Son of Rambow (2008)

Directed by Garth Jennings. Starring Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Jules Sitruk, Jessica Hynes, Ed Westwick, Neil Dudgeon, Charlie Thrift, Anna Wing, Adam Godley. [PG-13]

Feeling oppressed in his home life, young Milner finds release in a most unexpected place—befriending school bully Poulter, and joining forces with him to film their own amateur action movie heavily inspired by their love for the original Rambo picture, First Blood. Clumsy, quirky, and heartfelt coming-of-ager has a genteel but uplifting spirit and enthusiastic performances that help cover up its pick-and-choose plotting and shortage of original ideas. It has the coordinated feel of maximizing the emotional and canned-kook high points without surrendering to melodrama or artificiality. The innovation is mostly relegated to the visual style, which incorporates the kids’ imagination into endearing fantasia overlays. And yet the movie is never fully convincing about its youthful obsessions and offbeat insight into homegrown filmmaking, which is the aspect that would have separated this effort from the pre-teen-buddy movie pack the most (it’s not entirely unfair to describe it as a missing link between the earlier Billy Elliot and the later Super 8). Director Jennings also penned the screenplay. Premiered at Sundance the year before its theatrical release. Asa Butterfield and director Edgar Wright both make brief appearances.

68/100