of a graphic novel-ish animation. Their design perfectly suited to a predator in the block. Big up to the motion capture guy who's now working on the almighty Del-Toro-can't-stop-us Hobbit. 

The mostly debut cast are perfect for their roles lending a real believability and feeling to this chilling urban monster movie. Alex Esmail is a true find. He makes the Dappy demographic a firework-toting, spliff-smoking cheeky bugger that you just can't help but love for his charmy naivty: "Elevator to the penthouse suite".

Tonally Attack the Block is absolutely water tight and that's where its strength lies. Unlike Shaun it doesn't take so much of its humour from reference but runs with its own modern characters. The brief insights into the boys home lives add a truthful urgency and certainly its potrayal of the police is accurate if muddled.

I can't get wait to get more of it on the DVD anyway.