‘The Pebble and the Boy’ Review: British Mod Nostalgia Barely Fuels a Sputtering Scooter Road Movie

The U.K. mod revival of the late 1970s and 1980s was a retro-minded movement, albeit meshed a little with then-current trends: a bit of contemporary punk, a bit of midcentury Teddy Boy grease, all swirled together with a swagger that peaked in 1979’s time-capsule rock opera “Quadrophenia.” An anodyne Manchester-to-Brighton road movie that somewhat wishfully imagines a strain of enduring mod enthusiasm in today’s teens, “The Pebble and the Boy” forgets the present-day touch that made the earlier revival hip, presenting us with a pair of Zoomers on scooters who feel wholly middle-aged in conception and sensibility. The result is… Read Full Article