Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Though A Common Crime is set in modern day Argentina, it's very much dealing with the ghosts of that era, how those who kept silent are haunted by the spirits of the dead. Review

While Silent Action is never quite as gripping as it might have been, it's an entertaining distillation of everything that was occurring in both Italy's cinema and its politics in the '70s, a fruitful time on screen if a fearful era on the streets. Review

It's a shame The Power couldn't explore its theme in a more nuanced, genre-savvy fashion. Review

I hated Antebellum, but I found myself interrogating just why it rubbed me the wrong way. Review

Run might be described as a bigger budget Lifetime thriller of the week, but for all their cheese, Lifetime thrillers generally boast much more airtight plotlines than can be found in Chaganty's difficult second movie. Review

Said scrap, when it finally arrives, is entertaining enough, but by that point you'll probably have already dozed off. Review

Nostalgia only gets you so far, and as the predictable plot unspools you'll likely be reminded that with a few exceptions, those '90s thrillers simply weren't very good. Review

Concrete Cowboy is a formulaic urban story occasionally enlivened by the texture gifted by its amateur but authentic supporting cast. Review

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