Film

Son of Rambow (2007)

Director: Garth Jennings

Movie review

From Time Out Chicago

The threat of cloying nostalgia hovers over Son of Rambow like the sword of Damocles. It’s set in the early 1980s, with musical nods to the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Preteen outcasts Lee (Poulter)—a scrappy rebel always one step away from detention—and Will (Milner)—a sweet lad from a religious sect that believes television and movies are sinful distractions—form a bond over their shared love of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo in First Blood. Armed with a video camera, they set out to make their own sequel. They get unexpected help from a too-cool-for-school French exchange student (Sitruk). For those of a cynical bent, this must sound like twee hell.

Jennings may not convert the pure cynics, but he does his damnedest to restore respectability to the term whimsy. As part of the music-video team Hammer & Tongs, Jennings has relied on inventive, on-the-cheap concepts for his work, and he clearly loves that aspect of a child’s approach to filmmaking, in which special effects might include holding a match up in front of the camera to suggest a building is on fire. One reason Son of Rambow gets away with the embrace of DIY where Be Kind Rewind did not is this film’s treatment of childhood and friendship, subjects Jennings and his actors handle with sweetness cut with just enough vinegar.