I've been waiting, hoping to discover a film that would move me here at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, and it finally came.
This is a jaw-dropping, heart-stopping work of true genius from director Nic Balthazar. "Ben X" is Belgium's Academy submission and has made the Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign Language Picture. It won Most Popular Film, the Grand Prix des Ameriques, and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Montreal Film Festival, and it's easy to see why. Not much can be said about "Ben X" without disclosing spoilers, however, so I'll just say that Ben is a high school boy who has trouble distinguishing between his real life and the characters in the video games he's addicted to. Difficult subjects are addressed during the film and should be taken into consideration when making the decision to see it.
One of my hopes in attending festivals is to find at least one film that will "wow" me, literally. It's that moment when the credits roll and I turn to my seatmates and say "wow" (and they to me) which makes all the traveling worth it. It doesn't happen too often. I saw over 200 films at over a dozen festivals in 2007 and don't remember it happening more than a few times. It hasn't happened at all in the last few I've attended. Well, it happened tonight. "Ben X" is without a doubt not only the best film I've seen here so far but one of the best I've seen in years.
This is a jaw-dropping, heart-stopping work of true genius from director Nic Balthazar. "Ben X" is Belgium's Academy submission and has made the Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign Language Picture. It won Most Popular Film, the Grand Prix des Ameriques, and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Montreal Film Festival, and it's easy to see why. Not much can be said about "Ben X" without disclosing spoilers, however, so I'll just say that Ben is a high school boy who has trouble distinguishing between his real life and the characters in the video games he's addicted to. Difficult subjects are addressed during the film and should be taken into consideration when making the decision to see it.
One of my hopes in attending festivals is to find at least one film that will "wow" me, literally. It's that moment when the credits roll and I turn to my seatmates and say "wow" (and they to me) which makes all the traveling worth it. It doesn't happen too often. I saw over 200 films at over a dozen festivals in 2007 and don't remember it happening more than a few times. It hasn't happened at all in the last few I've attended. Well, it happened tonight. "Ben X" is without a doubt not only the best film I've seen here so far but one of the best I've seen in years.