Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

It's a fun time with enough espionage to keep us engaged in its plot, but it's the quality of the cast and their understanding of the tone Soderbergh wants to strike here that makes Black Bag really tick. Review

While its narrative and ideas fail to stimulate, the same can't be said for Glorious Summer's visuals. Review

Majors is undoubtedly the film's greatest asset. His is a performance that veers between making us nauseous to earning our sympathy, often in the space of a single scene. Review

McManus's performance impressively sells both the movie's heady sci-fi themes and its message about the effects of substituting grief with vengeance. Review

It's a profoundly moving expression of adolescent female solidarity in the face of an encroaching adult world filled with uncertainty and danger. Review

Mickey 17 is a film that presumes its audience are morons, and its contempt for the viewer is summed up when Pattinson's voiceover tells us that 17 is followed by 18. With its juvenile humour and mugging performances, Mickey 17 plays like a love letter to the awful sci-fi movies of Luc Besson, but with the brightness turned down. Review

Had Herbulot been able to weave his political points organically into the action, Zero might have stood up to its obvious John Carpenter influences by simultaneously giving us genre thrills and food for thought. Instead, Zero is half fun action romp, half eye-rolling high school level politicising. Review

Ashcroft's film is very good at playing on our fears of being tortured by some cruel sociopath in our dotage, but it never quite does anything beyond reminding us how awful we can treat one another when we're given a little bit of power to do so. Review

There's little to suggest Number Seventeen was made by arguably the most talented filmmaker working in England at the time. Review

While Medoff's film is surprisingly touching, it's first and foremost a horror movie, one that goes to some shockingly dark places. Review

Cold Wallet never quite nails its tone, veering from the black comedy of Michael Bay's Pain & Gain with its out-of-depth meatheads to something darker in its final act. Review

Torres has rightly received plaudits for her performance. Aside from Torres, Salles has assembled a strikingly good ensemble. Review

Had The Other Way Around been made by a Scandinavian filmmaker you can't help but suspect the scenario would have been played as an absurdist comedy. Trueba's film has a light tone, but laughs are thin on the ground. Review

Perkins is playing this for laughs rather than scares, and his shocks do indeed result in hilarity. Review

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