"Nowhere Boy": Sam Taylor-Wood take on John Lennon

If you expect an avant-garde film by video and installation artist (Turner Prize nominee) Sam Taylor-Wood in the manner of, lets say, Quinn's "Hunger", you will be disappointed. What you've got instead is a well crafted cinematic account of the early formative years of John Lennon in 50s Liverpool, before its decline. If you also expected some of "The Beatles" iconic songs, you also will be disappointed, what we got here are the very early songs, following the mould set up by Elvis Presley (it reminds me of those early years of my life, going to Elvis' films in Viña del Mar [Chile] to the Rialto on Saturday afternoons, an old grand cinema full of screaming girls).

Most importantly, this is very much a film of the transition of a Britain of stiff upper lips to the country we are now living in, that crucial transition from the 50s (post-war austerity) to the 60s (flower power, love and all of that): this transition is reflected on Mimi's (John's aunt) face from the beginning to the end of the film, when Lennon and his band went to Hamburg - the rest is music history.