Starring Bill Milner and Will Poulter Directed by Garth Jennings U.S. Box Office: $1,784,769 Rated PG-13 Release Date 2008

Set in the early 1980s in the British landscape, young Will Proudfoot is raised fatherless in a strict religious home that forbids popular music, television, and movies. At school, he meets troublemaker Lee Carter. Lee at first guilts Will into doing the stunts for his film he is working on for a local contest. Will is hesitant until he catches a glimpse of his very first movie, Rambo: First Blood.

Son of Rambow is an amazing film, the type of film I have been waiting and silently begging the industry to make. I knew this was a gem by only seeing the poster and a partial trailer. The cast of characters is so real and multi-dimentional: Lee is a bully because he’s bullied at home, but really just wants to be friends with Will and make his film; Will’s mom, who at times feels oppressed by her own beliefs yet ironically, in an effort to do the right thing, is oppressive to Will; Lee’s jerk brother and his friends; and then there’s the very hip French foreign exchange student, who immediately has other kids at the school following him around and copying his every move. But the best is Will. He fills his Bible with drawings and stories that captures exactly what it’s like to be a little kid again.

The story is really great as well. After the two start to make the film together, the French exchange student gets wind of it and wants to be a part of the movie, along with his followers and all the local girls who have a crush on him. That doesn’t sit very well with Lee and conflict ensues. The story has so much unspoken imagination (often shown using animation) that you can feel the emotion, but it's not laid on too thick. This is just a pure, honest film that so accurately pinpoints childhood imagination, but the story is so uniquely intriguing that even if the characters were adults, I would still be giving it high recommendations. It's also so beautifully shot and directed, that you just have to see it for yourself.

This was actually my runner pick up for the best movie of 2008, edged out only by WALL•E. It's a tiny little British film that virtually no one saw in the theater, come to think of it, the only other people who saw this movie (besides myself) only did so because i recommended it to them and even then it wasn't until it was on DVD. Don't let this one pass you by.

Film Grade: A+