Perhaps the most surprising critical hit of the past decade, The Lego Movie did the impossible in 2014 by disproving the cynical rule that commercial product movies have to be soulless. Sugary to the extreme, the film launched a yellow brick franchise that in just five years transgressed from novel to tired. To this end, Mike Mitchell’s follow up to the original – The Second Part – has some major ground to regain for the sake of the franchise’s ongoing longevity. Oddly – for what is essentially a rehash – he’s managed a very genuine success.
In much the same way that Boy Erased curiously paralleled The Miseducation of Cameron Post months later, Ben is Back sees arthouse starlet Lucas Hedges lead a belated companion piece to Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy. Both features concern the strain of parental connection in the face of a crippling drug addiction. Whereas the latter told the tale of father and son, the former offers the perspective of a mother. It’s moving stuff, very well directed and performed with outstanding nuance by a tremendous cast.
Being associated with comedy must be a burden. Wearing this weight of expectation, it’s no wonder that Jessica Hynes looks quite so exhausted throughout her directorial debut. The Fight is not, however, a comedy. Revolving around a plot concerned with the genealogy of bullying, this is actually surprisingly sober material from the star of Twenty Twelve and Up the Women. As first features go, it’s a touch uneven but essentially promising.
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