Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

You can't help but wish these two performances had been saved for a more deserving film, and they ultimately do little to enliven a disastrously misjudged attempt to refashion an epic myth as a gritty drama. Review

The Last Showgirl largely plays out in a series of vignettes, many of which are individually interesting, but there's a lack of strong connecting tissue. It's not so much a fully realised screenplay as a series of ideas for scenes strung together. Review

September Says draws us into its unnerving little world via three captivating performances and Labed's ability to keep us on edge, at least until we suss the derivative direction in which her film is taking us. Labed's film is a flawed debut, but one that suggests more satisfying work to come, and in Tharia and Kann she may have discovered two future stars of British cinema. Review

Hviid and writer Anders Frithiof August pull off an impressive balancing act of keeping the drama grounded enough to avoid veering too far from its factual roots while injecting enough dramatic elements to ensure we're involved beyond merely watching the process play out. Review

There's a reason The Gorge went unproduced, for despite its great setup, the actual script is in dire need of a few rewrites to iron out its many issues. Review

With a winning combination of romance, comedy, crushed skulls and decapitations, Heart Eyes makes for the perfect date movie. Review

Even without Hitchcock's cinematic flair, The Skin Game would likely be a gripping watch thanks to its performances. Review

Leigh, Jean-Baptiste and Austin click together to produce some startling work. Review

For all of its promise of canine vs human bloodshed, Project Silence is a frustratingly neutered affair. Review

The 16mm photography of Thodoros Mihopoulos simultaneously creates a vibrant immediacy while giving To a Land Unknown a timeless quality. Review

Rebellious Iranian writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof opens his latest incendiary work with an analogy that correlates to how the youth of his country (specifically young women) are strangled by the oppression of their elders... Review

Bring Them Down might be described as a contemporary western, and Abbott's Michael is exactly the sort of taciturn protagonist with a shady past you might find strapping on their old pistol for one last duel at dawn. Review

We know how all this ultimately plays out, but the thrill comes from seeing Mason, Arledge and their crew comes up with technical solutions on the fly while grappling with the morality of sticking a camera in the face of tragedy. Review

These are messy and very human characters of the sort that Sang-soo has mastered in his prolific career. But By the Stream is one of his more humorous films, and its breezy tone means we don't really think about the depth of it all until it's over. Review

Such minor gripes aside, Companion is a highly entertaining and original take on the robot goes rogue trope. Review

That's ultimately the biggest problem with Dark Match: for a movie that features so much action in the ring, its staging doesn't do enough to make it stand out from what the WWE and other franchises offer audiences on a near nightly basis. Review

Maybe it's a sign of my age, but I found myself intensely irritated by the antics of the young group of so-called comedians we're forced to spend time with here. Review

As great as Herisse and Wilson are in portraying Elwood and Turner on screen, the camera plays an integral role in fleshing out their characters. Review

For the most part this is an assured and highly promising debut from Rainbow, who lends a woman's touch to a previously male-dominated horror sub-genre. Review

Flight Risk is essentially a low budget variation of the old "the stewardess has to land the plane" disaster movie trope, with Madelyn given instructions by an improbably flirty pilot... Review

There are some wonderful visual moments, as you might expect, with a beautifully composed shot involving a model of the cruise ship passing an island that would have Wes Anderson fawning over its doll's house detail. Review

In its best moments Inheritance reminds us just how thrilling the espionage genre can be when a filmmaker takes it seriously. Review

For all its epic expanse, The Brutalist keeps us in its thrall thanks to the performances of Brody and Pearce. Review

Gatt fails to convince as a writer but impresses somewhat as a director, constantly finding new ways to visually enliven his film's barren setting, and the 35mm cinematography of Aurélien Marra captures the heat and dust of the location. Review