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 an exercise in retro-upon-retro nostalgia that feels as ill-defined as a Xerox of a Xerox, though die-hard dad mods will thrill to its styling and soundtrack.
“Once a mod, always a mod” is the mantra repeated by multiple characters in the course of writer-director Chris Green’s leanly plotted film, which, even across a scant 80-minute running time, manages to repeat itself in more ways than that alone. The story, such as it is, is almost wholly determined by the wavering will and temperament of its 19-year-old protagonist, John (Patrick McNamee), a semi-intrepid man on a mission who throws in the towel every quarter-hour or so just to keep things from wrapping up too fast. The winsome presence of feature-film newcomer McNamee keeps the character more amiable than the script might suggest, though either way, he’s something of a cipher, with feelings and motivations as floppy as his center-parted bangs.
