Son of Rambow

Son of Rambow pays tribute to the 80s, to the rough and tumble nature of boyhood and boyhood dreams and to friendships forged by shared outsider status. Bill Milner and Will Poulter are perfectly cast as the class square and troublemaker, respectively, who endeavour to add to the Rambo legacy with their own filmed version. The movie-within-a-movie exploits result in a very funny film that is far removed from the action series from which it takes its name (phonetically, of course). Rambow also gently reminds the audience that childhood is coloured by more than carefree afternoons spent indulging in unstructured fun. There are expectations and responsibilities to live up to at home and kids are grappling with the transition to adulthood's paradoxical decision-making freedom/behavioural constraint even as they hurl themselves from ropes into swimming holes. Even as they learn that play eventually gives way to work, Rambow's young filmmakers discover that a good laugh wipes the stress-slate clean, if only for a time. They'd do well to remember that little trick and so would we.