Ben Nicholson

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CineVue, The Film Verdict
For 142 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 40% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Ben Nicholson's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 69
Highest review score: 100 Arabian Nights: Volume 3, The Enchanted One
Lowest review score: 40 The Gunman
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 69 out of 142
  2. Mixed: 73 out of 142
  3. Negative: 0 out of 142
142 movie reviews
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    • 89 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
    Taking Eastern watercolours as inspiration, the aesthetic is impressionistic and painterly with a fluidity that imbues the piece with an intrinsic magic.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Ilo Ilo
    Throughout, each of Ilo Ilo's performers give wonderfully naturalistic turns, providing the entire film with a heartening authenticity.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    '71
    '71 is a pulse-raising actioner that stumbles a little in navigating the typically hazardous political terrain.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    No Home Movie
    It's impossible not to be sucked into, but it's equally impossible not to imagine how much more significant No Home Movie might have been.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Eden
    A sense of humour and nostalgia are both employed successfully to skirt the potential inertia of Paul's slowly declining career, and though de Givry's performance is quietly moving, one may have just hoped that Eden would get under its subject's skin a little bit more.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Right Now, Wrong Then
    It's endearing, but unlikely to convert those that have previously resisted the director's charms.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Martian
    The Martian is ultimately a love letter to the spirit that saw humanity reach for the stars in the first place. When it's channelling that spirit via Damon and witty writing it lifts off, but then can't quite sustain its trajectory in orbit.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Lady Snowblood
    Stylishly shot and full of blood spraying from slashed necks, shoulders and stomachs, Lady Snowblood is a thoroughly enjoyable and arty exploitation flick which has deservedly gone on to become a cult hit.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Face of an Angel
    Winterbottom's The Face of an Angel makes for compelling viewing, painting an arresting character portrait even if it avoids the direct engagement with the original (and much-discussed) crime that some people may have been expecting.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
    For Herzog it is people that matter and he's just as fascinated by Elon Musk's gazing at the stars as those battering their keyboards or avoiding them altogether.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    The Death of Louis XIV
    The period atmosphere isn't alive with bold ideas as much as decay.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Revenant
    Though there's an awful lot to be admired - not least an enormously impressive soundscape - The Revenant ultimately lacks the nerve-jangling thrills or the spiritual resonance that it strives for.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Goodbye to Language 3D
    Godard is not willing to sit back in his dotage but strives to push at the boundaries of the medium, resulting in this rich, witty and thoroughly baffling provocation. Less of a narrative or a thesis than an esoteric patchwork visual essay condemning our fallen society, it's intent on being as abrasive as possible in almost every way.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Afterimage
    For all of the perfection of the period-detail browns and greys, Afterimage could have done with a touch more colour.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Big Hero 6
    It is, after all, the Baymax show - and he is cute, cuddly, comedy gold. Fortunately, although Big Hero 6 has various flaws, he's generally on hand to patch them.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    13 Minutes
    The story begins with the film's defining act and most accomplished sequence but, despite handsome execution, never hits those heights again in a plot where familiarity severely dampens the squib.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
    By focusing on the family, James makes Abacus about resilience and humility rather than the mechanics of litigation and in doing so underscores - perhaps more strongly than in other louder films on similar subjects - the injustice of the situation.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Sunset Song
    While there is hardship and anguish, Davies' deliberate and treatment of the source material ultimately lessens the dramatic impact even while it retains its splendour.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    American Sniper
    Despite a delicate handling of Kyle's internal struggles on home soil, deeper complexity appears to lie just out of frame throughout.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny
    Louis Black and Karen Bernstein pay warm tribute to the filmmaker in what is a fitting ode to independent spirit more than a penetrating portrait.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Mystery Road
    The measured narrative and anti-climactic finale do mean that Mystery Road doesn’t pander to all tastes, and it never conforms to thriller conventions, but Sen has undoubtedly succeeded in fashioning a thoroughly engrossing journey into a modern Australian wilderness that’s well worth seeking out.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Bobby Sands: 66 Days
    Though it is clearly a work of great empathy and respect, Bobby Sands: 66 Days takes pains to offer alternative perspectives and as such makes for a richly textured and complex portrait of man, myth and movement.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Theory of Everything
    With so many elements working on such a high plain, it is ultimately a shame that The Theory of Everything remains a formulaic biopic with a scope far narrower than its subject. Still, it broaches universal themes through the story of a man who studies the universe, and succeeds in being a life and love-affirming along the way.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Brand New Testament
    Striking a balance between the dark and combative religious humour and its more saccharine elements proves difficult.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    Half of a Yellow Sun
    An uneven blend of melodrama and the horrors of civil war, it should be anchored by strong leads but instead remains listless and adrift.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Hateful Eight
    The Hateful Eight is easily Tarantino's most fantastic film in terms of its visuals, its period detail and its award-worthy score, but it suffers from the director's common pitfalls while lacking the verve that so often carries him through.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Long Riders
    The main hook of The Long Riders is clearly in the casting, but this never feels gimmicky in a film that attempts to balance the pastoral and the brutal. It’s a noble ambition and one which works for the most part; there are occasions upon which it means a jarring switch of tone but largely the timbre remains consistently elegiac.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    One Floor Below
    To suggest that One Floor Below operates at a simmer would be to exaggerate the level of heat being applied to the pot. This is one that Muntean is happy to let bubble intermittently, cranking the tension around on a scarcely-moving winch.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Deadpool
    For a film that vocally questions convention, it's perhaps a shame that Miller and co. played it so safe with a fairly cookie-cutter origin story, but it's really just there to give Reynolds ammunition to riff on. Whether the studio might be willing to push the character further into the leftfield in the future will depend on whether Deadpool warrants sequels.
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