Average guy likes beautiful girl, beautiful girl has evil boyfriend, average guy has female friend who likes him but he doesn't notice her. So far, so typical. But leaving aside the banal story, the real joy of SoulBoy is the authenticity that goes into recreating 1970s northern England, from speech, to costumes, to locations, to decor, to music, to the retro 16mm look of the film. It all comes together magically, and all the passion poured in makes the simplistic narrative tolerable. Good fun.