Reviews by James Benefield

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Flypaper (2011)

  Review preview for Flypaper

  It's not quite as slick or sexy as the Ocean's movies, but it is steeped in personality.

  A man gets embroiled in two simultaneous attempted bank heists.
• 
  A French Gigolo (2008)

  Review preview for A French Gigolo

  A low-key gem.

  A fiftysomething woman who hires a gigolo finds their relationship becomes unexpectedly complex.
• 
  Funuke: Show Some Love You Losers! (2007)

  Review preview for Funuke: Show Some Love You Losers!

  The opening sequence is both grisly and weirdly humorous, creating an ambivalence which haunts the rest of the film.

  A struggling actress finds herself embroiled in family conflict after her parents' death.
• 
  Ghost Story (1974)

  Review preview for Ghost Story

  Unfortunately, the film’s 90-odd minutes feel like a trudge.

  Old school pals visit a country mansion but their relaxing plans are scuppered by an insane ghost.
• 
  Gold Top (2010)

  Review preview for Gold Top

  Gold Top is a low key, sweet film.

  The elegiac tale of a milkman and his assistant.
• 
  Guest In The House (1944)

  Review preview for Guest In The House

  Although it attempts film noir status, Guest In The House is ultimately only a partly successful melodrama, which is as watchable as it is due to the excellent performances.

  An unhinged house guest spells trouble for a psychiatrist and his family.
• 
  Hamlet (1996)

  Review preview for Hamlet

  By this point in his career, Ken Branagh had found his voice and a set of skills to match his confidence.

  Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
• 
  Hard Hat (2010)

  Review preview for Hard Hat

  In its own low-key, unassuming way, it's pretty powerful.

  A melancholy comedy about recent immigrants trying to adjust to life in Britain.
• 
  Heartless (2009)

  Review preview for Heartless

  The amount of creativity and ideas on display is astonishing.

  A photographer's son with an unusual birthmark comes to suspect that demons are murdering the people of London.
• 
  Harold And Maude (1971)

  Review preview for Harold And Maude

  The most important message the film has is follow your heart, no matter how weird other people think you are for doing so.

  A morbid young man falls in love with a vivacious septuagenarian.
• 
  Hotel Atlântico (2009)

  Review preview for Hotel Atlântico

  The movie is almost like a Kafka novel; there seems no earthly rhyme and reason, but there are some resonating themes and a sense of the surreal.

  Brazenly weird road movie about a TV soap actor's odyssey.
• 
  Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)

  Review preview for Jesus Christ Superstar

  The film’s risks pay dividends dramatically.

  A musical interpretation of the last days of the life of Jesus Christ.
• 
  Junk Food (2010)

  Review preview for Junk Food

  A neat idea and fairly well executed.

  A man has an uncanny encounter with a sofa.
• 
  KickOff (2010)

  Review preview for KickOff

  A screaming mess of a movie that is just a few performances away from a waste of time.

  A gay five-a-side team take on a team from an inner city.
• 
  Killer Bitch (2010)

  Review preview for Killer Bitch

  The humour is too half-baked to be either unpleasant or blackly funny.

  A woman is forced to become an assassin to entertain her blackmailers.
• 
  Karaoke (1996)

  Review preview for Karaoke

  Underlying everything is a sense of nihilism and borderline amorality in the face of destruction.

  A playwright is struck by cancer while working on the post-production of a TV drama.
• 
  The King's Speech (2010)

  Review preview for The King's Speech

  Although there is a lot of humour, crowd-pleasing fun and some award-worthy performances, there seems to be a lack of edge and darkness here.

  The relationship between King George VI and an unconventional Australian speech therapist.
• 
  Leo's Room (2009)

  Review preview for Leo's Room

  The director allows moments to linger, shots to be held and actors to provide understated performances.

  A chance encounter between two school friends has unexpected implications for their lives.
• 
  Life, Above All (2010)

  Review preview for Life, Above All

  Director Oliver Shmitz does a good job of balancing the immediate, visible tragedy of the characters we follow with a wider, national problem.

  A 12-year-old girl struggles to protect her family as her stepfather descends into alcoholism and her mother becomes increasingly ill, in a small town full of prejudice and hostility.
• 
  The Limits Of Control (2009)

  Review preview for The Limits Of Control

  I suspect even Jarmusch’s most ardent fans will find longeurs.

  A mysterious man shares coffee and conversation with people, writing down details on matchbook flaps. But what are his motives?
• 
  The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

  Review preview for The Lavender Hill Mob

  The writing itself is heavily structured – after 20 minutes in, it's set piece after set piece. Yet the events never feels episodic or predictable.

  A scheme to embezzle gold bullion goes awry in this classic black comedy.
• 
  Let Him Have It (1991)

  Review preview for Let Him Have It

  Christopher Ecclestone has rarely been better .

  True story of Derek Bentley, sentenced to death for a bungled robbery.
• 
  Lucky Old Bag (2009)

  Review preview for Lucky Old Bag

  A fairly straightforward piece, imbued with many quirky touches.

  A penny proves a lucky charm for a woman down on her luck.
• 
  Lucky (2010)

  Review preview for Lucky

  Although presenting a multifaceted view of the winners and losers behind the millions (or lack of them), it's an overwhelmingly upbeat, positive experience.

  The story of what happens when ordinary people hit the lottery jackpot.
• 
  The Man Next Door (2009)

  Review preview for The Man Next Door

  From the two-tone credit sequence to the jaunty camera angles, this is visually striking stuff.

  An architectural battle of wits.
• 
  Man Of Aran (1934)

  Review preview for Man Of Aran

  The black and white photography is rich and full of texture.

  Restored documentary about the people of Aran. On limited re-release.
• 
  A Marine Story (2010)

  Review preview for A Marine Story

  Weber's performance is the glue that binds this movie together.

  A highly capable soldier who is quietly dismissed after it's discovered she's a lesbian takes on the training of a troubled local teenager who wants to join up.
• 
  A Matter Of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt (2010)

  Review preview for A Matter Of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt

  Director Sally Rowe does a great job with this human side, making a relatively inaccessible subject emotionally engaging and throroughly entertaining.

  Documentary tracing a decade in the career of the British chef.
• 
  The Misfits (1961)

  Review preview for The Misfits

  Monroe inhabits the role, becomes the role – and with everything we now know about Monroe's final years, it becomes uncomfortably hard to say where the boundaries of fact and fiction lie.

  An unhappy woman takes a road trip with two strangers, looking to round up wild horses.
• 
  Mary Poppins (1964)

  Review preview for Mary Poppins

  There are great debates about what the best children’s film of all time is, but Mary Poppins surely has to be a strong contender.

  The dull lives of a banker's family are filled with magic by a rather unusual nanny.
• 
  Midnight In Paris (2011)

  Review preview for Midnight In Paris

  Effortlessly entertaining, infinitely likeable and surprisingly warm.

  A struggling writer visiting Paris with his fiancee explores the city's illustrious past in order to find his real passions.
• 
  Mighty Aphrodite (1995)

  Review preview for Mighty Aphrodite

  Even by Allen’s standards it’s an incredibly solipsistic spin on a tale that has undercurrents of the exploitation and oppression of women, failing relationships and the pitfalls of parenthood.

  A sports writer goes looking for the sex worker birth mother of his adopted son.
• 
  Modern Times (1936)

  Review preview for Modern Times

  Contains some of the little tramp’s most iconic movie moments.

  A factory worker struggles to come to terms with a rapidly changing world in this silent comedy classic.
• 
  Mother's Milk (2011)

  Review preview for Mother's Milk

  Less like Rashomon and more like an episode of Eastenders.

  When an elderly matriarch decides to bequeath the family home to a charlatan's cult, resentments among her family come to the fore.
• 
  Mommie Dearest (1981)

  Review preview for Mommie Dearest

  Regardless of your tolerance for high camp and massive hair, you've got to admit it's memorable.

  Controversial story of Joan Crawford, based on the memoirs of her adopted daughter.
• 
  Nolan's Cheddar (2010)

  Review preview for Nolan's Cheddar

  With a central character as cute as this one, you could forgive it anything.

  Mouse meets cheese, but life is never that simple.
• 
  The Oath (2010)

  Review preview for The Oath

  A low-key, but fascinating, documentary.

  The story of two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a course of events that led them to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo, and the US Supreme Court.
• 
  One From The Heart (1981)

  Review preview for One From The Heart

  The performances are generally solid, the soundtrack and visuals wonderful and the ambition is vaulting, but it is ultimately a failed experiment.

  After a couple split up on their anniversary they find the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side.
• 
  The Pipe (2010)

  Review preview for The Pipe

  In between helicopter shots of the glorious landscape and the slightly irritating finger-wagging, there's a good story here with a sprinkling of jaw-dropping moments.

  A documentary about a County Mayo campaign against the laying of a new Shell oil pipeline.
• 
  Rabbit Hole (2010)

  Review preview for Rabbit Hole

  The biggest problem is the cold distance from subject matter; the capturing of grief's dislocation and shock is as frightening as it should be, but it's never underpinned with enough psychological insight or clarity to convince completely.

  Eight months after the death of their son, a couple are still trying to cope with grief.
• 
  A Real Life (2009)

  Review preview for A Real Life

  Here is a filmmaker who has reinterpreted and commented on films she clearly has an affection for.

  A chance meeting following a car crash plunges a young woman into an unfamiliar criminal underworld.
• 
  RoboGeisha (2009)

  Review preview for RoboGeisha

  The girls’ foray into swapping breasts for machine guns and fingers for knives strains for an eternally peaking crescendo which sees plot and humour sacrificed for wanton lunacy.

  Sibling rivals opt for surgery in the battle for their master's attention.
• 
  Radio Days (1987)

  Review preview for Radio Days

  Warmth emanates from its mature, observational roots. The gags represent the best of Allen's comedic evolution.

  A young comics fan tries to escape from the suffocating influence of his Jewish family in Forties New York.
• 
  The Remains Of The Day (1993)

  Review preview for The Remains Of The Day

  The ideas are presented in a crisp, unfussy way by James Ivory. He’s working with an intelligent script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and two impeccable central performances by Hopkins and Thompson.

  A butler realises late in life the folly of his devotion to the household he has served.
• 
  Risen (2010)

  Review preview for Risen

  With its lack of character insight and misdirected lack of focus, Risen is never going to be the knock out its central character once was.

  Biopic of featherweight boxing world champion Howard Winstone.
• 
  Secret Santa (2010)

  Review preview for Secret Santa

  Not even the quality of the animation or the music is up to much in this throwaway affair.

  Short of cash, Santa decides to become a stripper.
• 
  Shock Treatment (1981)

  Review preview for Shock Treatment

  Does seem to predict reality television, and satirise it, in a frighteningly prescient way.

  A sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show which sees Brad and Janet get out of their depth after competing in a game show.
• 
  Silent Voices (2009)

  Review preview for Silent Voices

  Lea Fehner bites off more than she can chew.

  A prison in Marseille forms the centrepiece of a series of interlocking stories.
• 
  The Snowman (2009)

  Review preview for The Snowman

  What impresses most is Lamont's intelligent and absorbing approach to her material.

  A daughter's journey to try to find out what triggered her father's mental illness.
• 
  Snowman's Land (2010)

  Review preview for Snowman's Land

  The set up is good, but the pay off is less successful.

  When a contract killer on the run takes what looks like an easy job in the mountains, things go from bad to worse.