Paramount Vantage are offering free downloads of five of their scripts - The Kite Runner, A Mighty Heart, Into the Wild, There Will Be Blood and Margot at the Wedding.
Unfortunately, they're keeping the script for Son of Rambow off the table, not least because it isn't getting a release until May next year and these scripts aren't just a free gift - they're being used as an awards-season lobbying device.
Listen, we've all known for a couple of years that any sequel to Garth Jennings' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would be, at best, highly improbable, but now Martin Freeman has reiterated the fact and, here and there across the web, the knives have come out and people have started taking stabs at the film again.
But why? Why don't they like it?
Guide, as I tend to call it to save on tongue, is one of the films I use most frequently in my film classes. Every one of my students has watched it, and a couple of sequences have been quite rigorously dismantled in class. In fact, there's one shot in the film I find quite simply indispensible in teaching mise en scene (if you can work out which shot it is, you can win a gold star). There's some truly brilliant cinema here, and Jennings often displays the grasp of the language and craft of film that marks him out, after only two feature films, as one of the most exciting and talented of modern filmmakers.
Jennings' film is definitely not the TV show, which in turn was not the books, and they were not the radio show. Every new version has taken some pretty sharp turns from the previous, but that kind of goes without saying. What is much less discussed, however, is how the problems are, generally, problems that do stretch back through all of the versions. Houses getting knocked down to make way for bypasses? That's just the biggest and most obvious example of Douglas Adams dated satire and stale view of beauracracy. Where he did manage to hit on something timeless - the improbability drive, the conception of Zaphod as a politician - it has survived and much of this material is better presented by Jennings than we'd ever seen it before.
I think there's a sad nostalgia at fault here. Like the countless hordes that profess Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is somehow a better film than Tim Burton's Charlie (that's a truly ludicrous position if you just stand back and compare them side to side without emotional fogginess) these Guide bashers are basing their cases on little more than sentiment.
On the one hand, I'm sad that Jennings won't be stepping back behind the camera for The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - but on the other hand, he's got better things to do and I just want to see him do those. Son of Rambow is streets ahead of Guide, certainly in terms of the writing, and it suggests to me that Jennings is better off not shackling himself to fondly remembered, not-as-good-as-you-think dinosaurs that he can't deliver to their full potential without changing but can't update without being punished for it.
The full programme for the London Film Festival was unveiled this week. Here are my choices of must-see selections from the roster.
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days - the Cannes-rocking neo-neo-realist drama. A suspenseful drama about abortions in 1980s Romania. Incidentally, the screening is presented by Sight and Sound magazine, the one monthly purchase I can guarantee I will always feel stupid and guilty about but will never give up.
The Band's Visit - apparently a real charmer of a farce. An Egyptian police band are on their way to put on a show at an Arab culture centre but end up stranded on the Shabbat. Hilarity ensues - no, really, it does. People love this film and I can't wait to see it.
Boy A - recently purchased for US distribution by the Weinsteins, this is an adaptation of the novel by Jonathan Trigell that deals with the life of a murderer leaving prison some years after he committed his crime as a child.
Brand Upon the Brain! - Guy Maddin's latest. Hasn't he become popular lately? Good. A mystery set in a lighthouse-orphanage this seems to mix memoir and fantasy in a similar way to Maddin's own Cowards Bend the Knee.
Chaotic Ana - a reincarnation mystery (only one phase away from Maddin's film in that respect) from Julio Medem. Seems to harken back to The Red Squirrel in its exploration of identity and fatalism.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - this one needs little introduction at this stage. Julian Schnabel realises the supposedly unfilmable memoirs of Jean-Dominique Bauby.
Does Your Soul Have a Cold? - a documentary study of attitudes to, and treatment of, depression in Japan. Mike Mills is one of the most underrated directors at work today, in both fiction and documentary.
Eastern Promises - David Cronenberg's latest screens just days before going on general release but it is, after all, Cronenberg.
Fay Grim - Hal Hartley's latest has long since been available on DVD from the US but it is, after all, Hartley.
Grace is Gone - John Cusack's Stanley takes his kids on a roadtrip after his wife Grace is killed in Iraq. An entire narrative of denial, structured as an American roadtrip - the politics aren't hard to miss. No idea if this will be the pre- or post- Clint Eastwood scoring sessions version.
I'm Not There - Todd Haynes' Dylan 'biopic'. Of sorts.
Juno - I waxed lyrical over this one's trailer earlier today, but I doubt I've seen the best of it yet. A fiercely stylised script waffles away uncompromised - and probably won't be to everybody's taste - while Jason Reitman shows us how he's grown. And the cast look simply superb too.
Killer of Sheep - Charles Burnett's classic. Confident, assured and steady, and something I got excited about a few months ago.
Lions For Lambs - Robert Redford's war thriller promises to go beyond "torn from the headlines" business to truly get under the skin of the subject matter, as well as the audience.
Persepolis - an animated film for grown-ups that, apparently, isn't also suitable for young audiences - despite a young lead character. This is Marjane Starapi's adaptation of her own graphic novel sequence about growing up in the shadow of revolution.
Planet Terror - Robert Rodriguez' half of the Grind House project, this is supposedly something like a long lost John Carpenter adventure. Can it live up to Death Proof?
Redacted - or, How the Critics Were Convinced De Palma Got His Groove Back. This looks like vital stuff: a genre bending assault on media attempts to filter the horrors of war, particularly the Iraq war.
Rescue Dawn - Werner Herzog's fictionalised account of the story he already addressed in Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies are in the cast so you'll definitely find me in the audience.
The Savages - a reputedly very heavy-going but deeply rewarding family drama. Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman play estranged siblings forced back together to care for their father.
The Surprise Film - every surprise film I've ever attended at the London Film Festival has turned out to be a real populist gem, from Pleasantville to Sideways. This year has no reason to be any different.
You, The Living - the new Roy Andersson has been a long time coming, and probably features some slow bowling sequences that will convince you it still isn't here but if Andersson's Songs From the Second Floor was anything to go by, this will be one of the best at the fest and undoubtedly one of the funniest.
I skipped over Hammer and Tongs' Son of Rambow, but yes, it's screening, and yes, I'm keen to see it again, and yes, it's still the best film I've seen all year long. If you can, go see it at the festival - of this lot, it's the one recommendation I can guarantee 100%, not least because it's the only one I've already seen.
The first trailer for Weirdsville turned up on the film's site and you can view or download it directly. I'm no more optimistic about this one than when I first mentioned it, I'm afraid.
I really need to make a list of upcoming films I'm excited about before I get accused of wanton negativity again. In the meantime just let me remind you of my enthusiasm for Son of Rambow, just to tide you over.
The year is half over, so I thought run a retrospective feature. A number of posts, each one reminding you of some of the bigger, better of more amusing film ick stories of the last six months - in chronogical order. Like Movie Minesweeper with short term memory problems.
This takes us up to January 17th:
- Terry Gilliam mentioned a new Brazil special edition DVD. I'm still waiting for another mention of this one anywhere.
- Some details turned up of Alejandro Jodorowsky's next, King Shot.
- Marc Forster was linked to a US remake of 36 Quai des Orfevres, then expected to star George Clooney and Robert De Niro.
- The Saw IV scribes were named, and rumours circulated about the director of the film. Incorrect rumours, as it happens.
- We found out about De Palma's Redacted.
- Michel Gondry was outed as the director developing the Debbie Harry biopic.
- Ken Russell spent some time in the Big Brother house. Crackers.
- The first No Country For Old Men still turned up here.
- I interviewed David Hewlett about A Dog's Breakfast. That film sounds brilliant and I can't wait to see it.
- Shyamalan signed to make a series of Avatar: The Last Airbender films.
- The MySpace page for Tracy unveiled the film's trailer, and very funny it was too.
- Dr. House played with his Nintendo DS.
- Paul McGuigan's Equalizer film was still moving forward.
- Drive Away Dykes popped up on the radar.
- I snuck a few plugs for this site into a Radio 2 show.
- A series of Spider-Man 3 spoilers were run. Most of them turned out to be true.
- I tipped Son of Rambow as the film to watch at Sundance this year. It went on to be the biggest sale of the festival which made me very happy.
- Jenna Jameson tried to hype a film of her 'life' by suggesting Scarlett Johansson would take the lead role.
- I reviewed the script for Guillermo del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness.
- The Golden Globes happened.
- John Carter of Mars ended up in the hands of Pixar.
Remember how I was talking about Neil Gaiman's Death film last week? And I wished for a copy of the script? Well, I got my wish. I've just finished reading it. And while it percolates a little, I'm going to share another Movie Minesweeper links list with you, and then I'll write a review. For me at least, it's all very exciting.
Here are your links.
- Mark Millar has seen the Steve Ditko documentary produced, written and presented by Jonathan Ross. He's called it his favourite documentary ever.
- Howard Stern only last week turned down a brief voice role in the Transformers movie. Quite a fun casting idea, actually - think for a second and you'll know just which robot they wanted him for. His agent's advice on why he shouldn't take the role was seriously flawed. And now we'll probably be left with Opie. Or Anthony.
- Several signed Hostel 2 posters are being auctioned off for charity. I found the link at DreadCentral.
- Michael Bacall has been hired to write the fiction version of Seth Gordon's King of Kong. He's also writing the Scott Pilgrim script for Edgar Wright - or at least he was. Must like his retrogaming, that boy.
- Russell Crowe is to produce - but not appear - in Dolce's Inferno, a fairly standard seeming romantic comedy. According to Variety, "The contemporary romantic comedy concerns a hardnosed L.A. gossip columnist who falls in love and watches his world spin out of control".
- Daniel Craig dropped out of Blindness, now Mark Rufallo is stepping in.
- Variety have quoted Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith at the BAM screening of Son of Rambow. Jennings: All the technical, clever stuff, that is actually from the clever people I asked to do it. I have no idea how it works; Goldsmith: There's 1,400 people here tonight. Can you imagine if we got a bad response? Of course, they did not get a bad response. Son of Rambow is a great, great film - certainly the best I've seen so far this year.
- Eli Roth has a very, very, very big penis. But it's fake.
- The NY Times are weighing up the chances of four potential Sammy Davis Jr. biopics.
- Patrick Stewart is talking up his collaboration with John Logan on a modern-day Merchant of Venice.
- Nikki Finke (unknowingly?) pays tribute to Ray Dennis Steckler in a headline.
- A completely CG trailer for Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery is already online. Download it now.
- A list of films and TV shows set to be hyped at Comic-Con this year has been unveiled. Beowulf, Hellboy 2, Stardust, Sweeney Todd, American Gangster, Where the Wild Things Are, Trick'r Treat and The Strangers are the film ick faves on show.
- Another behind the scene clip from The Golden Compass has shown up.
- Brian Helgeland is doing a rewrite of Nottingham.
- David Poland was appalled by Hostel 2 too.
- Working Title have optioned the documentary Young@Heart with the intent to turn it into a feature film. Basically, it's about a rock group composed of pensioners, something a bit like The Zimmers.
- The trailer for Triangle is online now. I found the link at Twitch.
Now, just a couple of more detailed posts and onto Death. So to speak.
I remember how long the US had to wait for Hot Fuzz after the UK release. Hardly seemed fair did it? Even more cruel is the delay in the release of Goya's Ghosts.
I saw the film a few weeks back at my local Odeon (Oxford George Street, where a significant number of films are given a truly subpar presentation and, it's quite obvious, the projectionists should have been sacked years ago - the same goes for the Odeon Magdalen Street too) but the US release isn't until late July.
What's more, it's a much better film than the admittedly-excellent Hot Fuzz. Indeed, the only better film I've seen this year was Son of Rambow.
Goya's Ghosts is a bonafide masterpiece and, if your country hasn't had the film yet, you should be marking your diary in anticipation, indulging in a little excitement and downloading the trailer right now.
There's not a particularly big list of missed tricks in Shaun of the Dead. Between them, Simon and Edgar came up with a screenplay pretty much jammed to bursting with useful jokes, character beats and nifty bits of storytelling. But as Magicians began, I saw something they didn't land on, something that would have sent the fans wild. And it was something Wallace and Gromit had in their movie too. Indeed, it really isn't original at all but it does really work.
Magicians is effectively a star vehicle (though things don't quite go to plan - more on which later) for David Mitchell and Robert Webb, a long time comedy duo on the stand-up circuit and latterly TV, where they also star in the one-of-a-kind sitcom Peep Show, and for that matter, the UK version of the I'm a Mac, I'm a PC ad campaign. They're the selling point for the film, everything else is relatively meaningless to a British audience - and this is what makes the opening credits work. Simply put, we get to see an array of old snapshots, family pictures of Mitchell and Webb as kids, teens, growing up. Most are genuine, some later ones faked to set up their career in magic. Similarly, Spaced-cadets would have exploded with joy to see the same idea carried out with Shaun and Ed, mini-me versions of Simon and Nick. It panders to the cult of celebrity a little, maybe, but it's great shorthand, and oddly very convincing when establishing a prior history.
(Weirdly, we did get to see some vintage Frost and Pegg snaps in the opening sequence to Perfect Night In on Channel 4 last night. If anything, this left me even more convinced this would have worked).
So, after this montage of Kodak moments tells us the basics (there's two friends, look, it's those guys you like off the telly, and they're playing a magical double act), the first scenes get the story motoring along: David Mitchell's one is married and his wife is also their glamorous assistant; she's cheating on him with the Robert Webb's character and he finds out just before they're due to go on stage; out there, in front of the audience, their guillotine act goes wrong and... ouch.
She's beheaded.
Or is she? I mean, you've probably seen The Prestige and The Illusionist. You know what these films about magicians are like. There's always some sleight of hand...
The next scene picks up the threads some four years later - Mitchell's character now works in a branch of Wilkinson, amusing himself with magic tricks to pass the time; Webb's has an agent and a few possible openings on TV, possibly as a Derren Brown style illusionist, or if he decides to sell out, as a 'psychic'. Pretty soon, the two of them are looking to enter a Magic contest and Mitchell invites Webb to reteam with him...
As I said, the film is designed as a star vehicle for Mitchell and Webb. You can see I'm not even bothering with their character names - and the audience won't either be, I'm pretty sure of that. Where this goes slightly wrong however - or, in truth, very right - is that the two of them are pretty much upstaged, and upstaged, as I'd imagine they'd observe, 'by a girl'.
Also working in the Wilkinson is Jessica Stevenson's character. She's quickly offering herself as a new assistant to Mitchell, and there's obviously some attraction between the two of them. Her attempt to convince him that she has stage presence involves a bold, energetic, incompetent dance routine, seemingly choreographed to Electric Six's Gay Bar by a Tourettes-struck member of Pan's People. By this point she practically had me eating out of the palm of her hand.
Certainly in that scene, but throughout, Stevenson takes the comedy gold, the boys left to squabble over silver and bronze. It all bodes very well for her own vehicle, the BBC film Learners which is coming later in the year. Hers is a very fresh, and seemingly honest performance, perhaps inevitably reminiscent of her turn as Daisy Steiner at times, but a million miles away from The Royle Family's Cheryl, and certainly nothing like her role in Son of Rambow. This is the year that Stevenson comes of age on the silver screen and I think we'll all feel the benefit of her increased profile.
Oh - and note that while now, in fact she is Jessica Hynes, and wishes to always be known that way, she's credited as Stevenson on the Magicians titles.
The script for Magicians was written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, the writers of Peep Show and, frankly, it shows. The story, however, took a number of other contributors, amongst whom you'll notice the name Andy Nyman. While he sometimes acts - see Severance, for example - Nyman's more directly appropriate experience to this film is as a magician, and as Derren Brown's co-conspirator for several years now. And another Brown cohort is the film's director, Andrew O'Connor. We're dealing with people who really do know magic here, and O'Connor has been performing illusions since he was a child, once upon a time at a similar level to the characters in the film. As such, you probably won't be surprised to see some very plausible tricks, carried off realistically; you might, however, be a little disappointed to see very few reveals. Only one trick is utterly exposed, and that's within the first few seconds - and even then, it's not the big secret you might think it is.
The last scene involves a very big magic trick with high stakes riding on it. This is the time O'Connor really needed to play fair and let the audience see that editing wasn't cheating them out of the genuine illusion - but unfortunately he doesn't. Rest assured, however, that the trick show can be carried off - even though it's quite clear Mitchell and Webb haven't done it themselves for the cameras. They may not even have been told the means by which it can be done. But that's of secondary importance, I suppose, to the scene's real purpose, dramtically and comedically.
Magicians is easily more entertaining than The Prestige and The Illusionist, funnier and warmer and easier to settle into. It might not have anything so interesting as in The Illusionist bubbling under the surface, but neither is it as directly predictable. In fact, looking for the equivalent of the big switcheroo, the big con, that the other two films hang on, I took my eyes off of the small shifts that Magicians pulls off instead. The big trick with Magicians is, I suppose, that there is no big trick, just plenty of smaller ones.
Unless Peep Show sends you scrabbling for the remote and those Mac ads have you pulling your hair out, I don't think you'll find a more enjoyable British comedy at the cinema this side of Son of Rambow.
Son of Rambow is the opening night film for the Seattle film festival. Book. Now.
It looks like Hammer and Tongs' Son of Rambow will open on July 20th in the US, October 12th in the UK. I'm one of the lucky few to have already seen it - and if I see a better film this year, I'll be even luckier.
The title for the film is still undecided - officially, it is currently Son of Rambow (Working Title) but it may ened up just Son of Rambow or Son of Rambow and the As Yet Unannounced Subtitle (City of Gods, Maybe). I'd prefer Son of Rambow plain and simple, but whatever the decision, you'll still want to see this one on opening night.
Every year, the Brooklyn Academy of Music parneters with Sundance to screen a selection of the films from that year's festival. This year, the series begins on May 31st with Garth Jennings' truly wonderful Son of Rambow. Tickets aren't on sale at time of writing, but they will be imminently. If you're in New York, I strongly suggest you make the effort.
Hanway Films - financiers of the best film of 2006, Terry Gilliam's Tideland - and Celluloid Dreams - financiers of the best film of 2007 so far, Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow - have merged.
Variety announce that the new company will be called Dreamachine and have a library of 500 films. It will be run by Hengameh Panahi and Jeremy Thomas. Thomas will continue to produce films independently through The Recorded Picture Company, but these will then be handle by Dreamachine.
Upcoming films from the new super sales entity include Tom Kalin's Savage Grace, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark and Johnnie To's Triangle, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Todd Haynes' I'm Not There. Hopefully there'll be even more of this calibre to come now they've pooled dollars.
Looks like Cannes this year is going to be dominated by this wonderful new beast.
Ocean's 13, Earth and The Valley of Elah are reportedly battling it out for the opening night spot at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Earth is a feature length offshoot of the BBC's Planet Earth series (What?!? Is this a remix, deleted scenes or best of compilation? Sounds like it might be a bit of a swizz) and wouldn't have existed in this form at all if all that March of the Penguins ballyhoo hadn't happened, mark my words.
Other films expected to screen include Grind House, No Country for Old Men, Mr. Lonely, Into the Wild and Paranoid Park. At least two of those weren't directed by Harmony Korine, Sean Penn or Gus van Sant, so it's not all bad.
No news on Son of Rambow yet, but I'd love to see it in competition.
A couple of weeks ago, after being privileged enough to see a very early screening of Son of Rambow, I was lucky to be able to share a few words with Garth Jennings, the film's director. As one half of Hammer and Tongs he has been responsible for many of the best music videos of the last ten years, and their work was slated to be the subject of the next Directors Label DVD.
Jennings didn't seem to think it was going to happen. He admitted that he didn't know, but did indicate that things had gone very quiet.
Now it's clearer. The second wave of discs - Mark Romanek, Jonathan Glazer, Stephane Sednaoui and Anton Corbijn - did not acheive anything like the sales of wave one - Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham. Sadly, this has pretty much rang the death knell for the whole project.
As well as Hammer and Tongs, Shynola were due a disc too, alongside Jean Baptiste-Mondino. Instead, it looks like there is going to be only one more title, a second volume of Gondry's work. Without a doubt, Gondry was the biggest draw in the whole series so far - though I do love my Romanek collection in particular. Despite featuring most of his most famous promos, Gondry's first disc barely scratched the surface of his full ouevre so rest assured that there's plenty more good stuff to fill out another installment.
It's good news that there's more Michel to come, but I only hope collections from Hammer and Tongs and Shynola can find their way out through some other means. Any entrepeneurs out there willing to take a punt?
A brief footnote. Visitors to the official Hammer and Tongs website may have noticed the text (working title) popping up everytime the words Son of Rambow are used. I feared that there may be a problem - either with the use of the Rambo copyright, or with the film's distributor Paramount Vantage finding this title unusable in marketing terms - so I e-mailed Hammer and Tongs to find out what is going on. Here's Garth's reply:
"It is still a working title because we might add a sub-title. We're not sure yet. Nothing sinister though."
The film does have a subtitle on imdb, where it is referred to as Son of Rambow: A Home Movie. I prefer the shorter version, for sure.
There's been a lot going on here recently. For one thing, I'm in the midst of some serious, annoying and frequently painful dental procedures, while for another, film ick has now taken on a shorter, easier to use URL. Now you can find us at the plain-and-simple www.filmick.co.uk, instead of (or as well as) the unwieldy old blogspot address. A new HTML face lift is on the cards too - if you think you might be able to help with that, please get in touch because we're very much still exploring possibilities and potential directions.
Plenty of big stories have broken on film ick over the last couple of weeks, some of which later turned up on the more famous sites. We told you about Kate Beckinsale and Whiteout days ahead of the pack; we had a full week lead on the three new Henson fantasy films; our Mountains of Madness review is perhaps the most comprehensive preview of Guillermo del Toro's upcoming project you can find online; Son of Rambow has been our pet film for months now; we've had plenty of Hot Fuzz goodness; and, of course, the Spider-Man 3 spoilers just keep on coming.
Please take some time to look back over our past stories, share links, even submit scoops to some of the more famous sites so that they might link back here. It's because of the readers and their support that film ick even exists in the first place. Help us broaden our reach and bring new readers, maybe even subscribers, into the fold. Here's the simplest way how: send an e-mail to your friends that says "www.filmick.co.uk - A good film site I know. Pass it on" or something similar. That's all it takes.
Thanks for coming here, for reading or subscribing. I promise that good things are coming, even if I'm not allowed to talk about them yet.
I know this post has only just begun but let's get down to business. Literally.
The worldwide distribution rights to Son of Rambow were sold in the biggest deal brokered at Sundance this year. After a reportedly rather heated bidding war, Paramount Vantage emerged victorious, their wallets some 8 million dollars lighter. What they already know, and what I'm about to illustrate to you, is that they scored a genuine bargain. 8 million for a film this good? A film this imaginative, witty, charming, effortlessly engaging, original and thoroughly satisfying? It even takes the shine off of Fox Searchlight's 10 million down for Little Miss Sunshine. This is a Sundance fairy tale with a happy ending for all involved - particularly audiences.
Son of Rambow is set in the 1980s, at a time when video camcorders were becoming accessible to the more privileged end of the consumer market. This was the time when Francis Ford Copolla predicted the next great filmmaker would not be a film school student, as per his generation, but just 'a kid' making films 'in his garage'. It was also a time when home video viewing was eating into cinema audiences, and when video piracy was beginning to flourish. It was a time when budding filmmakers with actual wares to show were somewhat fewer and farther between than today, and wanting to be a movie maker somehow seemed more special. It was also the time when playground chatter was filled with hideous recollections of video nasties, both seen and imagined, accurately reported or lavishly embellished. This was my childhood, it may well have been yours, and now it is the backdrop to Son of Rambow.
Here's an excerpt from the official synopsis:
We see the story through the eyes of Will, the eldest son of a fatherless Plymouth Brethren family. The Brethren regard themselves as God’s ‘chosen ones’ and their strict moral code means that Will has never been allowed to mix with the other ‘worldlies,’ listen to music or watch TV, until he finds himself caught up in the extraordinary world of Lee Carter, the school terror and maker of bizarre home movies. Carter exposes Will to a pirate copy of Rambo: First Blood and from that moment Will’s mind is blown wide open and he’s easily convinced to be the stuntman in Lee Carters’ diabolical home movie. Will’s imaginative little brain is not only given chance to flourish in the world of film making, but is also very handy when it comes to dreaming up elaborate schemes to keep his partnership with Lee Carter a secret from the Brethen community.
Will is played by Bill Milner, Lee by Will Poulter (try saying all of that three times fast) and each is free of the typical child actor's shortcomings, never cloying, never too keen to please. Milner is soulful, quietly thoughtful, strong inside while Poulter is stronger outside, sometimes raging, cocky. They seem to have been found this way and plugged in as perfect matches for the roles as written. The younger supporting cast sometimes threaten to steal the show, and occaisonally do, with any appearance by Jules Sitruk as Didier Revol - the French foreign exchange student who comes on as too cool for school - guaranteeing a true gem of comedy, always cut with the squirm factor of his hilarious New Wave fashions.
The adult cast is splendid, too, though Jessica Stevenson has certainly had showier roles in the past and Adam Godley is hardly there to be seen in his brief appearance as a leader in the Brethren. But they're all good: National treasure Eric Sykes is rooted to the spot for a handful of winning cameos, Anna Wing's final close-up simply couldn't be bettered. But best of all is the roster of school teachers - blink and you'll miss a curious cameo from Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright in the metal work lesson while Adam Buxton suffers for our amusement once more and Paul Ritter is just about the funniest thing in a very funny film. His delivery of a wonderful joke about flood planes and silt is, without a doubt, my favourite piece of acting I've seen so far this year. Ben Stein and Ray Walston's days as the most quoted of movie teachers may well be coming to an end.
As the story progresses, the Son of Rambow film-within-the film develops scene by scene from something simple, if explosive and stunt-packed, to a more floridly imagined affair. More characters are recruited, set-pieces become bigger and better, the plot's logic becomes far more fanciful, and perhaps naive, but also more truthful. Eventually, a few sharp turns in plot, cast and crew take the film somewhere very different than initially imagined. It becomes the perfect expression of Will and Lee, and an incredible record of the journey they took in making the film. All the while, it remains believably the work of the characters we see shooting it, never once becoming a vessel for Garth Jennings to show off, doodle indulgently or simply goof around. In a very real sense, Son of Rambow offers two heartfelt epics of unrestrained creativity for the price of one.
Jennings' chops as a director were never in question, but I'm sure this is the film that will make his name. He has the gusto and sincerity of his little fictional filmmakers and the perfect timing, incredible eye, good taste, sensitivity and technical integrity Will and Lee don't even notice they're missing.
The worst I can say for Son of Rambow is that some of its beats seem a little conventional, back there in the mechanics behind the constant invention exploding up front. The story is more than solid, however, and is very well structured, and there are enough pleasantly offbeat developments to keep you hopping foot-to-foot if you're trying to predict exactly where everything is going.
Son of Rambow is about a lot of things, not all of them obvious - certainly not from the standard synopsis. You'll appreciate taking the time to unravel them all for yourself.
The cast and crew screening of the film took place today, and though I was neither, I was lucky enough to be invited along. This was the first screening since the finished film was first unveiled at Sundance, and the atmosphere was suitably electric. Despite my elevated expectations and the atmosphere of eager anticipation, the film still delivered - trust me, I don't normally find this to be the case, I normally have to manage my expectations harshly to keep disappointment in check. There was one notable downside to attending this very early screening, however: I have no idea how long it will be before I can see Son of Rambow again, before I can take my friends along, before I can give it an honest-to-goodness solid-gold plug here on film ick to try and drive you all out to it on opening night, and I know I'm going to be itching all over long before that day finally comes.
...and I'm trying hard to not to even think about getting my hands on a copy of some kind of special-features laden DVD.
Of the films of 2007 I've seen so far, Son of Rambow and Hot Fuzz undoubtedly comprise my top two.
ComingSoon have posted a nice, long interview with Hammer and Tongs: Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith, writer-director and producer of Son of Rambow. They discuss that film's inspiration, production and reception, a little about Hitchhiker's Guide and it's sequels, and their plans for what Hammer and Tongs will be doing next.
There's plenty more on Hammer and Tongs dotted film ick. Use the tags below to explore it all.
ComingSoon have published what appears to be the first review of Son of Rambow, calling it their "favorite movie of this year's Sundance Film Festival". They'll also have an interview with Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith going live 'shortly', which I'll be sure to link to seeing as, well, this has pretty much become Rambow central.
[EDIT: Annie Frisbie reviews Son of Rambow at Zoom In, and acheives the impossible: she makes me even more keen to see it]
[EDIT: Now Cinematical have their glowing review up too]
[EDIT: Nerve certainly liked the film plenty, but still seem a little cooler than most other folks. No accounting for taste]
[EDIT: Time Out are suitably impressed]Set in the 1980’s, Son of Rambow, is a coming of age comedy about two young English boys who are inspired after seeing Rambo: First Blood to make a Rambo movie of their own. Through their hilarious adventures in filmmaking they learn the meaning of true friendship.
John Lesher, President and Nick Myer, Co-President of Paramount Vantage, stated “Son of Rambow is a funny, moving and beautifully crafted tale of friendship and the poignant journey of filmmaking. We are thrilled to be distributing Son of Rambow and welcome director Garth Jennings, and the creative visionaries Hammer & Tongs, to our family.”
What did I tell you? Son of Rambow has ignited one of the biggest bidding wars in Sundance history. Variety have a piece on the ongoing negotiations, placing Paramount Vantage ahead of Fox Searchlight and the already resigned Miramax.
One executive described the film as "Billy Elliot as directed by Tim Burton" while Variety draw parallels with Little Miss Sunshine - today nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and deservedly so. Could this be a hint of what is to come for Rambow in the next 12 months?
There's months worth of Son of Rambow coverage here on film ick, including the synopsis, stills, comments from director Garth Jennings, the poster (a premiere!) and much, much more. Use the tags below and the search box to find it all.
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