By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Simon Amstell
Starring: Anna Chancellor | Colin Morgan | Jessica Raine | Joel Fry | Phénix Brossard
Country: united_kingdom
Year: 2020
Running time: 85
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7455076/reference
Michael says: “British romantic comedy BENJAMIN is one of those films that’s amusing up to a point, then it moves into insufferable and nearly unbearable to watch. I know I’m in the minority here, (BENJAMIN has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 89%), and I also know I have a fairly low tolerance for gay romantic comedies (although the problems I had with BENJAMIN are not the usual problems I have with gay rom-coms) but after a promising start and an interesting premise, I had hoped for better. Benjamin (Colin Morgan) is a young filmmaker, whose debut was a surprise indie hit. Now he is beside himself with anxiety upon the release of his second feature , which is all about the main characters (played by Benjamin) exploring his perceived inability to love. It’s a concern shared by Benjamin the filmmaker as well (and something makes me ponder whether BENJAMIN’s director, Simon Amstell, might not have been going through the same things as he made his second feature film). It’s all so meta, really. Benjamin is cute, in a geeky boys way, painfully awkward, but disarmingly witty, and basically a bundle of neuroses with non-stop verbal diarrhea. Fortunately, he surrounds himself with equally quirky companions: Aspiring comedian Stephen (Joel Fry) who is Benjamin’s best friend, his doting, yet fickle producer, Tessa (Anna Chancellor) and his frankly, batshit crazy manager Billie (Jessica Raine). On the eve before his film’s premiere, Billie convinces Benjamin to attend a party to celebrate a chair (don’t ask, that’s the kind of sarcastically trendy humor the film tosses about) where he sees, becomes instantly obsessed with, and meets (in that order) the lead singer of a mopey band, Noah (Phénix Brossard) who also just happens to be French, to Benjamin’s Irish. I think that’s supposed to make them cuter). Shockingly, Noah is similarly intrigued by Benjamin, and the two spend the night together. The rest of the film involves Benjamin screwing things up over and over because of his inability to express love, until the invariably expected realization that he CAN actually feel and express love and everything is good..