Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Is Franco making an important statement here or is he simply out to shock? I suspect only Mexican audiences will be able to provide a clear answer to that question, but either way he's delivered a film that's undeniably gripping in spells. Review

While it exploits very modern fears, ultimately Possessor functions best as a love letter to paranoid cinema of the past. Review

Don't Look Back has the bones of a decent horror movie. It suffers from Reddick's inexperience behind the camera, with some film school freshman mistakes on display like eyelines failing to match, but he does throw in the occasional clever flourish... Review

Rose: A Love Story is immaculately assembled, with not a beat out of step in its visual storytelling, not to mention sound design that helps us experience Sam's paranoia regarding every snapping twig in the woods outside his home. Review

Vinterberg's film is a warm, feelgood document of the life we once enjoyed, even if we felt guilty about relying on alcohol to fully embrace it. Review

Climaxing with not one but two disturbing codas, Bad Tales might easily be accused of simply aiming for cheap shocks. Yet while misanthropy is often the lazy fallback of superficial European filmmakers with little to really say, the D'Innocenzos appear to be commenting on an Italy that's increasingly losing grasp of its joie de vivre as it attempts to compete with its more stoic Northern neighbours. Review

The Mortuary Collection has the feel of a pilot for a '90s cable show that failed be picked up by a network. Review

Present in almost every frame of The Intruder, Rivas is required to do as much heavy lifting here as Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion or Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby, and she proves up to the task. Review

There's impressive work done across the board here, even if the movie doesn't ultimately hold together, and Wildfire is an example of how far Irish cinema has come in terms of quality over the last decade. Review

Undine is a slight piece of fantasy that plays out against the not very fantastical backdrop of modern day suburban Berlin. Review

Ferrara's dreamlike imagery however is visually uninspired, despite handsome cinematography by Stefano Falivene, and his hallucinatory scenarios too often resemble a film student's aping of Jodorowsky. Review

Shadow Country refuses to take a side, instead dispassionately viewing both its German and Czech characters through a misanthropic lens. Review

Unlike the show within the film, which racks up millions of viewers by the minute, The Cleansing Hour will likely struggle to keep you glued until its climax, which admittedly offers a neat final twist. Review

Langford and Plummer have a great rapport, which makes up for a script clearly written by adults who have forgotten how teenagers speak. Review

Put your politics on hold for a couple of hours and Sorkin's pen and the talents of his impressive ensemble will do enough to occasionally fool you into thinking you're watching a great piece of drama. Review

You have to feel sympathy for the cast, who are largely impressive, particularly Jakeman, who really is giving it his all to create a sympathetic character, even if it's a character that doesn't make a lot of sense. Review

Scare Me suffers from major pacing issues, as it's too in love with its own words. Review

These are hardly original notions, and no amount of stylistic strokes can disguise the fact that Eternal Beauty has little to add to the cinematic conversation around mental illness. Review

The Antenna broadcasts its own crude message of how we should be wary of media, but it does so through a stultifyingly dull narrative that doesn't really hold up to any scrutiny... Review

The filmmaking is so intimate in parts that it makes us feel uncomfortable, as though we're intruding on someone's private affairs... Review

For all its trippiness and integration of temporal physics, The Dead Ones ultimately boils down to killing off its young cast one by one. Review

Danzig does at least attempt to give his movie the look of a comic book with primary coloured lighting, costumes and production design, but he displays little aptitude for directing, and certainly not for pacing. Review

Khaou takes a quiet and studied approach to filming this outwardly simple but thematically complicated story. Review

If I were cruel, I might describe The Man in the Hat as inconsequential. It does play like an easy listening version of a Terrence Malick movie, and it might be accused of being a free promo for the French tourist board. Review