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Son of Rambow (2007) More at IMDbPro »

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Hope and Glory v. 8.0, 6 September 2008

Author: David H. Schleicher from New Jersey, USA

Garth Jennings' hilarious "Son of Rambow" is a nearly perfect Generation-Y update of one of my favorite films from childhood, John Boorman's vastly underrated masterpiece "Hope and Glory." Whereas Boorman's "Hope and Glory" was tinted with melancholic Graham Greene era nostalgia and told the story of a young boy coping with Germany's blitzkrieg over England during WWII through the power of make-belief, Jenning's laugh-out-loud "Son of Rambow" takes a post-modern 1980's pop-culture inspired look at a young boy's escape from a harsh religious upbringing through an obsession with the movie "Rambo: First Blood."

When a religiously oppressed Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner, with the perfect comic timing only an untrained child actor could provide) forms an unlikely friendship with a criminally neglected and movie-obsessed Lee Carter (Will Poulter, first seen on screen smoking a cigarette while making a bootleg video in a packed theater showing the original "Rambo"), the two decide to make their own Rambo-inspired film to enter in a local contest. Insane stunt-driven "Tom and Jerry" inspired antics ensue while Will has to hide his new activities from the family-focused Brethren and the family-impoverished Lee can't help but get in trouble at school.

When Lee gets suspended for a mishap with a dog statue, a kite, and a science teacher clipping his nose hairs at just the wrong time; Will unwittingly attracts the attention of an inexplicably popular French exchange student and his bumbling British entourage who can't wait to take part in the film. What follows is a hilarious kids-level satire of the movie world complete with an ingenious "Boogie Nights" style series of scenes that show an exclusive underground club on school grounds where kids dance to bad 1980's music while chugging soda after downing Pop Rocks and highlights the bizarre brotherhood of filmmakers and actors that inevitably arises from such shenanigans. And that's not the only connection to auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, as like "There Will Be Blood", this "Son of Rambo" also features a pivotal scene of an emotionally distraught child covered in oil. And did I mention that like my novel "The Thief Maker" many scenes take place at a nursing home where Lee lives unattended by his jet-setting mother and step-father? Trust me, this is much funnier. Luckily, like Boorman's clearly influential classic, this film is also wonderfully photographed and chock-full of naturalistic acting from the young cast.

Sure, "Son of Rambow" lacks the gravitas and realism of Boorman's semi-autobiographical "Hope and Glory" but it packs a similar emotional wallop for those in my age group who grew up pretending to make movies in their backyards with neighborhood kids after the latest "GI Joe" or "Transformers" episode aired and were inspired by the latest "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" film before those franchises were raped for opportunistic profit during our disenfranchised adult years. For a generation of late 20's and early 30-somethings who spent their childhoods disengaged watching endless marathons of "The Little Rascals" and "The Three Stooges" on TV while action stars like Sylvester Stallone pounded movie theater audiences into a bloody pulp, "Son of Rambow" is pure imagination-inspired movie magic that will tickle the funny bone while successfully playing for our sympathies. In an increasingly strange year of hidden gems and quiet sleeper hits, from cathartic and clever documentaries like "Man on Wire" to wickedly dark Graham Greene tinted comedy-dramas like "In Bruges", Garth Jennings' touching and uproarious "Son of Rambow" just might be the most accessible and deserves to become a cult favorite on DVD.

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