It is perfectly accomplished, and pleasing enough, but it's not going to blow your socks off, even though the combination of Ms Taylor Wood and such a compelling story would give you every reason to think it might.

| Aug 30, 2018

This is a very decent effort for a first-time director, but given the auteurist expectations created by Taylor-Wood's track record in the art world, it's hard to discern a distinctively personal take on the material, or indeed the medium.

| Jul 6, 2018

The acting all round is pretty good, but the story itself is given to a sense of drift, as if the film itself doesn't know any better than Lennon what it wants.

| Apr 6, 2017

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.

| Oct 19, 2010

Nowhere Boy reveals the magnitude of the good women behind the grand icon.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 15, 2010

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.

| Oct 15, 2010

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

| Original Score: B | Oct 15, 2010

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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 15, 2010

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

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 15, 2010

Although he doesn't look much like Lennon, Johnson captures that essence perfectly; the future icon is here a confused, hurt boy.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 15, 2010

The movie succumbs to maudlin sentiment and melodrama that Lennon himself might have dismissed with one of his signature cutting remarks.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 15, 2010

It relishes its myth-making enterprise without getting too cute about it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 15, 2010

Taylor-Wood captures the sounds and textures of Liverpool and Blackpool, where a new beat is playing in the cafes and clubs.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 15, 2010

Director Sam Taylor-Wood weaves this tale with elegance, spot-on costumes and production design, and finely tuned casting.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 14, 2010

To watch Nowhere Boy is to appreciate anew both the anger that drove Lennon and the strength of character it took for him to overcome it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 14, 2010

The reason to see Nowhere Boy is the charismatic Johnson, who effortlessly nails Lennon's strut, anger and sensitivity. Anybody seeing the movie could surely spot a star in the making.

| Oct 14, 2010

Nowhere Boy is fully accessible for everyone, not just fans.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 14, 2010

Taylor-Wood stresses the universals rather than the specifics of John's youth. So don't go expecting a Fab Four origin story. The word Beatles is never uttered. But do go.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 14, 2010

As sympathetic and well-turned as it is, Nowhere Boy only gives us more mythology.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 14, 2010

We reflect that even if all you need is love, that isn't always all you get.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 14, 2010