Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Gringo however has a lot more in common with a Netflix original, boasting an impressive cast in a blandly shot and misfiring drama, and if Amazon had sent it straight to their streaming service, nobody would be calling it cinema's loss. Review

Wonder Wheel isn't the worst movie Allen has ever made, but it might be the worst he's ever written. Thank Italian cinematography God Vittorio Storaro then that it's one of the best looking movies Allen has delivered in years. Review

It's a film that inspires outrage from its audience at the treatment of its protagonist, but it never asks us to pity her. Strong and defiant throughout, if brittle within, Marina is a figure of inspiration, and you don't leave the film feeling sorry for her, rather you exit wishing you had an ounce of her fortitude. Review

While its probably too light on action and explicit thrills to fully sate fans of more bombastic sci-fi, and lacking enough originality to earn classic status within the genre, Annihilation does enough with its melting pot premise to please an audience somewhere in the middle-ground, and hopefully Netflix's recommendation algorithm will lead its viewers on a path of sci-fi discovery of their own. Review

Each viewer will have their own opinion on what's best for the young man, but thanks to Jandreau's endearingly captivating performance and Zhao's compassionate approach, you'll be rooting for him all the way regardless of his decision. Review

The Cured plays best when it's dealing with the relationship between Senan and Abbie, the latter torn between her liberal, accepting nature and her need to keep her son safe. Keely effectively evokes sympathy as he conveys his character's self-doubt regarding the effectiveness of his cure and his fear of regressing to his infected state. Review

While it may be a damning indictment of the regressive gender politics of her country, Surya's film is a visually splendid tribute to its natural beauty. Review

The more plot twists it throws up, the more we find ourselves scratching our heads at how it consistently contradicts itself and appears to be making up its plot on the fly. Review

The contemporary audience for Schrader's work may be a fraction of that of his '70s prime, but his words still affect us, perhaps now more than ever. As long as he keeps penning sermons, we'll keep listening. Review

Unlike most thrillers, with their wooden stock characters, the people Shigemori encounters over the course of his investigation are just that - people. No matter how small a role they play, Kore-eda makes every single character feel like a living, breathing person with their own story playing out offscreen... Review

Less successful is the mute aspect of Leo's character, which does little but add running time to an already snail-paced narrative, as our hero communicates by writing down notes and asking strangers to speak into voice recognition devices. Review

Sweet Country is so blunt in its depiction of racial bigotry that it hammers home just how safe most modern American movies depicting racism play their drama. Review

For hardcore devotees of gothic horror, The Lodgers' effectively gloomy aesthetic, period setting, and Vega's tortured, romantically doomed heroine may prove enough of a surface diversion, but for more general horror fans, O'Malley's film fails to bring enough originality to an increasingly crowded genre table. Review

The movie's most successful scenes are those shared between the brother/sister dynamic when the past is kept ambiguous, yet I can't help think they would have been far more rewarding if we didn't know from the off why so much anger exists between them. Review

Largely devoid of human warmth for long periods, Journeyman too often feels like an exercise in exploitative misery porn, and while its manipulative moments are undoubtedly affecting, there's a sense that Considine is simply pressing emotional buttons for a reaction. Review

Fifty Shades Freed goes out of its way to infuriate its target female audience with a neat line in outdated misogyny. Review

If Eastwood was trying to push my political and philosophical buttons here, he succeeded. I regularly found myself fuming at some of the Christian fundamentalist, anti-science, anti-authoritarian sentiment on display, but I'd rather a movie made me angry than simply put me to sleep, which is what Eastwood's dramatically inert second half threatened to. Review

When Coogler is given a chance to flex his directorial muscles, and when its women take centre stage, Black Panther is a cut above the average superhero movie, but too much of its lengthy running time drags it down to the level of mediocrity the genre is synonymous with, leaving us to endure the sort of half-baked political drama George Lucas inflicted on Star Wars fans with his first two prequel films. Review

The central premise of The Cloverfield Paradox may have worked better as a Star Trek instalment, ironic given Abrams' involvement in both franchises. At least then we would have had some recognisable and charismatic characters to carry us through the techno-babble heavy plot. Review

The magnum opus of Perry's still relatively burgeoning career, Golden Exits is a film about ordinary people who don't really do anything, and watching their inaction is as beguiling as cinema gets. Review

When the pasty, sub J-horror ghouls aren't jumping out of nooks and crannies like the underpaid employees of a Halloween attraction, we're forced to endure snooze-inducing scenes in which Mirren makes up the plot as she goes along over cups of tea with Clarke, who looks like he's struggling to stay awake. I know how he feels, and so will you if you if you take a dose of this cinematic Xanax. Review

With Nightcrawler, Gilroy made a seamless transition from scriptwriter to director, arriving as a fully formed filmmaker. His followup however resembles exactly the sort of movie you might expect a screenwriter to make, an overwritten slog with flashy and distracting camerawork in place of effective visual storytelling. Gilroy has squandered a lot of talent on this project, not least his own. Review

Atching him carry a film on his own shoulders is enough to make up for The Hero's lack of stakes and reliance on clichés. Review

The trouble with Ball's trilogy is that, despite being played by some very talented young stars, the central characters are a bunch of dullards, so it's impossible to emotionally invest in the dazzling sequences Ball constructs. Review