Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Many of Obey's scenes feel like reenactments of those seen in better past dramas of young working class men, like Rocky or The Wanderers, but occasionally Jones' film finds its own feet... Review

For most of its running time, Beast deals in delicious ambiguity, but in its final 10 minutes it begins to provide answers to questions I would have preferred to leave the cinema still asking, and its climax feels transplanted from a more conventional but far less interesting thriller... Review

Tyler's likeable turn will make you wonder why we don't see her on screen more often, and Dourif delivers the sort of skin-crawling performance he's honed through years of practice, but Wildling adds little of note to either the 'wild child' sub-genre or the monster movie canon. Review

Bombshell does a good job of making Lamarr's scientific achievements accessible for a lay audience, breaking down complex concepts like frequency hopping through the use of graphics and animations. Review

Aside from its gender politics, it's odd to see Denis give us a film with such bland, privileged, middle class characters, given how she's been France's great chroniclers of the working class in the past with films like Beau travail and 35 Shots of Rum, a milieu that she seems far more comfortable in, and one I hope to see her return to following this unsatisfying digression. Review

With his suspect politics but undeniable presence, Johnson has established himself as the John Wayne of our times, and regardless of the quality of the material he's given to work with, he always delivers a fully committed performance with an infectious charisma that papers over a lot of cracks. Review

Truth or Dare has the bones of a compelling movie, but it adds too much fat and gristle with an overwritten, over-complicated script that quickly ties itself into knots trying to tell what should be a simple story. Review

The film's portrayal of Palestinians and Israelis is by contrast, decidedly one-note. Review

In delivering a social drama through the grammar of the horror film, Legrand hammers home the real life horrors of human relationships turned sour. Unfortunately his film's final act takes a wild tonal escalation that explicitly references a famous horror film's climax, and it all gets a little silly. Review

For all its flaws, and in spite of its overwhelming tedium, Death Wish is the first Roth film that feels like it's made by someone with something to say, even if he expresses his thoughts in the most obvious of fashion before getting distracted with the glee of smashing a villain's head with a car jack. Review

What keeps us engaged is the quality of acting on display, and Dibb has assembled a group of actors who resemble the sort of thespians that might have played these characters a century ago. Review

Go into Wonderstruck looking for a compelling story and you may find yourself frustrated. Go in for a sensory experience and you'll find yourself...well, the title says it all. Review

It's a movie that follows a tried and trusted formula - take two talented actresses, provide them with a worthwhile script, and find interesting but meaningful ways to shoot their interactions. It sounds simple, and Finley, Cooke and Taylor-Joy certainly make it look simple, but it takes real talent to make a movie that feels as effortlessly composed as Thoroughbreds. Review

A Quiet Place may be headlined by one of Hollywood's biggest stars, but it's a b-movie of the best kind, one that gets into its advertised premise quickly, does its job of inching the viewer closer and closer to the edge of their seat, and gets out without a fuss, leaving us thirsty for more adventures in its world, and more from its talented director. Review

Western is a compelling tribute to our ability to find a soulful connection that transcends the obstacles of language and culture. Review

MacDonald's writing and directing is equally adroit. Review

Were you to edit out everything Ebersole and Hughes have created from scratch for their film, leaving just the talking heads and archive footage, Mansfield 66/67 would prove an informative look at a key figure of mid twentieth century Americana. In its present form, it's a disrespectful piece of snark art that leaves a bitter taste in the viewer's mouth, one which will likely enrage anyone with a genuine affection for its subjec... Review

Greenop's film benefits from talented performers and a captivating backdrop, but it fails to exploit either, resulting in a film that begins as an intriguing psychological thriller, only to climax in a tiresome rehash of horror tropes. Review

Flynn perfectly embodies a young man who has found himself thrown around various systems all his life, any independent spirit he may have once had long since crushed. Review

Pacific Rim Uprising isn't a film I could recommend to anyone over the age of 12, but I found it far more bearable than most modern franchise action movies. It's also that rare Hollywood film that does exactly what it says on its tin, delivering on its promise of huge robots punching giant monsters through skyscrapers. Kids from Tokyo to Taiwan, and maybe even Texas this time, will love it! Review

Anyone over the age of 12 will struggle to endure its insufferable, soulless cavalcade of colour and commercial culture, while anyone younger will struggle to make sense of references aimed at their parents. Review

Had Soderbergh remained focussed on his film's initial theme, Unsane might have created a wider Get Out style conversation around the ethics of commercialising the care industry. As it is, most viewers will leave Soderbergh's film asking questions about minor unexplained plot points. Review

This Tomb Raider has a compelling figure at its centre, played by an actress who throws herself into the role with an infectious glee, but aside from a couple of bouts of exciting action, it struggles to find anything of interest for her to do, and the script is sorely lacking in some much needed humour. Still, there's enough to suggest that with a more cogent story, the Nordic duo of Uthaug and Vikander may have laid the founda... Review

For now it's simply an endurance test that had me constantly checking my watch and wishing I could time travel to its closing credits. Review