Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

The trouble with Malta is that its storytelling is as meandering and unfocussed as its protagonist, so it's easy to drift out of its narrative and forget what exactly it is we're supposed to be invested in. Review

The closing minutes have a genuine emotional heft, but it's scant reward for the rambling inanity we've had to endure to get to that point. Review

Late Night with the Devil pulls you into its meticulously recreated world from the off and keeps you gripped up to a point. Review

While their characters are paper-thin, Qualley and Viswanathan do make for a charming screen couple, which only makes it all the more frustrating that they're lumbered with such shoddy material. Review

Blanc's debut may trip over itself in its desperation to make a depressing but not entirely untruthful point, but it's largely a gripping affair. Review

It doesn't work as a children's fantasy, and Imaginary is no more successful as a horror movie. Review

Mom struggles to offer anything new to the horror genre. It's too reliant on clichés borrowed from the sort of Asian horror movies that were popular at the turn of the century. Review

I'm willing to believe anything for the running time of a movie if the filmmaker can make it convincing - but Thornton's theatrics never penetrated my layer of skepticism. Review

While its sounds and images may be distinctly Argentinian, The Delinquents' guidance is universal – enjoy yourself, it's earlier than you think. Review

A punk rock movie with a prog rock running time, Jude's film is simultaneously an exhilarating and exhausting experience. Review

I'm not entirely convinced that The Burning Season would lose anything in storytelling terms if it played its drama in chronological order, but it would likely be far less interesting to observe the performances of two actors doing a fine job of peeling away the layers of their characters. Review

Close Your Eyes isn't simply about the power of cinema to hold memories, but of art in general. Review

With the current vogue among young people for '80s and '90s fashion and music, Lisa Frankenstein's superficial nostalgia will likely play well with a sleepover audience. Review

What we get in between are a few months in the company of a man at his lowest ebb, embracing his worst self to keep him warm in a cold winter. It's not always easy to watch, but you dare not look away. Review

Yu wisely keeps the truth ambiguous, and even as the credits roll viewers will be debating what exactly they just witnessed. Sleep can either be interpreted as a straightforward supernatural thriller or an examination of how desperate people can be radicalised by religion when they can't find solutions elsewhere. Review

Plante's film is a cautionary tale about the potential for evil that exists in the ones and zeroes of the internet, but it never plays like a piece of luddite fear-mongering. Review

It's a charming portrayal of childhood innocence but also of the cruelty passed down by the adult world, and the two central performances are remarkably affecting. Review

The Teachers' Lounge is an intensely nerve-wracking film about what is surely one of today's most stressful occupations. Review

There's an ickiness to the whole affair that makes it an unpleasant watch, but the cast-against-type Hussey is suitably deranged as the awful woman who kicked off this chain of events. Review

Psycho III is ultimately let down by its fumbling of the potentially intriguing Maureen subplot, but there's enough here to thrill fans of the series. Review

Psycho II is the best type of sequel, one that understands the enormity of its task but never allows itself to become overwhelmed by such pressure. Review

Villeneuve's grounded approach - which has far more in common with the elegance and splendour of mid 20th century Hollywood epics than the CG filled and shaky cam heavy efforts of recent decades - also serves to make the film's supernatural moments all the more magical. Review

None of the horror stuff works here because it's so hackneyed and unconvincing. More successful is the dystopian sci-fi background... Review

Miller's Girl is a mess, but you simply can't look away. Review