Son of Rambow

SCREAM TWO It’s not hard to get into Son of Rambow.

The threat of cloying nostalgia hovers over Son of Rambow like the sword of Damocles. It’s set in the early 1980s, with musical nods to the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Preteen outcasts Lee (Poulter)—a scrappy rebel always one step away from detention—and Will (Milner)—a sweet lad from a religious sect that believes television and movies are sinful distractions—form a bond over their shared love of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo in First Blood. Armed with a video camera, they set out to make their own sequel. Jennings may not convert the pure cynics, but he does his damnedest to restore respectability to the term whimsy.