Reviews by James Benefield

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Cherry On The Cake (2009)

  Review preview for Cherry On The Cake

  Totally charming.

  A young girl is disappointed on her birthday.
• 
  Breakfast (2010)

  Review preview for Breakfast

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

  Meat is murder in a grisly fairy tale.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Thelma, Louise And Chantal (2010)

  Review preview for Thelma, Louise And Chantal

  This is the movie Sex And The City should have been.

  Three women discover shared passions and form a powerful bond as they go on a road trip together to an ex-boyfriend's wedding.
• 
  Whisky With Vodka (2009)

  Review preview for Whisky With Vodka

  It's the sense of claustrophobia, and the tension emanating from it, which are key to the film's success.

  Dry comedy about the drunken antics of a past-his-prime star, which threaten to derail his latest movie.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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 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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Soul Boy (2010)

  Review preview for Soul Boy

  It is formulaic, but it's also bursting with conviction and insight.

  A boy goes in search of his father's lost soul.
• 
  Speed (1994)

  Review preview for Speed

  A heart-in-your-mouth experience.

  A blackmailer places a bomb on a bus. The bomb will explode if the bus slows down.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  Company Limited (1971)

  Review preview for Company Limited

  Nigh-on unmissable.

  Acidic middle-class drama set in Calcutta.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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?
• 
  Samson And Delilah (2009)

  Review preview for Samson And Delilah

  The movie works by getting under your skin in ways that you only realise when the situation turns sour.

  Winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes, sees an Aboriginal couple drawn together after tragedy strikes.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  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.
• 
  The Time Traveller's Wife (2009)

  Review preview for The Time Traveller's Wife

  No more than fleetingly touching, rather than achingly romantic.

  A woman falls in love with a man who spontaneously travels in time.
• 
  Swimming With Sharks (1994)

  Review preview for Swimming With Sharks

  Spacey is served by some wonderful lines, which could have come from a bloody pen of Satan.

  A frustrated studio assistant attempts to exact a violent revenge on his bullying boss.
• 
  Sleeper (1973)

  Review preview for Sleeper

  Flippant, clever and packed full of intelligence.

  After going into hospital for minor surgery, a health store owner awakens in a strange future world.
• 
  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.