Ben Nicholson

★☆☆☆☆ Horror is a genre which regularly sees very low, even micro-budget entries from first time directors, especially since the advancement of digital filmmaking. This has seen the market becoming saturated with poor and unoriginal fare, but, every so often, something breaks through the gloom, jumping out and thrilling its audience. Sadly, that is most…

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★★★☆☆ With acting credits to his name including Adulthood (2008), Harry Brown (2009) and The Sweeney (2012), as well as a clutch of music awards adorning his mantle, rapper and singer-songwriter Ben Drew (aka Plan B) has now turned his hand to film direction. Blending grim social drama with his own hip-hop musings, Ill Manors…

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★★☆☆☆ Sweat flies, crowds bounce, and teens fall in love in Adam Shankman’s film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Rock of Ages (2012). The man behind 2007’s Hairspray returns to familiar territory for this 1980s-set jukebox musical featuring classic tracks from Starship, Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi and Pat Benatar amongst others. Regrettably, it’s hard…

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★★★★☆ On some occasions, inventive documentary filmmaking can really enliven a subject that had little allure to begin with. On others, all the director really need do is aim the camera in the right direction and hit record; as their subject is already endlessly fascinating. The latter is most certainly the case with Alison Klayman’s…

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★★☆☆☆ The 2011 Sundance Film Festival saw the premiere of Nicholas McCarthy’s fourth short film. One year later, the director returns with his debut feature, a reworking of that very same short in the form of The Pact (2012). Adopting a familiar haunted house-style setup, McCarthy looks to make the film feel a bit more…

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★☆☆☆☆ In 2007, Jon Sanders and Nora Hoppe wrote The Belgrade Manifesto, lamenting the stagnation of cinematic language and encouraging other directors to embrace the digital revolution. This all sounds exciting and with filmmakers such as Aki Kaurismäki, Gareth Evans, and Alexander Sokurov signing it, one would think it would be. It’s a shame then,…

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★★☆☆☆ Getting to see the processes behind Heston Blumenthal’s wacky culinary experiments on various television shows is something that many members of the public thoroughly enjoy. You might think then, that the chance to peek behind the scenes at a thee Michelin-starred restaurant in Catalonia, Spain, that is considered one of the finest purveyors of…

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★★★☆☆ It’s been some forty years since Meiko Kaji first sprayed gore across the snowy ground as she was introduced to the world in Shito Fukijawa’s cult hit Lady Snowblood (1973). The film, based on a manga comic of the same name, went on to spawn one sequel, Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance…

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★★★★☆ Italian director Alice Rohrwacher’s debut feature Corpo Celeste (2011) is a gently confident story of a young girl, attempting to survive her adolescence and understand her faith against the backdrop of an alien Italian community. Thirteen-year-old Marta (Yle Vianello) returns to southern Italy with her mother and older sister after spending her childhood in…

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★★★★☆ The 2012 StudioCanal Collection brings together some of cinema’s most iconic films, both past and present. The latest classics to make their way onto Blu-ray courtesy of the UK distributor’s 5000-strong catalogue of titles come from Orson Welles, Luis Buñuel and Marcel Carné in the forms of The Trial (1962), That Obscure Object of…

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