Nowhere Boy

A THOUSAND TIMES YES. today i seem to be favouring movies centring on depressed guitarists and this one was my absolute favourite. THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ERIN WHO RECOMMENDED ME TO WATCH THIS!! even though it did destroy me it was worth it!!! first off, the detailing. i always rate movies largely based on their scenery, set, costuming and etc, and nowhere boy really killed it with the ‘50s England vibe. i loved the suits, the girls’ skirts and blouses, mimi’s wardrobe, julia’s wardrobe, everyone’s wardrobe. beautiful! and the cinematography! the way this whole film shot was a 100. the countryside, the docks, just the atmosphere in general. the hair? yes. the makeup? YES. i thought it delicious. i absolutely love this way more than ‘60s New York (no offence Bob Dylan), i found the background details far more captivating!  secondly, the actual story. now, i'm no john lennon expert, and ive very minimal knowledge about him and his family history and the beatles. i hear that some of the characters were portrayed far differently than the people they were supposed to be, and that there were several inaccuracies within the film, but i loved it nonetheless. i enjoyed getting to know john lennon and the person he was and grew to be, i found nowhere boy to be actually really informative and i learnt a TON about lennon and grew a deep understanding of this portrayal of him. his familial nature was tragic and i was destroyed whilst watching the progression, and i felt ESPECIALLY tortured at the end…the LAST twenty minutes. next time i WILL be turning the screen off 20 minutes before the end because WHAT THE HELL. i was so excited for a happy ending (and i will only mention the potterverse this ONE time because i was trying to review this movie WITHOUT the mention of the potterverse) for mimi and julia, especially because they reminded me SO MUCH of the petunia and lily we should’ve gotten. i really liked ATJ’s acting as lennon and the mix between carefree teenage coming of age and familial pain was perfectly balanced. i felt really connected to mimi especially. she’s viewed as mostly antagonistic and severe but i just feel she really did think john her son and really did care for him, far much more than julia cared (i’m sorry!). i don’t hate julia, she obviously had issues that stopped her from being able to take care of john, but i thought julia more of john’s fun aunt than his mother. mimi was trying her best. sometimes people cannot communicate love and affection as readily as others, and that’s how i feel about mimi and john. it made me really empathise for mimi with the unappreciative way john felt about her at times— the spitting into her garden, the screaming “fuck you”, even the doubt of mimi’s love for george? i think mimi was just trying her best. the part where she revealed all of julia’s past faults was extremely bittersweet. mimi was simply trying her best to protect john from the dysfunctional relationship of his parents. were i john, i would not have been able to forgive julia so easily. what my biggest problem with john (in this movie, since people say mimi and julia were different from actuality) was how he treated mimi…especially since he definitely favoured uncle george, mimi became a widow so soon too, she was already struggling with john’s arrange at school. the complete distrust in mimi from john really disconcerted me. of course, julia is his mum, but mimi raised him. mimi was his mother. or tried to be, but he rejected her. when john told julia about his suspension but lied to mimi about it, i was completely broken. mimi reminds me of that cliche stepmums who always try to get close and be a good parent for the child but get pushed away. mimi acted antagonistically BECAUSE john’s distrust and disrespect for her. she took away his guitar because he was getting bad grades at school. i would too! im not saying mimi was a saint because there were loads of things she could’ve done better, but i will always be mimi’s number one defender. all in all, just wow. i loved this so much. honourable mention to TBS’s acting as paul mccartney, i loved his and ATJ’s performance of paul and john’s friendship, even if the punch scene was entirely fictional. this was painful, beautiful and just amazing.