# John Lennon Bio-Pic 'Nowhere Boy' **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705 "2011-02-26T16:17:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/1 "2011-02-26T16:17:16Z")
Has anyone else seen ‘Nowhere Boy’? It tells the story of John Lennon’s early life being raised by his Aunt and Uncle, his love of Rock & Roll and forming his first band. Kristin Scott Thomas is great as his Aunt Mimi and Aaron Johnson is remarkable as John. After seeing the film I looked up his IMDB profile and saw that Johnson had also played the title roll in ‘Kick-Ass’ - I totally didn’t recognize him. Johnson and Thomas Brodie Sangster (Paul McCartney) apparently did their own singing in the film. I enjoyed it very much, even if as a long time Beatle fan I was already familiar with Lennon’s life story. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/2 "2011-02-27T05:15:56Z")
I was surprised to see no replies. Well, I put it on my Netflix queue so I’ll look this thread up again in a week or two 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/3 "2011-02-27T05:25:19Z")
Same here, though it’ll prolly take more than a week. I have like 45 in queue. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/4 "2011-02-27T05:46:30Z")
We saw it this week. I liked it. Wouldn’t say it was great, but they did a good job and it was an interesting perspective into that facet of the Beatles’ germination. Some random observations: A few years ago I saw a show on TV that covered some of the same timeframe on John Lennon. It showed John springing his skiffle band debut on Mimi as a surprise and her being upset about it, quite different from how it was depicted here. I just read somewhere that Paul objected to how Mimi was originally depicted as being too mean. The producer and/or director revised the role in response. Paul declined to attend the opening. The scene with John and Marie going off for a “chat” which consisted of him fingering her reminded me of the line “four of fish and finger pies” from _Penny Lane_, a finger pie being just what was shown. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/5 "2011-02-27T05:47:03Z")
You probably need to be a Beatles/Lennon fan to enjoy this one. I tried watching it once being completely unfamiliar with the plot, and a lot of it was rather boring or confusing to me. The production felt kind of cheap and uncreative too, more like TV than a proper movie. ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/6 "2011-02-27T15:54:17Z")
> [@heathen\_earthling](#): > > The production felt kind of cheap and uncreative too, more like TV than a proper movie. I’ll agree with this. Another complaint is the actor they got to play the young Paul McCartney looks like [this](http://media.theiapolis.com/d8/h1KW/i6N6/t4/wP0/thomas-sangster-as-paul-mccartney-1.jpg). I don’t know why, but I can’t stand the look of that kid; he looks nothing like the real [Paul](http://www.blogdownchicagobears.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/rex_looks_like_paul.jpg) at that age. He’s also kind of a pompous little snit in the movie, and he just wasn’t believable as McCartney. If you’re a John Lennon fan, you’ll probably like the movie, but the production value and overall writing aren’t the best. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/7 "2011-02-27T17:30:50Z")
I want to see this. I’ve been a fan of Aaron Johnson for a while. I just know he’ll be incredible. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/8 "2011-02-27T17:44:40Z")
I keep an eye on stuff like this and really enjoyed Backbeat with Ian Hart as Lennon, but I have heard pretty bad reviews of this movie so haven’t rushed to see it. I enjoyed Aaron Johnson in Kick-Ass but heard he is only so-so as a young Lennon… ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/9 "2011-02-27T20:37:52Z")
I thought McCartney looked an awful lot younger than Lennon in the film (in real life Paul was 20 months younger) and assumed they’d cast someone especially young to emphasize the age difference. It turns out Sangster is actually a month _older_ than Johnson! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lennon-bio-pic-nowhere-boy/572705/10 "2011-02-28T06:27:33Z")
I saw it in the theater several months ago and liked it. It may not be Oscar material or anything, but it was interesting and Lennon’s mom’s mental illness was moving to me. It’s [80% at Rotten Tomatoes](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere_boy/), so the reviews aren’t all bad. **faithfool** , Aaron Johnson did a very good job. You’ll like him in it.