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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    • 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
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Time Out of Mind
    Gere does a fantastic job of embodying this broken man... It's an incredibly moving performance that lends Time Out of Mind emotional weight and anchors this contemplation of a man adrift in a world that doesn't appear to care.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Kate Plays Christine
    Greene seeks a deeper truth amidst the fragments of arch drama and investigatory reportage; artifice and reality bleed into one another with ease, the transitions smoothed by Sean Price Williams' photography.
    • 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
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Mysterious Object at Noon
    So many thematic and tonal elements of Weerasethakul's later, more celebrated films, are evident in Mysterious Object at Noon that it would be easy to consider as a formative exercise alone, but even as he began to explore these fertile soils, he was creating a work of captivating and arresting beauty.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Interstellar
    Interstellar may not be perfect, but tent-pole filmmaking with such ambition and grandeur is always worth celebrating.
    • 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.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Utama
    An understated but spectacularly mounted drama.
    • 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
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Exhibition
    While it is serious, Hogg also manages to insert some oddball humour and a little hopeful levity into the proceedings. The fractures provide the absolutely riveting subject matter, but Exhibition shows the potential for healing and confirms its director's place at the forefront of intriguing British filmmakers.
    • 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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Christine
    It is Hall for which this film will be sought out and remembered, and she elicits such a great deal of empathy as to make the inevitable climax all the more gut-wrenching.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Doctor Strange
    While it hardly pushes the envelope in terms of developing Marvel's homogenous narrative conveyor-belt, it does do so in other areas, suggesting that the MCU can see beyond the confines of its first two phases.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    22 Jump Street
    22 Jump Street is hugely successful in retaining - and in many instances, improving upon - the qualities of it predecessor and pitching some jokes that will still have people chuckling for days afterwards.
    • 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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    John Wick
    Above all else John Wick is a lean, mean revenger to go with its ice-cold protagonist. It's not perfect, but you'll be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable action movie this year.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Ned Rifle
    Rife with the director's trademark stylistic preferences, this is a blast of an idiosyncratic comedy full of brilliant deadpan performances that offer a wickedly funny and poignant conclusion to the fable.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Avengers: Age of Ultron
    With Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon doesn't merely hit it out of the park, he Hulk-smashes it.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Wedding Doll
    Wedding Doll may be a small film, but it's deftly executed and built on two remarkable leading performances.
    • 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.
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