Following Shane Meadows’ skin-headedly unsentimental This Is England, Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy adapter Jennings shows the brighter, shinier flipside of Thatcher’s Britain in this grinsome dollop of escapism.

As a member of a strange, quasi-Amish sect which forbids any contact with the Devil’s inventions, quiet lad Will (Milner) is only sent out of class when the television goes on.

Lee Carter (Poulter), on the other hand, is sent out of class because he’s a rowdy little git.

All they have in common is a vivid imagination. Will lives in his own doodle-world and Lee, having just seen First Blood at the pictures (and illicitly recording it in the process), is intent on making his own follow-up, thence to be crowned Screen Test’s Young Filmmaker of the Year.

After a sneak viewing of Lee’s pirate video, Will wants a piece of the action. Thus is born a filmmaking partnership, so chalk-and-cheese it makes Simpson and Bruckheimer look like the Coen Brothers.

Yet the intrepid duo manage to defy all the odds - no cash, detention, Will’s pious ‘brethren’, Lee’s bully-boy big brother - to realise their vision.

Until, that is, dandyish exchange student Didier (Sitruk) and his star-struck entourage hijack the production. Sadly, Will and Lee are about to learn the true meaning of ‘creative differences’.

Son of Rambow is an Eighties wonderland. Smoking in cinemas, taping the Top 40 off Radio 1, chugging Space Dust-and-Coke (the poor kid’s Ecstasy), lads in lipstick, guide-dog collecting boxes - there’s enough material here to fuel Peter Kay’s next three tours.

Pop-culturally, though, Jennings opts for quantity over accuracy. The time is never defined but, assuming it takes place around late 1982 when First Blood was on general release, it’s surprising to see it followed into cinemas by Yentl which didn’t appear until early 1984.

Similarly, Duran Duran’s Wild Boys first hit the charts in late 1984 and Siouxsie and the Banshees only unveiled Peek-A-Boo in 1988.

This hardly spoils the fun. A greater distraction is the vaguely creepy subplot involving Will’s fundamentalist upbringing. Even if it stems from Jennings’ own experience, it still doesn’t really fit.

However, trippy forays into Will’s animated dreamland, Joby Talbot’s jaunty Danny Elfman-esque score and the cartoonish execution of the boys’ stunts make it abundantly clear that we’re not tied to the dramatic kitchen sink.

And casting national treasure Eric Sykes as Rambo’s bewildered dad - that's just skills on toast.

Elliott Noble