It started with director Elaine Constantine remortgaging her house and has ended up the sleeper hit of the autumn box office.

This boisterous, bubbling slice of 1970s small-town “oop North” tells a familiar tale, but its execution and sheer enthusiasm for the subject separate it from what you’ve seen before. Resting on the shoulders of unknown actors Elliot James Langridge and Josh Whitehouse, Constantine’s film is about as close to time travel as you can get, relentlessly throwing the atmosphere of underground ’70s youth culture at you with full force. This mistfit-fits-in story hits the familiar beats to a soundtrack of classics that can’t fail to win audiences over.

Aggressively nostalgic and a little bit contemporary, Northern Soul expands a small corner of history into a living, breathing, sweating universe that will bowl its audience head over heels and shoot American soul music up the Amazon download charts.

RATING: 4/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Elliot James Langridge, Josh Whitehouse, Steve Coogan, Ricky Tomlinson, Lisa Stansfield, Antonia Thomas

DIRECTOR: Elaine Constantine

WRITER: Elaine Constantine

SYNOPSIS: Stuck in 1970s Lancashire with nowhere to go, two misfit young men bond over the underground Northern Soul scene.