Reviews by James Benefield

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Abel (2010)

  Review preview for Abel

  There's some late in the day pathos which does pull at the heart strings, but the film falls flat once more with a half-baked open ended conclusion.

  A peculiar young boy, blurring reality and fantasy, assumes the responsibilities of a family man in his father's absence.
• 
  Another Woman (1988)

  Review preview for Another Woman

  This is a film which is both thoughtful and surprising.

  A writer re-evaluates her life after overhearing conversations in the psychiatrist's consulting room next door.
• 
  The Astronomer's Sun (2010)

  Review preview for The Astronomer's Sun

  Some of the CGI was obviously done on a limited budget. But it doesn't matter, as it's totally captivating.

  A man and a mechanical bear head to an observatory to confront his past.
• 
  Australia (2008)

  Review preview for Australia

  Australia undercuts its cinematic insecurities with heart, soul and imagination.

  Sprawling epic sees English toff and drover bond over cattle and kids.
• 
  The Adopted (2011)

  Review preview for The Adopted

  It's probably the acting that almost saves the film from its histrionic third act

  A fragile new relationship is imperilled when tragedy strikes.
• 
  Afterwards (2008)

  Review preview for Afterwards

  As technically accomplished as it might be, this is a ponderous and interminable experience.

  An attorney is haunted by his past.
• 
  Another Man (2008)

  Review preview for Another Man

  Trots, sometimes quite outrageously, along the thin line between the pretentious and the profound and never really falls into either camp.

  Psychological drama about a young, inexperienced film reviewer who falls for the charms of a well-established female colleague.
• 
  Arrivederci Millwall (1990)

  Review preview for Arrivederci Millwall

  A provocative, well-acted piece.

  A group of hooligans get ready to go to the 1982 world cup.
• 
  Ashenden (2010)

  Review preview for Ashenden

  Manages to create and sustain tension out of very little material.

  A man is intrigued when he sees his doppelgänger passing by his flat.
• 
  Beyond The Clouds (1995)

  Review preview for Beyond The Clouds

  Showcases the venerable maverick’s directorial style at is best and its worst.

  Love, lust and naked women in a quartet of linked tales.
• 
  Bitter Moon (1992)

  Review preview for Bitter Moon

  An enjoyably salacious, seedy experience.

  An Englishman gets more than he bargained for when an American on his cruise ship offers to tell him the story of his relationship with a beautiful but dangerous woman.
• 
  The Black Dog's Progress (2008)

  Review preview for The Black Dog's Progress

  It’s a big ask for the audience, and I think it is something that depends upon personal taste as to whether or not the experiment works.

  Flip books tell the disturbing story of the black dog.
• 
  Black Swan (2010)

  Review preview for Black Swan

  As elegant and overblown as ballet itself.

  A psychological thriller set in the world of the New York City ballet.
• 
  The Boy Who Plays On The Buddhas Of Bamiyan (2004)

  Review preview for The Boy Who Plays On The Buddhas Of Bamiyan

  Alien subjects do require human angles to connect with viewers, and this film manages it well.

  An optimistic documentary following a refugee family who live in a cave besides the ruins of the giant Buddha statues blown up by the Taliban.
• 
  Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961)

  Review preview for Breakfast At Tiffany's

  A film that is in step with its contemporary Hollywood background, for better and for worse.

  A writer falls for his mysterious socialite neighbour. Re-issue.
• 
  The Big Gay Musical (2009)

  Review preview for The Big Gay Musical

  Sondheim can probably breathe a sigh of relief, but these numbers are colourful and fun.

  Story of two actors whose lives mirror their onstage characters in an anti-evangelical musical.
• 
  Blackmail Boys (2010)

  Review preview for Blackmail Boys

  Haziness and lack of bite and depth eventually lead to the film's downfall.

  Two lovers in a long-distance relationship turn to extortion to fund their wedding.
• 
  Black Death (2010)

  Review preview for Black Death

  Feels like a film of two halves.

  During the plague years a young monk is sent to investigate reports of the dead being restored to life.
• 
  Breakfast (2010)

  Review preview for Breakfast

  It's hard to say who it is actually for.

  Meat is murder in a grisly fairy tale.
• 
  Cabal In Kabul (2006)

  Review preview for Cabal In Kabul

  It’s hard to tell whether the subjects’ playful bickering is either toned down or accentuated for our sake.

  A documentary about life in Afghanistan.
• 
  The Chaplin Revue (2010)

  Review preview for The Chaplin Revue

  It's definitely a fit of nostalgia for better days, at least artistically, and it's still a joy to see these shorts put into a form which is more accessible for latter day audiences.

  Three short, silent Charlie Chaplin comedies - A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms and The Pilgrim - in a restored edition with new music.
• 
  The Circus (1928)

  Review preview for The Circus

  It'll make you fall in love with Chaplin, and with cinema, all over again.

  The Little Tramp takes a job as a clown and falls for the ringmaster's daughter.
• 
  Citizen Kane (1941)

  Review preview for Citizen Kane

  The story is wonderfully told, and it absorbs the viewer completely.

  Reporters clamour to uncover the secrets of a newspaper tycoon after his demise. Frequently acclaimed as the best film ever made.
• 
  City Lights (1931)

  Review preview for City Lights

  It's a wonderful love story, and it claims the most romantic, life affirming final shot of any film in cinema.

  A little tramp falls for a flower-seller.
• 
  Cherry On The Cake (2009)

  Review preview for Cherry On The Cake

  Totally charming.

  A young girl is disappointed on her birthday.
• 
  Cherry Tree Lane (2010)

  Review preview for Cherry Tree Lane

  It boils down to an exercise in horror and endurance. It's rare you see a film which will elicit such a guttural reaction from its audience

  Urban horror about a culture-clash between an upper-crust couple, and trouble with local boys.
• 
  Children Of God (2010)

  Review preview for Children Of God

  There are too many ideas here for a film with such sketchy, one-dimensional characters.

  Two men form a relationship against the background of an anti-gay rally in the Bahamas.
• 
  Cigarette Girl (2009)

  Review preview for Cigarette Girl

  The film loses direction very quickly, and after about 20 minutes, the characters and the situations grow quite wearisome.

  Cigarette smuggler and dealer wants to quit.
• 
  Cold Lazarus (1996)

  Review preview for Cold Lazarus

  Cold Lazarus ends writer Dennis Potter's career on an elegiac note. But, as ever for Potter, this elegy is played out in bitter minor chords.

  In 2368, scientists tap into the memory of a man who died in the 1990s.
• 
  College Boys Live (2009)

  Review preview for College Boys Live

  A great documentary is crying to be made from all this material, but unfortunately this isn’t it

  Documentary about a group of gay exhibitionists whose lives are caught on camera for a controversial website.
• 
  Company Limited (1971)

  Review preview for Company Limited

  Nigh-on unmissable.

  Acidic middle-class drama set in Calcutta.
• 
  Confessions (2010)

  Review preview for Confessions

  So while a difficult, challenging experience - both emotionally and cerebrally - this is a masterful, endlessly intriguing piece.

  A teacher who thinks two of her pupils are responsible for the death of her daughter takes revenge.
• 
  Conversation Piece (2009)

  Review preview for Conversation Piece

  Done with enough with humour, panache and clever editing to justify a watch.

  A couple argue over a chipped vase.
• 
  Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

  Review preview for Dangerous Liaisons

  As the story glides gracefully from pitch-black comedy to complicated tragedy, you are in no doubt this is a film which happened at the right time in the careers of its two central stars, and for cinema.

  Making a game out of sex, love and relationships has dire consequences in eighteenth century France.
• 
  Don't Look Now (1973)

  Review preview for Don't Look Now

  All of this visual and intellectual discourse is tied together with two excellent central performances.

  A couple who have lost their child go to Venice to recover, but the husband is haunted by visions of a small figure in a red coat.
• 
  The Doom Generation (1995)

  Review preview for The Doom Generation

  It's not exactly thought-provoking, but there is a teasing intelligence on display.

  A trio go on a crime spree.
• 
  The Deadly Spawn (1983)

  Review preview for The Deadly Spawn

  What the movie does best is gore and ickiness.

  A toothy alien horror goes on the rampage.
• 
  Dead Poets Society (1989)

  Review preview for Dead Poets Society

  Sentimental and broad but well made and enjoyable.

  An inspirational teacher transforms the lives of boys at a strict private school.
• 
  Dead Snow (2009)

  Review preview for Dead Snow

  A highly entertaining, if derivative, thrill ride.

  Teens on vacation fall foul of a Nazi-zombie battalion.
• 
  Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus And Karaoke (1995)

  Review preview for Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus And Karaoke

  A mixture of elegy and sharp observation.

  The acclaimed TV dramatist's final work.
• 
  Disgrace (2008)

  Review preview for Disgrace

  Detached rather than indifferent.

  The complex social life of an English professor forms a mirror for a complex country.
• 
  Dream Home (2010)

  Review preview for Dream Home

  It's pretty torturous stuff.

  Trying to get your ideal home can be murder.
• 
  The Dry Land (2010)

  Review preview for The Dry Land

  Ryan O'Nan is good value. He is ably supported by Ferrera, as the long-suffering spouse. They're stuck with a script that can't quite find the right voice for its concerns.

  A US soldier returning home from war struggles to reconcile his experiences abroad with the life and family he left in Texas.
• 
  Ed Byrne - Different Class (2009)

  Review preview for Ed Byrne - Different Class

  Byrne’s range of material is impressive.

  The stand-up comedian brings his acclaimed stage show to DVD.
• 
  Everything Must Go (2010)

  Review preview for Everything Must Go

  There's something increasingly bland and uninvolving about this Will Ferrell vehicle which, like him or loathe him, you've got to admit is a kind of achievement.

  Tale of a middle-aged suburbanite whose life is crumbling.
• 
  Fault Lines (2010)

  Review preview for Fault Lines

  A piece that is in desperate need of some breathing space.

  A drunken argument leads to trouble.
• 
  Fear In The Night (1947)

  Review preview for Fear In The Night

  A surprisingly rich, inventive film noir in many ways.

  A man dreams of murder and wakes to the suspicion it may have been a reality.
• 
  Five Minutes Of Heaven (2009)

  Review preview for Five Minutes Of Heaven

  An intriguing ‘what if’ that only comes unstuck at the end, as the movie doesn’t know how to resolve itself after a kinetic climax.

  Two men from the same town but from different sides of the Irish political divide discover that the past is never dead - in fact it isn't even past.
• 
  From Beginning To End (2009)

  Review preview for From Beginning To End

  Somewhere between the slightly dull first 40 minutes, and the head-smackingly stupid final reel, it's briefly a heady, sensual and amoral guilty pleasure.

  Two half-brothers form an unusual bond.
• 
  The Fifth Commandment (2008)

  Review preview for The Fifth Commandment

  Yune’s not just wooden, he’s a charisma vacuum.

  An assassin-for-hire finds his latest job cuts close to home.