Fantastic Fest Day 4
Another day and another movie down for the festival. There were two secret screenings I couldn't get into and two more movies I'm glad I didn't get picked to see. Today is about one movie and only one movie I had to see. The Son of Rambow. The buzz on the movie was pretty positive so i was pretty stoked to see it. It not only lived up to my expectations but it exceeded them.
This is a quirky children's comedy thats hard to describe. My best description would be like if you threw in Napoleon Dynamite mixed with some Nacho Libre and a dash of the commercial appeal of a School of Rock and add some British kids then this is what you would get. I was so tired of supernatural horror movies so far I was looking for something different. This movie had it in spades.
The movie in a nutshell is about two kids that make a bond by making a home movie. One juvenile delinquent kid who starts off annoying but quickly grows on you befriends a do gooder homely kid that is part of an Amish/strict Pentecostal type of religion called the Brethren. The boy is not allowed to watch any tv even for educational purposes in school. One day the bad kid (sorry i cant remember ether's names) takes advantage of the good kid and takes him home to hang out. Once hes there the good kid watches Rambo: First Blood which in turn changes his life. The boy starts daydreaming about being the Son of Rambow and has a cool little fantasy about fighting a scarecrow in a field in order to save his dad, Rambo. This was a creative little montage that had the audience cheering when it was over. The boy pitches his idea to the bad kid and they decide to make a movie about it. The rest of the movie is about the boys making their Son of Rambow movie and dealing with their parents and the relationships they are forming with each other. There is also a flying dog that's used as a prop in a hilarious scene of the movie. While this is going on there are some French foreign exchange students that come to the school and a group of kids start to follow one cool French kid. All the girls swoon over him and he takes turns kissing them in another one of the cool scenes of the movie. The movie is hard to describe but definitely worth checking out. It does slack a little bit during the third act but the finale ties it up nicely.
It is a quirky cool little children's comedy which I was greatly looking forward to. If marketed right I believe this movie can make a little cash when its released sometime in '08. This is one of those movies that might not get much attention in the short run but will probably stand the test of time and be known as a children's classic. I definitely recommend checking it out when it comes out sometime next year. I still prefer Spiral so far but its probably my second favorite movie of the festival so far. Surprise surprise its probably the only movie at the festival that's also kid friendly.