All Music Guide:
Plot Synopsis by Jason Buchanan
As the summer sun shines down on England in the early 1980s, two boys who couldn't be more different are brought together by a mutual love of cinema and a desire to emulate their favorite action movie icon. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a well-mannered schoolboy being raised in an ultra-religious community that deplores such corruptive distractions as television and seeks to maintain its purity by severely limiting contact with the outside world. In order to exorcise his creative inner demons, Will has taken to sketching imaginative drawings and complex illustrations. Lee Carter (Will Poulter) is the school terror, a rampaging hellion whose overaggressive behavior has made him an endless source of frustration to the faculty, and a source of fear to his fellow classmates. As fate would have it, Will is in the school hallway avoiding exposure to the classroom television when a fed-up teacher ejects Lee from the classroom. Though at first it appears as if Lee is about to torment timid Will just as he does the rest of the student body, the two form a tight bond after Will convinces Lee to view a bootleg copy of Rambo: First Blood. When Lee informs Will that he wants to shoot a homebrewed version of the violent action film for an upcoming amateur filmmaking contest, a sudden streak of rebellion prompts his sheltered classmate to readily agree. As the summer wears on the two boys set out to create the ultimate no-budget action movie, but their grand vision hits an unexpected hitch when a busload of French exchange students arrive at the school and the leader of the pack attempts to hijack the production.
I saw this film back in September. I was excited to see it, as it was the first original creation/production for the filmmaker team of Hammer & Tongs (director Garth Jennings and his partner producer Nick Goldsmith) after their adaptation of 2005's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It was their past (and present) work as music video directors, not their previous film, that contributed to my interest in this film. I liked their sensibility and tone in their videos; like for Blur's Coffee & TV and Supergrass' Pumping On The Stereo. While the whimsical special effects side of their personalities was utilized for Hitchhiker's Guide, I was hungry for a film that came completely from their own creation.
It seems that Son Of Rambow has been a long time coming to US theaters. It initially premiered at Sundance in 2007, but because of legal rights with music/trademarked Rambo name held up release until earlier this year. I missed it when it played theatrically in Seattle, and at the SIFF before that, but moved it to the top of my Netflix queue when it was released on DVD.
My hopes paid off. This is a film that focuses solidly on characters, not the special effects of Hitchhicker's; but that's not to say that special effects aren't employed, because they are. But they are used tastefully and in service of the story and to help flesh out emotional ties between the audience and the characters. Tonally, it's very melancholy with dashes of whimsy and genuine humor.
I loved the french kid.
He was a great balance to the story. I gotta admit that I prefer him and his crew better when they were providing the comic relief, than when he joined up with Will & Lee making the film. He then is used as the "third wheel"/catalyst in order to tear Will & Lee apart. While I like that he becomes a bigger part of the story, his humor somewhat disappears.
At the end, when the French were returning back home, was the "popular" French kid really supposed to be a loser amongst his French peers?
After being hooked on to Spaced , it's nice to see Jessica Hynes in another type of role. I need to seek out more films that she is in. Any suggestions?
I also thought that the score was used well. It gave off a vibe that Amblin Pictures had back in the 1980's, preferring orchestral instruments over synthesizers. This helps with the melancholic tone. The 1980's New Wave songs were tastefully selected and deployed as well.
This is the type of movie I would have loved to see on HBO after I had come home from school when I was the age as the characters in the film. I would've made my own version of Rambo at home too! I look forward to seeing this film again, and can maybe revisit that feeling on a sick day.
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