SON OF RAMBOW

Y'know, Ryerson Theatre isn't so bad when there isn't a 2km line-up to get in. I guess the intense rain made the festival organizers take pity on us pee-ons and the line was quickly moved indoors.

I'm not sure what I expected from this film. The promise of an incredible child cast and a heartwarming story did not have my hopes up.

But I have to admit, this movie won me over. Sure, its a little fluffier than I usually like my films (OK, a LOT fluffier) but short of a few minor expletives this was good clean fun (now THIS is a movie to take your parents to).

Inspired by a bootleg tape of Stallone's First Blood, two kids set-out to make their own movie - Son of Rambow. At first they are a two-man filmmaking juggernaut - writing, directing, acting, stunts. Then as word of the film spreads, everybody wants to be in on it. Eventually their pet project gets usurped by an artistically tortured, flamboyantly 80s French exchange student named Didier (this kid was hilarious). This leads to tension between our two heroes and all kinds of innocent hijinx.

The cast really was excellent - especially considering that most of them had absolutely zero previous acting experience. The script held some genuine laughs and didn't require too much of a suspension of disbelief. The soundtrack was killer - Siouxie and the Banshees? C'mon, you gotta love it.

Recommended. Especially if you're in the mood for some light-hearted fare. Or, if you have your parents over for dinner and a movie.

PIRACY UPDATE: I SAW THE NIGHT VISION GOGGLES!!!!!! TWICE!!! About half way through the movie a security guard on the outside aisle was intently scanning the crowd with what looked like a telescope. He then returned with about 5 minutes left in the movie. I found this quite amusing on a few levels: One - this really doesn't seem like the type of movie that would be hot in bootlegging circles...no-name cast, it doesn't get released until April 2008 and it has pretty much zero buzz around it. Two - if you haven't found the evil criminals by now I don't think you're going to catch them with a few minutes left in the film. Three - that an antipiracy device would look like something used by a pirate