Son of Rambow DVD Review
Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 08.27.2008
One of the year's best comedies hit DVD this week. Come inside and get the 411 about the other 2008 Rambo(w) movie.
Directed By: Garth Jennings Written By: Garth Jennings Cinematography By: Jess Hall
Cast
Bill Milner ... Will Proudfoot
Will Poulter ... Lee Carter
Jules Sitruk ... Didier Revol
Jessica Stevenson ... Mary Proudfoot
Neil Dudgeon ... Brother Joshua
Rated PG-13 for some violence and reckless behavior.
When Will Proudfoot and Lee Carter first meet, Lee pegs young Will in the head with a tennis ball. That is the foundations for a friendship that becomes more bullying than friendly. Lee, the worst kid in the school, influences Will in ways that alienate him from his family and border on criminal. The first thing Lee does is trick Will into giving him a watch that used to belong to Will’s dad, who died of an aneurism while mowing the lawn. He later forces Will to appear in the small movie he was shooting. He also influences Will to load up his coat with food, shoplifting it from the local grocery store.
The success of this movie is the redemption of Lee Carter to the point we are all willing to forgive him his transgressions. The movie is a story of redemption and freedom set to a backdrop of religious inhibitions.
Will Proudfoot (how great is that name for a character in a story that honors Rambo?) is a young, mousy boy whose family belongs to a religious order called The Brethren. His religion disallows watching television, going to the movies, listening to music and all other forms of entertainment. Church meetings are led with the men in the front row, the women in the back, and all wrist watches left at the entrance on a table to dissuade distractions. When we first meet Will, The Brethren are protesting the local movie theater and Will is chosen to read from the scripture in front of the entrance.
When we first meet Lee Carter, he is in that theater, smoking a cigarette and videotaping a bootleg copy of First Blood. It is a wonderful contrast that sets up a line between two extremist sides, the religious zealot and the dangerous rebel. The line is drawn deeper when they meet, as Will is made to sit in the hall while the class watches a documentary film, which Will’s church disallows, and Lee is kicked out of class for being unruly. When the ultra good boy and the ultimate bad boy meet, someone has to break.
Will is tricked into taking Lee home on a bike that Lee has stolen. When they arrive, Will finds out Lee is making a movie for a small competition. He hides when Lee’s brother shows up and is left hiding while the bootleg copy of Rambo plays and is copied in the background. I grew up in a religious household that also did not allow the viewing of movies. The first movie I watched after leaving those restrictions behind was Batman in 1989. That movie changed my life and set me on the path I now tread as a film critic and filmmaker. I cannot imagine the effect a movie like First Blood would have on a child who had never even watched a television show.
This movie shows the effect those visuals would have on the impressionable mind of a young boy who already possesses an overactive imagination. On his way home, he sees visions of scarecrows coming to life, explosions and flying dogs. All these visuals are captured in a rough animation style that could only come from a child’s imagination. Director Garth Jennings, who proved to be a visually dynamic director with his Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy adaptation, puts together a film that looks both nostalgic and innocent. It is the perfect style of direction for a story taking place in the mind of a child.
With the determination to become the son of Rambo, Will and Lee set out to make this film for the competition. Along the way, they meet a number of people who want to assist, including French exchange student Didier, who has an army of disciples following him and meeting his every need. This group of kids brings both a sense of humor to the proceedings as well as an antithesis to the blood brother friendship Will and Lee have built. These outsiders stretch and threaten the fabric of this friendship and it is how each of the boys handle the trials and tribulations that provide the heart of the story.
In a film such as this, you need some solid young actors, and Jennings was able to bring out the best in his two child leads. Bill Milner acts much older than his thirteen years. His pathos and sense of fear is played very real here. The moments where he is face-to-face with his greatest fears are some of the strongest in the film. Will Poulter reminds me of a young River Phoenix. I don’t believe this movie could have been made in America thanks to the quirky things the script has these youngsters do. Will, at the age of fifteen, is shown smoking a cigarette, illegally bootlegging a movie, shoplifting, stealing bikes, picking pockets and leading his young friend into very dangerous situations. In an age where parents are more than willing to blame movies and video games for everything their little angels do wrong, this movie should create quite the shit storm.
As a movie that realistically paints a portrait of something two young, very impressionable boys would do, it is a great success. The big evil in this movie is the organized religion that places its thumb directly over the hearts of its young members. One child innocently asks if it is true that the public schools are full of bad and dangerous people like his parents warned him. Will informs Lee that he is not allowed to be his friend because he is not a member of the Brethren. Will’s mother tells him a story that she once heard a music so beautiful that she sought out a record player to play it for her mother. She was rewarded by being punished and having the record player burned. Finally, Will’s entire family is threatened with expulsion from the church if Will does not get in line. The religion is almost a caricature in the length it goes to force its will, but is strong enough to play a very dangerous antagonist.
The Video
The video is Widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs. The picture is always crisp and the animations work great for what the director was trying to accomplish. No complaints here.
The Audio
The audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. There are times where the dialogue is a little hard to understand but overall, it is a good effort.
The Package
Commentary by the Director, Producer and Cast - This is a very interesting commentary with the director, producer and the two young actors. The kids seem to know a lot of the fun trivia while the adults give lots of technical and script information. The commentary is full of laughing and joking and is a very fun track. They even add some crazy alternative music notes in very inappropriate scenes, which was a riot. They also invited the mothers in for a few moments of commentary. Very funny quote: After a screening, there was a Q&A and a man said he couldn’t understand anything that was said in the movie. Garth Jennings tried to explain they were British and surely he understood some of it. The man answered that he couldn’t understand anything Jennings said in his answer. Their response in this commentary was they used subtitles in the movie to explain what bon jour meant for that “stupid man.”
“Aron” - Garth Jenning’s original short film that inspired Son of Rambow (10:48) - This is a short film, with all child actors, shot in much the same style as the boys in the movie.
Boys Will Be Boys: The Making of Son of Rambow (26:05) - The editing and production offices were actually located on two boats, which is really a cool idea. This making of is nicely structured with director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith discussing the making of the movie with Bill Milner and Will Poulter as behind-the-scene footage is shown. Watching the rehearsals is great, because it is just kids being kids. The conversation between the kids makes this one of the most entertaining making of features I have watched.
Son of Rambow Website Winner (05:04) - This is the winner of a website contest from the original Son of Rambow page.
The 411: There are no good guys or bad guys in this story. The church plays a background character that tries to enforce its will at all costs, but the real story here is about two young boys and the danger of peer pressure in an ultra conservative society. It is as much a story about love and loyalty as anything else, and the young leads portray honesty and devotion to make it work. The direction is solid and the movie plays as a nostalgic trip into your own imagination. Son of Rambow never tries to be anything more than what it is, a wonderful story of redemption set amongst the backdrop of your childhood.
