John Lennon, before the Beatles - Nowhere Boy

John Lennon would have turned 70 this week, and amid all the memorials and digital re-releases, fans should not overlook British artist-turned-filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood's surprising "Nowhere Boy," a story about Lennon's teenage years in Liverpool that's adapted from a memoir by Julia Baird, his half-sister. "Nowhere Boy" is itself in danger of being swamped by tabloid headlines, largely because Taylor-Wood, who is 43 (and a woman, if you're wondering), recently had a baby with fiancé and rising star Aaron Johnson, who is 20 years old and plays Lennon in the film. So let's all cluck about that for a few minutes and then get back to this restrained and appealing movie, which is a whole lot less a rock 'n' roll biopic than a working-class kitchen-sink drama in the grand English tradition.

Here's what I wrote about "Nowhere Boy" last January after attending the film's Sundance premiere, with the celebrated couple in attendance. (I've made some edits for clarity and context.)