Ben X | Film Review | Slant Magazine

FILM MOVIE REVIEW

Ben X *½

by Ed Gonzalez on October 18, 2008 Jump to Comments (2) or Add Your Own

Buy on Amazon:

Video

"Afterschool plays like a film student's demo reel of the various ways to signify 'alienation'—shallow depth of field, over-lit sterile interiors, ambient sounds of fluorescent light hums, expressionless actors, methodical tracking shots frequently overrunning or catching up to their human subjects." That's how Reverse Shot writer Michael Joshua Rowin described Antonio Campos's film, which feels like a masterpiece next to Ben X, Nic Balthazar's belligerently aestheticized adaptation of his own novel about a boy who retreats further into the Medieval fantasy of a computer role-playing game the more he's mistreated at school. Ben (Greg Timmermans) is the target of bullies because he has autism, or because he's plagued by the same rapid-aging disease Gabrielle Carteris's character had on Beverly Hills 90210, and his journey, from madness to retribution, feels as if it's been ripped from the "Make Love, Not Warcraft" episode of South Park. Even when he's away from home, Ben lives as if he were still playing his videogame, imagining the destruction of bullies at the hand of his online avatar and recovering from humiliation through contact with a "healer"—a virtual girlfriend known as Scarlite (Laura Verlinden). For much of its running time, the film simulates the battle mode of role-playing games like Warcraft and Final Fantasy, with Ben's options (like his available weapons) and health monitors often blaring on screen, before flipping on a coin and ending as a schmaltzy PSA. Balthazar's aesthetic is ugly, aloof, maddeningly literal and unimaginative, but at least the visual excess of the film is on par with the histrionic bullying Ben is subjected to and the hilarious revenge he gets at the end—a corny guilt trip unsurprisingly scored to Sigur Rós.

Director(s): Nic Balthazar
Screenplay: Nic Balthazar
Cast: Greg Timmermans, Laura Verlinden, Marijke Pinoy, Pol Goossen, Titus De Voogdt, Maarten Claeyssens, Tania Van der Sanden, Johan Heldenberg, Jakob Beks, Peter De Graef
Distributor: Film Movement
Runtime: 93 min.
Rating: NR
Year: 2007

Comments

JPO on April 14, 2010, 09:53 PM

First and foremost, place the dictionary down. It is overly obvious that you my friend have never been the product of "histrionic" bullying. Who are you to judge what is overly dramatic, or forced? It happens guy and more often than your shielded eyes care to see. Take it from a 7 year high school teacher with much experience on the topic at hand.

Then to debunk the aesthetics, what the hell were you doing at the time of the viewing? I can conjure a scenario or two, maybe you were overly concerned with your daughter and her whereabouts, or your wife and why you don't get the meals that once graced your dinner table, or maybe it is the boyfriend you crave but do not have the intestinal fortitude to confront.

I'm just throwing darts in the dark here, as are you.

This movie is many levels more touching than your lepton-state-of-mind can grapple. Your review puts the fat to fire and prevents anyone from exploring this. Why would one be adamently opposed as you for the message is about redemption and life man!

Let us put it this way, if they gave awards for pontificating windbags who cry to be heard: You win by a landslide. Have you fullfilled your anti-establishment quota for raping inovative films and discrediting true attempts to highlight thee tenor of the times?

I'm sure you suck the ass of Donnie Darko as well.

gv1966 on March 19, 2012, 02:22 PM

I agree with JPO. I created an account just to let you know that. I am a mother of a 22 year old son with Aspergers and I know that this film is unfortunately very real for Aspies and their families. It is supposed to give the audience a glimpse into the mind of a person with Asperger's. It was filmed in such a way as to help those who don't have this condition see what it's like from the inside out, and how it affects the families as well. My son has described to me how things are for him, thinking patters, sensitivity to sounds and all of the external things going on around him, his feelings and inability or difficulty to express them, etc. This film, because it was filmed in this way, helped me to get a "visual" and better understanding of what my son has described to me and I can tell you that the actors did an EXCELLENT job, and Ben's character fits my son's almost to a T, expressionlessness and all. This film should be used in schools as an anti-bullying tool and to raise awareness in our communities. It is difficult to watch because of the intense emotions you feel throughout the movie, anger, frustration, sadness... all rang too true for our family.

You are obviously naive about Asperger's/Autism related conditions and the heartbreak it causes when your child falls prey to bullies, or maybe you yourself were a bully at one time . Next time, before you decide to burn a film that is meant to cause awareness about such a heartbreaking subject, as was the intent of this movie, please educate yourself. Hopefully by now you have, since this is an old critique.

This is the kind of film that everyone needs to see, not the vain, empty films that are merely for entertainment and don't carry an important message to it's audience. We need more of these types of films. I'm grateful that Nic Balthazar decided to make this movie.