Old Boys

Old Boys (2018) -

I actually only tuned in to this film because I thought that Amberson (Alex Lawther) was in love with Winchester (Jonah Hauer-King), not Agnes (Pauline Etienne). The description on TV was ambiguous and misleading. As far as I'm concerned, a love triangle should meet at all points of the shape or it's just a V!

It is however a sweet and quirky film, if a bit childish for a 12A. I think that it probably hits home more with an older generation because of the way that it's filmed. It's quite dark and gritty due to its 80's Boarding School setting, but the story is about teenagers which might only appeal to those of about 12-13 years, unless you are reliving your own Public School days.

As such it feels a bit confused. I'm an overgrown teenager, so I quite liked it, but I can't see it appealing to everyone else so easily.

I do think that it would have worked better if Winchester had been pretending to like Agnes to get closer to Amberson or the other way around, because it needed that extra something to it, in order to give it some more depth.

That's where the end seemed a bit daft, because of Amberson's final choice. It would have made more sense my way and the homosexual school romance is quite well documented. I suppose that's the reason that they didn't do it that way?

It's said to have a Cyrano de Bergerac type structure and it kind of does, but I think it could have been so much more and perhaps as a 15 it would have been freer to explore things and to deliver a more complicated story.

While Alex always plays the goofy part very well, it fits even more perfectly here. Jonah is also very good as the airhead jock and beautiful too.

I like the suggestions that the school is like a prison and the use of flip book animation is also very cleverly done to move scenes from one to another.

But the more films I see about Public Schools, the more I think that they are ridiculous. They are never shown in a good light and usually depicted as chaotic and full of bullies throughout the faculty and the students. I certainly wouldn't send my child to one so it could be treated like dirt and go through daft rituals in silly outfits. It's not character building, it's just cruel. We should be taught how to raise people up and support them, not put them down. Abolish the Hierarchy!!

The film was enjoyable and easy to watch though. It certainly doesn't require a lot of attention to follow it, but that was also part of its charm. It seems well edited and directed and the darkness of the setting and costume enforces the prison like dimension.

Worth checking out at least.

564.03/1000.

I came across "Old Boys" by accident on British TV when channel-flicking, and luckily just as the Continuity voice announced it was a film about a public school (so I had none of the pre-conceptions that other IMDB reviewers had).

For a time I wondered about in which period it was set, thinking that it might be the early 20th century, so it was a surprise when a 1980s Volvo appeared. In fact much of the film sought to recreate the sort of public school and its bizarre rituals that might have existed a century or more ago, and certainly nothing like the one I attended in the early 1960s. We would not have reacted to "The Dam Busters" in the jingoistic way that the boys in the film did. There was a palpable sense of lust when at the end of term my school screened "Some Like it Hot" with Marilyn Monroe in a very tight dress,)

Pauline Etienne was sweet enough as Agnes, but Agnes Laurent as and in "The French Mistress" (the 1960 film about a young woman accidentally appointed as the French teacher at an English public school) was more likely to have aroused emotions among pupils and staff).

A scene near the end reminded me of Tom Courtenay's act of defiance in "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" released in 1960.

The cast and settings were excellent - Lancing College, where filming took place, must be one of the most imposing of Brittain's public schools, with Eton, Marlborough and Winchester all having less conspicuous buildings that do not catch the public eye.

The real star of the film is the location. Having said no to both the Harry Potter series and If, Lancing College has finally succumbed to a coming-of-age movie where the nerd wins the day. And it's the location which makes the movie, as the film-makers get the most out of it. Well worth a watch.

Amberson (Alex Lawther) is the bullied bumbling nerd at an all-boys boarding school. Winchester (Jonah Hauer-King) is the lead jock in a ruby-like game played in the middle of a stream. Babinot is the new French teacher and he brings along his daughter Agnes (Pauline Etienne). Amberson immediately falls for her, but she is taken with Winchester after she mistakenly believes him to a poet.

This is a Cyrano de Bergerac adjacent story. Etienne is the Pixie Dreamgirl although she's not that Manic. She's perfect for the role. Her older age doesn't matter that much. Her character is older and out of school anyways. I would like Amberson to be less wormy. He has to be a nerd, but he could be less pathetic. He's overplaying it and gets a little cartoony. Winchester is less idiotic than expected. He is certainly charming. All in all, I like these characters and that's fine for this coming-of-age movie.

Slightly preposterous plot but very nicely acted and produced. Gorgeous setting of Lancing College and scenes in Lewes help the visuals.The story could be told in half the time but that wouldn't make much of a film! The film is set in the 1980s and, unfortunately, propogates a stereotyped version of life at an English Public School which is far from the reality. (It wasn't that bad when I went to one in the 60s!). Worth viewing.