Ben Nicholson

★★★★★ “Chewie, we’re home” states Han Solo as he reunites with the Millennium Falcon, at the same time neatly summing up JJ Abrams’ seventh episode in cinema’s most enduring mythology, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). They’re important not only because they provide expectant hordes with a first glimpse of a craggy Solo (Harrison Ford),…

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★★★★☆ Given the very nature of the Czechoslovak New Wave, it may seem obvious to note that certain films focused on the individual’s relationship with the state. In the case of the second volume of Second Run’s collected works from the movement, however, it is a necessity. Comprised of Milos Forman’s A Blonde in Love…

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★★★☆☆ In an act of alchemy thoroughly appropriate to his subject matter, Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson manages to be both clear and misty-eyed about the traditions of the circus and vaudeville in new archive documentary The Show of Shows (2015). After the interlocking segments of his wonderful feature debut Of Horses and Men, Erlingsson crafts a…

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★★★☆☆ There’s a scene around forty minutes into Philip Ridley’s cult feature debut in which a boy sees a man fellating a petrol pump before striking a match to his gasoline-covered body. The boy, Seth (Jeremy Cooper), doesn’t seem to entirely comprehend what’s happening, but he is both deeply unnerved and utterly transfixed. This is…

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★★★★☆ In the opening scene of Todd Haynes’ Carol (2015), Cate Blanchett’s eponymous character places a hand on the shoulder of Rooney Mara’s Therese as they apparently bid goodbye to one another. The narrative subsequently tracks back to the pair’s first meeting before following their relationship chronologically. When, just under two hours later, the action…

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★★★★☆ It was the early 1950s when Vojtěch Jasný began penning the screenplay for the his most celebrated work, though it seemed unlikely to see the light of day due to its provocative politics. The corruption and failure that slowly infects a small village throughout the narrative is not one attributed to personal greed or…

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★★★☆☆ It’s hardly a stretch to say that when Despicable Me debuted to enormous success in 2010, many of the accolades were being fired in the direction of its heaving mass of supporting players. From Jerry to Dave, to Phil to Tim, the yellow pill-shaped little blighters provided oodles of slapstick hilarity to complement Gru’s…

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★★★★★ La petite mort is inextricably entwined with the grand one in Jiří Menzel’s wonderful Closely Observed Trains (1966). A bittersweet and funny coming-of-age tale, it doubles as an allegorical quest for a nation’s cojones amidst the milieu of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Freudian readings of narrative and mise en scène are lustily encouraged as the challenge…

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★★★☆☆ Horror cinema is forever walking a terrifying tightrope between internal anguish and external torment. This endless battle rages in the both the creeps and conventions of Corin Hardy’s directorial The Hallow (2015). The music video director has made an assured first step into the realm of feature films but, much like his protagonists, he’s…

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★★★★☆ When The Lego Movie (2014) was surprisingly overlooked at the Academy Awards earlier in the year, one of the theories posited for its shock exclusion was to do with technique. If the animators involved in shortlisting were showing preference for more old-fashioned, unique, and hand-crafted creations then it is very clear to see why…

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