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Nowhere Boy

As a boy all John Lennon needed was love.

2009 · 1h 38m · R Drama
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson

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Overview

A rebellious teenager, future Beatle John Lennon lives with his Aunt Mimi in working-class mid-1950s Liverpool, England. Mimi's husband suddenly dies, and John spies his mother Julia at the funeral. Despite Mimi's misgivings, John intends to have a real relationship with his mother. Julia introduces him to popular music and the banjo and, though a family conflict looms, young John is inspired to form his own band.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
81%
Tomatometer
Rotten

Taylor-Wood has specialized in video installations and off-kilter portraits, and it was tempting to hope that her take on Lennon would unsettle and provoke. Instead, she stays resolutely on-kilter, as if awed into numbness by her subject.

Anthony Lane, New Yorker
Fresh

The events chronicled are all longstanding Beatles legends, though director Sam Taylor-Wood manages to stage even the most portentous moments without making you feel a celestial choir is in order.

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Fresh

More love triangle than musical, the effective and often sweet Nowhere Boy offers a sense of the time and tension that produced John Lennon.

Tom Long, Detroit News
Fresh

This portrait of a Beatle as a young man also gives filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood, working on a thoughtful script by Matt Greenhalgh, creative room to manoeuvre, introducing us to John just as he and rock 'n' roll discover one another.

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail
Fresh

Nowhere Boy is a poignant reminder that before the world was at his command, John Lennon was a bit like you and me.

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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