Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

It's the very fact that Gravel is willing to present us with a flawed protagonist that makes it so easy to empathise with Julie, and it also highlights how the system forces those on the lowest rungs to climb over others. Review

Did Rodriguez employ some hypnotic powers of his own to convince everyone involved they were working on a good movie? Review

Technology may change, but thrillers always rely on a compelling villain and a twisty plot, both of which are very much present here. Review

Sisu employs old school filmmaking, filled with practical effects that go a long way to hammering home the visceral nature of combat. Review

If you want to see a master filmmaker making peace with the world as he prepares to leave it, Master Gardener should be top of your watch list. Review

If you like the movies of Ruben Ostlund, Quentin Dupieux, Peter Strickland and Yorgos Lanthimos, you should be able to get on board with this, though all of those filmmakers have managed to employ absurdism in a more accessible manner. Review

Le Bon's debut suggests great things to come. She's made a movie with a universal theme everyone can relate t0, but which feels intensely personal. Review

Cervera employs some clever compositions to generate the maximum amount of suspense. Review

Baisho is immensely watchable as Mishi, even though the character never does anything particularly dramatic beyond signing up for her own demise. Review

It's more interested in being a trashy erotic drama (albeit one with a curious lack of nudity) than an insightful look at a period in a poet's life. That said, as trashy erotic dramas go, it's rarely dull. Review

Hardwicke shoulders the bulk of the movie, appearing in every scene, and by the end we feel like we know Cian better than he might know himself. While given less screen time, Galligan is equally impactful... Review

The pagan energy of Pamfir transcends its conditional contexts and, in its final scenes especially, becomes a universal treatise on what it means to be a man. Review

Park is a sensation, the sort of presence that glues your eyes to the screen, the kind of woman you can't look away from. Review

It's hard to think of more troubling subject matter than Dalva's backstory, but Nicot has created a movie that is thoroughly charming. Review

After a few too many wheelies, Rodeo ends up on its arse, but there's an undeniable rush of adrenaline along the way. Review

It's a rather blandly written piece but Reed lends it a gravitas, his face betraying his confused feelings regarding the villainess. It's too easy to simply think of Reed as a drunken hellraiser today, but this is a reminder of just what a fine actor he was. Review

Watch The Three Musketeers with the sound off and it likely plays as a far more prestigious production than the bawdy romp its dialogue reduces it to. David Watkin's cinematography may not capture the action well, but his establishing shots are a thing of beauty. Review

Missing might be the first of these movies in which the characters are more interesting than the mystery. That's credit to the performances of Reid and de Almeida, who make for a sympathetic pair of unlikely damaged detectives. Review

The young protagonists of How to Blow Up a Pipeline may be misguided and motivated by the wrong reasons, but it's nice to see a heist whose proposed reward is something other than personal financial gain. Review

What keeps us onboard throughout A Thousand and One's narrative is the evolution of Ines, portrayed in subtly brilliant fashion by Taylor. Review

It's the writing of the characters that lets Evil Dead Rise down however. Review

Some of the bloodsucking gags are as stale as those found in the terminally unfunny George Hamilton vehicle Love at First Bite. Review

As an overview of a sub-genre, We Kill For Love isn't quite in the same league as the Ozploitation doc Not Quite Hollywood or the recent folk-horror deep dive Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched. But it's not far off, and you may well find yourself jotting down the titles of movies that you glanced past in video stores 25 years ago. Review

It's a refreshing approach that saves what is otherwise a standard exorcism thriller from fading into the overcrowded market. It's pure trash, but it's happy to be trash, and crucially, it seems to enjoy its trashiness. Review