Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Amy Adler John Lennon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has just listened to his school headmaster put him down as going nowhere. The young teen responds that there probably is "nowhere" for a genius like him. Good comeback, John! In truth, young Lennon does have his problems, at school and at home. He has lived with his stern Aunt Mimi (Kristen Scott-Thomas) for as long as he can remember but he doesn't know why he doesn't live with his mother, Julia (Anne Marie Duff) or his father. One day, at an uncle's funeral, he DOES learn that his mother is in London, for she comes quietly to the service. What a revelation for John! Rushing over to her house as soon as he gets a chance, he finds Julia is now married to another gentleman, not John's father, and has several young daughters. Very pretty and full of life, Julia teaches John how to play the banjo and insists he listen to some of her recordings. This leads to John learning to play the guitar, too, forming a rock n roll band, and having more visits with Julia. But, Mimi is not pleased and she finally tells John why. Now, the teen is more confused than ever. What is true familial love, the ones who responsibly care for their children or those who ignite their imaginations? This wonderful film of John Lennon's teen years, before the fame and fortune, is remarkable. Like so many of us, John's early life was less than ideal but, nevertheless, shaped his future destiny in many ways. The cast, including the three principals, is quite fine as is the recreation of the late fifties in Britain, through costume, sets, and direction. If you consider Lennon to be the most compelling of the Beatles, as I do, you most certainly should not skip this one. Try the library, that's where I got this gem!

dunmore_ego It helps if you read this review with a nasal British accent. Bonus points for having a big cartoon nose.John Lennon's high school principal tells him, "You're going nowhere, son." At that point, you're meant to slap yourself on the knee and exclaim "Hah! Little did he know!" Do you feel dirty yet? A mixture of myth and melodrama, NOWHERE BOY follows teen John (Aaron Johnson) from his troubled youth in 1950s Liverpool, juggling school, sex and two sets of parents (blood and foster), up to the point he leaves for Germany with a new band that we never hear named. And that's the strange dichotomy in this biopic about the founding member of The Beatles: We know going in that this is the story of a young man who would be in a band "bigger than Jesus," yet the filmmakers keep the elbow-nudges so subtle that they may as well not be pertinent at all; musically, besides the opening chord to A Hard Day's Night, we don't hear any Beatles soundtrack, even the word 'Beatles' is never mentioned. Yet they want us to care about this rowdy boy raised by two lonely women battling for his affections - but if this boy weren't John Lennon, would we care? Because every one of us has a sob story to tell. Just because he's The Walrus, does it mean his origin tale is any more compelling than ours? Going to such lengths to AVOID Beatles allusions, isn't the film nothing more than a glorified soap opera? It's touted as the birth of the Beatles, but it's not. Because there are no threads or foreshadowing of what these lads might become. It's more a chronicle of one boy's artist-rebel psyche. And again, if the boy wasn't Lennon - would we care? Soaping the two sides of this emotional story of betrayal, selfishness and repentance are John's conservative, widowed, responsible Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his irresponsible, flighty mother Julia (played with red-headed spryness by Anne-Marie-Duff). From a memoir by Lennon's half-sister, Julia Baird, director Sam Taylor-Wood and screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh might be trying to tell us that John got his rock from Mimi and his roll from Julia.We meet Lennon as a fresh-faced (yet not altogether innocent) teen, living with Mimi and Uncle George (David Threlfal, who was James Cromwell in a previous life). After the death of George (who was more like a "best mate" to John than an authority figure, as Mimi was), teen John seeks out his birth mother.Enter Julia, a free spirit (who these days would be called trailer trash); flirtatious, profligate, alcoholic, who gave up John in his infancy to Mimi because she knew she was too irresponsible to raise him. She treats John almost as a girlfriend would and her sensual forwardness is Oedipally uncomfortable. She introduces John to rock and roll (frankly telling him "rock and roll means sex") and teaches him banjo. (An effete young lad named Paul McCartney (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) would later teach John guitar).The two women would battle for John's affections, Mimi feeling she earned the right to them by raising him, and Julia feeling her maternity guaranteed her right.Then there is John's fledgling friendship with Pete Shotton (Josh Bolt) - a name that the under-20s might not recognize as Lennon's first partner in crime/bandmate; we see Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen, playing atop a flatbed truck (sound quality is too good for an open air crapfest, but we let that slide); we eventually see the seminal incarnation of George, John and Paul, but we never do meet Ringo, and the movie ends with John telling Aunt Mimi that he is leaving for Hamburg "with that new group." Mimi asks, "What's it called?" John jokes, "Do you care?" Movie's title is misleading; though Lennon wrote Nowhere Man later in life, he was not a "Nowhere Boy." And though his displacement amongst two mothers might have been psychically damaging, the movie itself never portrays him as a rudderless, antisocial miscreant, but as someone who knew what he wanted and ambitiously sought it. (Young Elvis on TV was a major inspiration, at one point, John lamenting, "Why couldn't God make ME Elvis?!" Julia replies, "Because he was saving you for John Lennon!" Yes, I feel dirty again.) Of course, fame is where luck and effort and right-place-right-time collide (and the leap from flatbed truck to Hamburg definitely warrants a Python-esque "Scene Missing" title card), but to sustain that momentum, you can't possibly be a "nowhere boy" no matter what your public image portrays.We are left with the impression that now all Lennon needs is a big-nosed drummer whose jokes outweigh his talent, a Kaiserkeller and some tight trousers - and he'll be well on his way to Eggman Jesus.--Poffy The Cucumber

Desertman84 Nowhere Boy is a biopic about John Lennon's adolescence, his relationships with his guardian aunt and his birth mother, the creation of his first band, The Quarrymen, and its evolution into The Beatles. It stars Aaron Johnson as the young Lennon together with Thomas Sangster,Anne-Marie Duff and Kristin Scott Thomas.The film is based on a biography written by Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird.Young John is a bright but sharp-tongued boy living in the coastal town of Liverpool during the 1950s with his aunt Mimi and uncle George.John's father walked out on the family when he was four years old, and the boy was given to Mimi to raise, even though his mother, Julia, was still alive. While Mimi's straight-laced nature runs counter to John's more reckless personality, they clearly love one another and the household is thrown into chaos when George dies suddenly. At the funeral, teenage John sees Julia, and learns to his surprise that she lives only a few blocks away from Mimi. John pays her a visit, and Julia gratefully welcomes him back into her life. Julia's personality is a much closer fit to John than Mimi, and she encourages his love for writing and music, teaching him to play the banjo. However, John's renewed relationship with Julia brings up a number of unanswered questions, and causes new tensions between Mimi and John. And as rock & roll becomes the hot new sound of the day, John falls in love with the bold new music and makes a friend who is interested in forming a band, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.If you've seen read or seen the Beatles history in literature or film, you'll adore Nowhere Boy for filling in more blank spaces about the early life particularly that of John Lennon.This biopic succeeds because its creators never wallow in admiration.Also,they keep contrivances to a minimum and has a lead actor in Aaron Johnson who manages to evolve his character rather than imitate the person he is portraying.He was simply restrained and has a low-key approach in his performance.Overall,expect new insights about the young Lennon in this film.

s t I really enjoyed this film which I watched at the "Woolton" in south Liverpool which is a small independent cinema located in the heart of the area featured in the film of John Lennon's adolescence.I thought the film convincingly conjured up the period which I lived through myself. I also bought into the tension between the characters in certain scenes.Best of all was the casting of Aaron Johnson as Lennon. He gives a truly brilliant portrayal of the complex man, disturbing in some places, laugh out loud funny in others.This is proper film making with a clear narrative and character development in situations that should lead you through a range of emotions by the time it ends.