Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Given how well they've proved themselves in Star Wars and Marvel properties, the lack of chemistry between Ridley and Holland is surprising. Review

Thanks to an abusive director who engages in physically abusive William Friedkin-esque techniques to mine a performance from Nina, the shoot appears to a living nightmare. Review

When they're not trying to be Karina and Belmondo they almost feel like real people, and had the movie dropped its New Wave posturing and erased its pointless criminal subplot, it might have functioned as a genuinely charming tale of young love. Review

Behind the camera, Milburn makes a striking debut. He moves the camera in unsettling, off-kilter ways to add to the growing unease. Review

With a more experienced cinematic hand at the wheel, The Drover's Wife might have been the latest in a growing line of impressive Aussie westerns, but so crude and clunky is the storytelling here that it never feels like anything more than a modern manifesto in period drag. Review

Along with Elwy, who is mesmeric as the ethereal Cadi, Jones does enough to suggest he's a filmmaker to keep an eye on in the coming years. If he can make an entire movie that plays as well as the first half of The Feast, we'll have a real talent on our hands, but his first film doesn't satisfy enough to act as more than a calling card. Review

Yet while this exact premise may be a first, it doesn't stop Jakob's Wife from feeling derivative and dated. Review

Munn is the film's only real strength. In a career best performance, she's so good here that at times we forget how comparatively privileged and unrelatable Violet is to the vast majority of people who will watch this. Review

While I may disagree with Sims-Fewer and Mancinelli's thesis, I applaud their presentation of it and their willingness to add to the debate. Review

The Translators gets a little too bogged down in unspooling its complicated plot through entire scenes that serve as exposition dumps. Review

Russell clearly wants to deliver a film that's part Goodfellas, part The Social Network, but it lacks the edgy energy of the former and the Sorkinese patter of the latter. Review

While it may not reinvent the wheel, it certainly keeps it rolling thanks to Riseborough's turn and efficient if rote storytelling. But for the rest of us, it all feels too familiar. We've been here before a few too many times. Review

Just like Alexis, Noyer has clearly put a lot of thought into the inventiveness of dispatching victims through audio related means, and his film's set-pieces are certainly original and memorable. It's a shame then that they're delivered in a movie that just can't seem to realise how silly its entire premise really is and stubbornly refuses to play this story for the laughs it should be inducing. Review

There's much to admire on an aesthetic level here, but in storytelling terms, Gaia ultimately gets lost in the woods. Review

Even if it ultimately leads nowhere of note, Broadcast Signal Intrusion is a mystery worth investigating for fans of conspiracy thrillers. Review

Janisse has assembled an impressive roster of talking heads here, and has wisely opted for knowledge over personality. A soundtrack of jangly folk music adds greatly to the mood. Review

Rarely has such an incendiary premise been executed in such polite fashion. Review

It's easy to see why its release was delayed so often, as the movie is as much of a trainwreck as the eponymous Bernadette. Review

It's all very well put together, with Kavanagh and cinematographer Piers McGrail drawing on '80s genre cinema with their neon-tinged colour scheme, and Matichak gets the chance to show her acting chops in a far meatier role than that afforded her as the forgettable heroine of the recent Halloween reboot. But it all feels too familiar. We've seen this sort of thing before, just not played out in such dour fashion. Review

It's a shame that the movie suffers from misfiring comedy and racial tone deafness, as it has the potential to be a genuinely involving thriller. Review

Most of the men of his generation will be dead soon, but Home Front suggests their experiences will leave a lasting impression on their communities. Review

It's a charming piece of superficial story-telling but the complete lack of obstacles to Joanna's progress borders on science fiction. Review

I've never been much of a plot guy, so it didn't bother me that Hancock's script felt so rusty in its various underwhelming twists and turns. Review

With so many issues, most of them oddly self-inflicted, Judas and the Black Messiah works neither as a historical biopic nor a thriller. It doesn’t have the character depth to function as the former, and it fails as the latter because the people involved don’t slot into conventional protagonist and antagonist roles. Review