Some people feel that Hammer and Tongs first foray into feature films, the ill-fated Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie was a bit of a disappointment, and yes, it was flawed, but it had some great moments as well. The opening was great, Martin Freeman was a perfect bit of casting, Marvin was a lot better than he might have been and even the choice of casting Mos Def as Ford Prefect worked a lot better then you might have imagined. Anyway, I rather enjoyed it. But this is not a review of Jennings’s first movie but what probably would have been his first movie, Son Of Rambow.

I’ve been hoping to see the film for over a year now, following the sparkling reviews it got at 2007’s Sundance. At that point I didn’t know too much about the actual plot of the film though and didn’t really know what to expect. As it transpires, the movie’s about a child from a Plymouth Brethren family (Will) who, through a chance meeting (as far as these things are possible in a secondary school) meets the local ‘bad boy’ (Lee Carter) who is making his own version of Rambo using his brother’s video camera. The interplay between the shy, loner, artist Will and ‘worst boy in school’ Lee is beautifully played

Although this is a comedy, and it is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a long time, the characters are drawn extremely well, and other than the man trying to hit on Will’s mother, are rounded, likable and easy to understand.

So, Garth Jennings, who had been promising to make a wonderful film for really rather a long time now, has actually gone and done it. I still stand by the fact that Hitchhikers is not as bad as people have made out, but either way this film is as great as everyone says it is and is well worthy of your attention.