Ben Daniels

Ben Daniels

Screenwriter, creator, film lover - animation, musicals, and camp

Favorite films

  • Monsters, Inc.
  • Yentl
  • Dumbo
  • Singin' in the Rain

Recent activity

All
  • Nosferatu

    ★★★★

  • Anora

    ★★★★

  • Paddington in Peru

    ★★★★★

  • The Monkey

    ★★½

Recent reviews

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  • Nosferatu

    Nosferatu

    ★★★★

    Nosferatu feels like a throwback. The kind of thing Tim Burton would cast Helena Bonham Carter in. And not in a bad way at all. I don’t remember the last time I watched something so classically gothic horror. It’s a genre I didn’t know I missed until I watched this. The cinematography is astonishing. The use or natural light perfectly conveys its tone, with hues of delectable blues, oranges and deep blacks. It is one of the most stunning films of…

  • Anora

    Anora

    ★★★★

    As funny, moving, and brilliant the second time around. Surprisingly rewatchable

Popular reviews

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  • Babylon

    Babylon

    ★★★★

    I will say right off the bat that Babylon is going to be a very divisive film. Its subject matter reminded me a lot of Blonde, and we all know how that turned out. I, however, thought that this was a magnificent window into cinema history, with a shocking amount of accuracy that we haven’t really seen portrayed in film before. A lot less romanticized like Damien’s own La La Land was, a lot more gritty and explicit. I really appreciated that.…

  • The Monkey

    The Monkey

    ★★½

    It’s camp but like… bad camp. The Monkey is everything wrong with Stephen King’s work. Contrast this to something like Life of Chuck, which highlights his strengths as a writer. This is an example of how, when placed in the wrong hands, a Stephen King adaptation won’t do much else but expose his storytelling flaws, his patterns, his contrivances. It’s a well shot film, but it’s backed by a weak script and even weaker execution. All in all, visually it’s…