The journey is pretty bleak, rarely varies in tone and as for Ben, just as he struggles to relate to the world, how are we meant to relate to him?

| Aug 23, 2018

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 16, 2011

There is a lot to like about this daring drama but the final act pushes the suspension of disbelief to the extreme.

| Mar 26, 2009

In adapting his novel and subsequent stage play, first-time writer-director Nic Balthazar seems more intent on impressing World of Warcraft gamers than honestly exploring the inner life of the mildly autistic boy at the center of his story.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 26, 2009

The film is harrowing, if maybe a bit melodramatic, until it crashes and burns in a feel-good ending.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 29, 2008

A provocative, exultant stunner.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 5, 2008

There's not a moment of warmth or ease in Ben X, Nic Balthazar's punishingly cacophonous debut.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 24, 2008

The best movie I've seen about teen angst since Donnie Darko comes from Belgium?

| Oct 22, 2008

Balthazar's aesthetic is ugly, aloof, maddeningly literal and unimaginative.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 19, 2008

It is based on a successful play and has won festival awards. But its convoluted plot and an ending which we are not sure is real or fantasy prevent it striking home as well as it might.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 29, 2008

This "issue" movie from Belgian director Nic Balthazar throws a dramatic feint so improbable one can almost see a cartoon question mark floating above the audience's heads.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 29, 2008

It's a promising idea that hits the skids.

| Aug 29, 2008

The next it has cast all narrative sense to the winds as it grabs desperately at a triumphant (even feel-good) ending. So much good work, undone at a stroke.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 29, 2008

Ben X is about nothing and nothing.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 29, 2008

The film's moral, technological and psychological themes are glazed over, and the manner in which Ben finally conquers his personal demons is laughably overblown.

| Original Score: 2/6 | Aug 29, 2008

Nic Balthazar's morality tale is a shrewd exercise in expectation-subversion.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2008

What leads off like a docudrama of the social ills accompanying a misunderstood condition merges into fantasy until, in very clever ways, director Nic Balthazar turns the medium into the message.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2008

It's not the overarching naturalism of the performance that stands out but the conceptual breakdown of the portrayal into smaller, loosely connected segments.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2008

[Director Nic] Balthazar's determination to draw a positive message from a negative situation doesn't quite fit.

Full Review | Dec 5, 2007