It’s the 1980s. First Blood has just arrived in London theaters, and Rambo has machine-gunned his way into the hearts of little boys everywhere. A troublemaking scamp and aspiring filmmaker named Lee Carter wants to make his own adaptation of the Sylvester Stallone action vehicle for a film contest. Since he has no friends and his parents are more preoccupied with vacationing on the French Riviera, Lee Carter (Will Poulter) manages to convince the religiously-raised Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) to star in his directorial debut.

When the mischievous Lee Carter gets the well-behaved Will into trouble at school, the stage is set for the pair’s friendship. Lee Carter is the cunning and deceptive alpha male and Will is his unquestioning and enthusiastic follower. The two soon become inseparable, each escaping their social isolation and finding genuine camaraderie in their serendipitous and symbiotic relationship. Will finds a life outside of his Brethren religion and a love for popular culture while Lee Carter discovers what it’s like to have someone truly care about him. But when Will invites the charismatic French exchange student to star in their film, Lee Carter must find a way to take back control of his movie and his friendship.

Written and directed by Garth Jennings, Son of Rambow also provides a nice commentary on the inherent nature of the male half of the species. The Proudfoot family rejects all popular culture due to their rigorous religious lifestyle. But Will’s immediate affinity for the violence of First Blood proves that while you can take the boy out of the violent mainstream media, you can’t take the latent violent tendencies out of the boy. One taste of mass media and Will is hooked. Like a steady heroin drip of pop culture, Will throws himself wholeheartedly into the production of Son of Rambow. His newfound flouting of authority manifests itself in his decision to become the film’s stunt man and is accompanied by a penchant for death-defying shenanigans.

Of course, this extreme willingness to challenge mortality for the sake of a good movie makes for some chuckle-inducing situations. Son of Rambow isn’t a nonstop laugh riot, but it has enough comedy to make it a lighthearted flick. The fitting comedy along with a little heartwarming drama strike just the right balance to make this one of those Goldilocks-type films: just right. Even some of the less important – and therefore, merely running-time-increasing – storylines don’t appreciably detract from the overall enjoyment of the film. Instead, the appealing characters and attention to detail enhance the moviegoing experience.

Son of Rambow has a low-budget look to its film stock and features regrettable 1980s fashion (That charismatic exchange student wears androgynous attire that had me ever-questioning his gender.) But the film has an aesthetic quality that transports viewers to a time when kids were consumed with the all-important business of being kids. There are no thoughts of what extracurricular activities will most appeal to college recruiters or which foreign language lessons will best serve them in a future economy. These kids take a handheld video camera and some makeshift costumes and create an action-packed and, it must be said, entertaining short film about the offspring of Rambo. They even perform their own stunts, risking life and limb at every turn and further eschewing the hypervigilant, germophobic attitudes of today.

The boys are especially convincing in evoking this devil-may-care attitude. Both Lee Carter and Will are charming and childlike in their earnest desire to create an award-winning film on a bare bones budget. Whether they’re using a jury-rigged wood plank catapult or creating a flying dog, Lee Carter and Will display a combination of brains and bravery that the television-addled minds of today’s youth would do well to emulate. With every daredevil stunt and ingenious solution to technical deficiencies, the duo show that all it takes to make a worthwhile movie is a little imagination and nerves of steel.