How many of us were first introduced to the giddy, gory glory of the movies at a friend’s house? The Deer Hunter and Friday the 13th shocked my system on sleepovers far before I was ready for them. So much for “Tom & Jerry.” What was this new terrifying/fascinating carnage taking place on the screen? Will Proudfout (Bill Milner) is a young boy growing up in a strict religious sect in 1980s Britain who isn’t even allowed to watch educational documentaries at school. The dam bursts one fateful day when Will catches a bit of First Blood at the house of his friend, Lee (Will Poulter). Within an hour, he’s turned his necktie into a head band and stabbed a scarecrow with glee. Soon the boys are filming their own action movie to win a BBC contest. With its hilarious scenes of hand-crafted filmmaking, Son of Rambow was a nice 2008 companion piece to Be Kind Rewind. Both are set in an analog world, yet they’re evocative of the sort of amateur auteurism that exploded in the YouTube era.
