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Quint at Sundance sees Garth Jennings' coming of age comedy/love letter to '80s cinema SON OF RAMBOW!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a look at one of my most anticipated films at Sundance this year, SON OF RAMBOW, written and directed by Garth Jennings (of Hammer & Tongs fame, who did HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY).
I was so hoping it'd be great. The movies at Sundance have been consistently good, some really, really good, some a little bad. But the last 3 films I've seen, THE SIGNAL, CLUBHOUSE and SON OF RAMBOW were fuckin' great.
SON OF RAMBOW is many things. It's a comedy, absurd at times, it's a fantasy, it's a family drama, it's a coming of age story and it's also a love letter to watching and participating in the making of movies.
The cast is mostly composed of young kids, with a few grownups thrown in, mostly to be controlling assholes.
The two main kids are a hoodlum and an innocent. The innocent is a boy named Will (Bill Milner) all of 9 or 10 years old who is growing up in a Plymouth Brethren household and barred from ever watching a film or TV. His imagination is huge and he draws all over the place, makes flip-page cartoons in his school books and sketches all over his bible.
We first meet the hoodlum kicking back in a movie theater, smoking a cigarette, pointing a bulky '80s videotape recorder at the screen. FIRST BLOOD is playing and we get to see the great scene with Stallone and Dennehy. "I'll give you a war you wouldn't believe."
Through some curious circumstances, that bootleg is the first time young Will is exposed to the world of cinema. His already overactive imagination goes into hyper-drive and he quickly becomes obsessed with it. He starts imagining his long dead father is Rambo (which he spells as "RAMBOW") and it's his mission to save him from an evil scarecrow.
His imagination is focused by the hood, who wants to make a movie to enter into a BBC competition. Carter, the hood, originally starts doing a direct shot for shot remake of FIRST BLOOD, but soon Will's enthusiasm catches on with Carter and they make this new version.
Jennings' movie describes how a film can bring people together, people who ordinarily never give each other the time of day, but with this shared passion new friendships are born. There's also the negative side, betrayals, friendships tested and broken.
SPACED's Jessica Stevenson plays the strict, but loving mother... strangely enough, one of the only completely straight-person roles in this comedy. There's also this great, incredibly funny side character of a cool French exchange student. He's totally '80s androgenoused out, with a haircut an inch from being a Flock of Seagulls. He's totally into The Cure, but pre-Goth. He begins to lead a small army of worshipers at this school and soon has a very real interest in this Son of Rambow movie the kids are shooting.
I'm sure there must be some inspiration from that RAIDERS remake that surfaced a couple of years ago. I can't imagine Jennings wouldn't have heard of it. I've arranged to speak with him tomorrow for an interview, so I'm sure it'll come up.
I didn't realize how much I've missed this coming of age genre until this one played out. The kids are all real, but there's a fantasy element to it and tons of cursing. Hooray for kids acting like real kids.
This film is great. Any other film festival and it'd be the best film of the fest. Right now, this one is up there. Paramount Vantage just picked this up for a ton of money, so expect to see it get a huge release, which it more than deserves. SON OF RAMBOW is one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen this year. It's just a great time sitting in the theater.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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when is it released?
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...on the big screen, I went to school with a few and about the only thing they were allowed to do was read Willard Price novels. Most freak out at 18 when they can get some freedom. Overall, nice people though, if disconnected from the rest of us media-loving, sex obssessed, drug-addled muthafuckas.
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Love letter to 80's cinema you say??? Thank you sir I think I will. I miss the films of the 80's and how liberal parents in general were with what they let their kids see. As a result they didn't have their intelligence constantly insulted. I can't imagine why parents today think they are protecting their child from some big bad world by only letting them watch overly cheesy, terribly unfunny animated bullshit one after the other. Theyh arent sheilding them from anything but having good taste. We are going to have a generation of drones in a few years. With the rise of emo music I can see it's already beginning. it seemed back then horror movies were made just for the kids and everywhere you turned was some ass kicking sci fi classic, not to mention all work of Jim Henson. I didn't think they made fairy tales like that anymore until I saw Pans Labyrinth. There seemed to be an optimism back then that came through in the films that were made, a naivette we don;t have today. it's probably the one good thing that came out of Reagans America. I'll be buying my ticket to this one as soon as I can.
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I just had a look around the internet for it, and I think this looks like it could be my favourite film of the year. As good as Spiderman 3 and the like might be, I cannot take these things too seriously.
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I'm gonna try to use that in a sentence today.
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I love movies like this.
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was already to hate on this but it sounds really cool, cant wait to check it out.
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I will note this one for future viewing.
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but this one sounds promising.
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...delivered or not?
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Don't you worry my friend. As more and more of us eighties kids grow up and are allowed to make films of our own... that sort of movie will return to our screens. Just you wait and watch. We'll get a new golden age as we all enter our late twenties and early thirties. The most formative aesthetic experiences of my life occurred while watching movies like Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Goonies, Stand By Me, ET, Sixteen Candles and the Breakfast Club when I was a little kid... and I know I'm not alone. All it takes is for one of us to hit the big time and the floodgates will be opened.
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Forget all this arty crap, let's all work ourselves in to a lather about the goddawful Harry Osborne Green Goblin II costume they've just released pics of. This thing looks like complete ass! Raimi finally drops the ball... big time!
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Rambow sounds great. Was really stoked with Hitch Hikers, but hadn't heard of this til now. Thanks Quint!
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I can't wait to see this. The 80's rocked and unles you live through them it is hard to descrive what seeing a movie like Rambo on the big screen was like. It is also cool to hear the innocent is not portrayed as some backwards religious type just because he reads his Bible. It will be cool to see an affirming view of religion in the 80's which usually gets schlocked over as some over bearing Jim Baker revisionist fantasy.
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at my blog, film ick. I've been following this film clsoely for a very long time.
I'm massively excited to see it, and I'm not one bit surprised it caused such a sensational bidding war. Jennings is a very, very smart director and it was only a matter of time before he truly smashed a film out of the park.
Brilliant. Now - when's it out? -
... it doesn't matter what they call him! Remember how lame Doc Doom looked in the FF movie? Take that, multiply it by Shaquille O'Neal as Steel, take that sum and put it to the power of Nicolas Cage's Ghostrider and... it still ain't gonna look as mindnumbingly ridiculous as "GG Jr."!
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Where are these pics at?
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Although some of the things he eats would make a billy goat puke...,
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Cheers to that my friend. it really is up to us, because it apparently aint gonna be anyone else anytime soon.
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...very soon. I miss my R-rated action movies.
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this sounds very good. that is all.
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it was SON OF NORRIS, so he could remake Missing In Action and save his Dad. It would be cute. They could put a Happy Meal box with a gerbil in it over the kids' head.
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The 80's did produce great cinema my favorite being 'The Terminator' however, The Breakfast Club is awful. It starts off good and edgy then degenerates into schmaltzy 'watch Anthony Michael hall cry' dog shit. Suck it John Hughes. Thank you.
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...When describing a disreputable person is so outdated. It would be appropriate if this was the '50's. Also outdated is calling someone a 'tough' or 'goon'. This movie sounds cool though.
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http://tinyurl.com/2jdg6o
Great flick! -
This is the actual headline of the news story on empireonline: "Meet Son Of Rambow
It's next year's Little Miss Sunshine". It's catching on in the UK! -
I saw the premier of Son of Rambow film at Sundance. In the lobby I was standing 2 feet from Harvey Weinstein talking with other buyers (didn’t recognize them) so I knew this film had some potential. The film was shown in the Eccles theater that holds about 1500 people and it was packed. Before the movie started the room popped and crackled like a transformer about to explode.
I love films, but I have to say I was not familiar with Garth Jennings or the fact that he did the REALLY CRAPPY Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. When they introduced Garth with that credit my heart dropped but it wasn’t long before I was treated to one of the best films I have seen all year. My guess is that this film will be and instant classic for anyone who was seeing films in the 80’s. It will be the movie that the 10 to 15 year old of today will remember in the future as something that defined their childhood. No joke, this film is going to inspire a whole new generation of filmmakers.
Having recently watched The Goonies along my kids it showed it’s age and I was surprised that the acting was so bad. Son of Rambow captures the same sense of adventure of The Goonies, but takes it to a whole new level. The other point is that the two lead actors can ACT! Garth Jennings told the audience to our collective surprise that they found these two kids after an exhaustive search and that neither of them had acted except it some school plays.
Will Poulter who plays Lee Carter in the film makes an entrance that is more charismatic and full of life than actors 3 times his age. This kid is a NATURAL and I am predicting huge success for him. He steals the movie (he IS the movie) and his charm and raw acting talent his going to make this kid a household name. Regarding his entrance; I’ll just say that the kid should be pitching for the major leagues.
I saw several films at Sundance this year. Frankly, many were just plain bad. From the weird and monotonous “Drained” from Brazil (Have you smelled your sewer lately?), to the artsy and boring China / UK entry “How is your Fish Today?” (Smelly if you ask me.) Even John Cusak’s (love this guy) touching “Grace is Gone” misses the mark.
Son of Rambow is, for me, what going to the movies is all about. A great story told well told. The story is tight, no fat, no preservatives, and it will make you feel good about going to the movies again. Way to go Garth!
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"True cinephiles" Eric? Try not to make me puke on my keyboard next time. ...In other news, a clarification. I'm not saying that I expect nor want the eighties generation to simply make the same films they saw growing up all over again. Far from it. What I hope for and expect is far more interesting. The eighties, which is when many of the next crop of filmmakers will have first fallen in love with movies, was a time that had a very distinct aesthetic. I expect much of that aesthetic to cross over into the films we'll be seeing in the next few years. What will make it worth it will be seeing what those kids make of it now that they're adults. It's precisely the fact that we're gonna get to see this stuff grow up that is gonna make it so cool. You know?
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this movie sounds amazing. I am excited to see this.
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