Simon Amstell’s bracingly frank and personally impressed Benjamin is a très charmante movie
“I think it was… kind of a experiment, you know”
There’s a degree of meta-storytelling on the coronary heart of Benjamin that makes you realise that this actually is Simon Amstell’s movie by means of and thru. An awkward love story between two self-effacing fey artists, surrounded by drolly hilarious media sorts with bon mots dripping off their lips, you possibly can effectively think about that there’s a part of him in just about all the key characters.
At the guts of the movie in Colin Morgan’s Benjamin, a film-maker who rode excessive on early success along with his debut and now crippled with self-doubt that he hasn’t obtained the chops to observe it up. And as his work ideas in direction of pretentious nonsense, a self-fulfilling prophecy rolling spherical, he’s left watching his agent and producer and writing associate and main man shifting on.
His saving grace is available in falling laborious for Noah, a younger French musician, however as they negotiate the trials of their mutual shyness within the fast-paced world of London’s media scene, can they hack it? Morgan is pitch good as Benjamin, superbly wry in his self-deprecating method and there’s a clear-eyed recognition that adorkable as a character can get fairly carrying fairly quickly.
He’s surrounded by some nice supporting performances too. Jessica Raine and Anna Chancellor are scene-stealingly nice because the agent and producer respectively, Joel Fry is sweet enjoyable because the pal and Phénix Brossard’s Noah shimmers with fragility and feeling as you possibly can’t fairly determine whether or not these guys must be collectively or not. Ellie Kendrick and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett additionally excel with single-scene standout work.