TRAILER: Nowhere Boy...

So, it's no shock to anyone who has a television, that this country, and world for that matter, is in some sort of Beatles-palooza. Ranging from full on promotion whoring (if I see ONE MORE "All You Need Is Love" or "Come Together" commercial, someone will die. And I'm a man of my word), to video games, to full on films/remakes, people seem to love this band more and more as they age, and not in any sort of cute or interesting way. It's all name recognition. However, this film looks to do a bit more than just whore the bands story out.

Nowhere Boy is a new film, that has been playing around the British film festival circuit, and is a biopic that follows the early years of John Lennon. Yesterday, we saw a couple of trailers, yet I must say, this one looks to be about as interesting as those underwhelming pieces.

While I don't think the film itself looks all that interesting (just a basic teen coming of age tale blah blah blah), the subject matter is so inherently interesting, that one can't help but look at this with a bit of interest. The trailer is different too, in that there is no Lennon or Beatles music played over it, which is shockingly fresh in these days where "Come Together" is played over everything, even over loud speakers as the guy down the road walks to pick up his hooker.

Oh, disclaimer, I'm a monstrous Beatles fan. Best. Band. Ever. So all of this hate isn't from some sort of outside space. It's from a guy who wants to see his favorite band not shelled out by companies for gross profit. Hoping off my high horse now.

"Nowhere Boy" stars stars Aaron Johnson (Lennon), Thomas Sangster (Paul McCartney), Kristen Scott Thomas (Lennon's surrogate mother, his Aunt Mimi) David Morrissey, Anne-Marie Duff and it was written by Matt Greenhalgh, the screenwriter who penned the Ian Curtis/Joy Division biopic "Control."

I do like the look of this film, but really, some of the stuff in here, is just so darn paint by numbers, that it makes me cringe at the sight. I'm still insanely interested in the film, just as a huge Lennon fan, but as a cinema fan, it's nothing that I think will shake up any sort of awards scene, if it even gets that kind of push. However, all of my fears could possibly be for naught, as TimeOutLondon recently gave the film four out of five stars, calling it a "pleasing, invigorating success that sidesteps the music and the future to explore a moving and instructive story about the making of a young man." Who knows.



Nowhere Boy is directed by English visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood, marking her feature directorial debut after directing the short film Love You More. The screenplay was written by Matt Greenhalgh, who also wrote the Joy Division biopic Control, and is based on the memoirs of John Lennon written by Julia Baird. This will premiere tomorrow night at the London Film Festival and open in the UK later this year. The Weinstein Company is distributing Nowhere Boy in the US, but hasn't set a release date yet.

Go see something good!