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Son of Rambow
Set in the early 80s, this delightful comedy applies modest cinematic means to create a hyper-real slapstick world as perceived by ten-year-old Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner). Will has had a sheltered life in the Plymouth Brethren, a puritanical religious group that forbids worldly contamination by music, TV, or films. No wonder school rebel Lee Carter (Will Poulter) rocks his world. Lee Carter (as Will always calls him) is a bit of a bully, but his "Just William" style antics are innocent enough - if not exactly safe. He exposes Will to his first ever movie - a pirate copy of Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo in First Blood. Then he pressgangs his suitably awed victim into playing his stunt double in the home movie remake he's shooting on a big early generation camcorder. This experience proves unexpectedly liberating. Sometimes a "bad" influence turns out to be the best you could ever hope for. Will - like the young hero in Bridge to Terabithia - is a fledgling artist, and his creativity takes flight in Lee Carter's company. Almost literally, given the perilous leaps, falls and swan dives he finds himself performing.
The two boys become fast friends, and soon the rest of the school is clamoring to be part of the action. Especially when the breathtakingly sophisticated French exchange student Didier Revol (Jules Sitrik) signs on. Evidently a labour of love for writer-director Garth Jennings (one half of the team Hammer & Tongs who previously collaborated on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), this is a very special movie, one of the best you'll see all year. (I can say this with confidence having seen it at Sundance 15 months ago - the release has been held up while Paramount sorted out rights issues with Mr Stallone and CanalPlus.) Milner and Poulter are delicious as the perfectly mismatched urchins. Their fun is infectious, and you can see the friendship as it forms over the course of the summer. Unlike Michel Gondry's tribute to video and the DIY aesthetic Be Kind Rewind the joke never wears thin because Jennings cares as much about his characters as he does about the imaginative release of lo-fi filmmaking. There are many exhilarating visual touches here - many of them very funny - but they're not at the expense of the relationships or story. (Jessica Stevenson and Neil Dudgeon are also very convincing as Will's mum and Joshua, the leader of the Brethren.)
I'm a couple of years older than Jennings - who was 11 in 1982 - but not so much that I don't remember the BBC's "Screen Test" with as much affection as he obviously does. My own home movie epics were shot on Super 8, not DVD, and I wouldn't claim Stallone was an influence on them, but like Will and Lee Carter, we always cast ourselves as grown heroes in adventure thrillers; the movies we thought we were making were several sizes bigger than what was preserved on celluloid. It's especially endearing that Jennings has given this "little" movie such a grand, adventurous and romantic spirit. If you love the cinema you're going to love this film. Skill! Tom Charity 
More information about Son of Rambow » Critics' ReviewsTime Out Sundance Review: A schoolboy yarn with a bracing emotional honesty that packs a real kick. Will (Bill Milner) is the... read more on www.timeout.com Members' ReviewsReviews Voted Most HelpfulMost Recent Reviews |
