Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

What saves Love Affairs is the strength of its acting ensemble. Review

Our empathy towards Lena is greatly enhanced by a quietly attention-grabbing performance by Gromova, who really sells Lena's frustrations. Review

Monro has the good sense not to distract us with any overly flashy visuals, but if you're already familiar with Kubrick's work, Kubrick by Kubrick wouldn't lose much impact if you were to simply listen to its audio like a high-end podcast. Review

Chung's film portrays prejudice in daringly nuanced fashion, with a local boy subjecting David to offensive language before immediately befriending him. Review

There's no doubt a more nuanced version of this story to be told at some point in the future, but in the meantime Night Shift makes for a thoughtful and immaculately acted, if a tad conventional, thriller. Review

While her films often mine a vein of oily black humour, Reichardt doesn't exactly make giggle a minute comedies, and while the central concept forces a grin, laughs are all too scarce in First Cow's two hour plus running time. Review

While her storytelling skills may require honing over future features, Lim Jung-eun proves with her debut that she may eventually prove the successor to Hong Sang-soo. Like that Korean master, she appears to possess the ability to create characters so identifiably human that we sense they might continue to exist after the credits have rolled. Review

If evoking a past decade is enough to keep you happy, Vicious Fun will certainly check that box, but its ambitions sadly never rise to anything particularly original. Review

But for all its snark, Limbo is ultimately a hopeful film that refreshingly suggests that communities can live together in harmony once they get over any fears stoked by external forces. Review

If Black Bear is worthy of a watch it's solely for that great opening act, and particularly for the performance of Plaza, cast against type as a very millennial hipster breed of femme fatale. Review

As it stands however, Into the Darkness merely teases us with what feels like crumbs torn from a greater narrative loaf. Review

Aside from possibly introducing us to the next Jennifer Lawrence in May, Run Hide Fight has nothing to offer anyone on either side of this moral and political debate. Review

While her subject may be inflammatory, Lindon renders it as a sort of poetic mundanity, never seeking to shock us. It's a light-hearted movie, shot with a delicate grace, sketches in a schoolgirl's jotter brought to life. Review

What's so strange about American Badger is that for all its failings in terms of script and casting, on a technical level it's quite impressive for its budget. Review

Alender and Gabriel try to freshen things up by adding a dash of identity politics as the very Americanised Cristina initially dismisses her captors as primitive yokels, only to gradually embrace the "old ways" she left behind as a child. But ironically, their film just reinforces tired stereotypes about Latin America. Review

There's a potentially cracking thriller in this premise, but it would require a filmmaker with more visual invention than Bruchon offers here, and it would probably need to take place in a pre-cellphone era. Review

But like so many films that draw on Spielberg, Gagarine too often does so on a superficial level. It captures Youri's sense of wonder through its fetishised visuals, but it's a film that feels a little too glossy and polished for its subject matter. Review

Wildland falls just short of being a top-tier thriller by resolving its conflict at a point where a lot more suspense could have been drained out of the scenario. Review

While ultimately something of a misfire, Preparations... does introduce us to a fearsome new talent in Stork and a potentially great filmmaker in Horvát, though on the evidence here, the latter may be better suited to focusing on directing scripts by other writers. Review

Dreams on Fire will likely hold niche appeal for dance enthusiasts, but if it's worth seeking out for anyone else it's down to the performance of Naka. Aside from her moves, she delivers a striking debut performance. Review

With no rules established, Bertino's film feels like it's making up its mythology on the fly, and so it's difficult to get invested in a movie where anything can seemingly happen at any given time without rhyme or reason. Review

Jumbo looks great, is superbly performed and certainly means well. Review

Nikou was formerly the assistant director to Yorgos Lanthimos, and on the surface at least, Apples slots neatly into the movement known as the Greek Weird Wave. It's heavy on the absurdism we associate with the movement, but where it stands apart is in its lack of cynicism. Review

The true tragedy of Poppy Field is that men like this would rather not face such questions. Review