Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Had Herbulot been able to weave his political points organically into the action, Zero might have stood up to its obvious John Carpenter influences by simultaneously giving us genre thrills and food for thought. Instead, Zero is half fun action romp, half eye-rolling high school level politicising. Review

Ashcroft's film is very good at playing on our fears of being tortured by some cruel sociopath in our dotage, but it never quite does anything beyond reminding us how awful we can treat one another when we're given a little bit of power to do so. Review

There's little to suggest Number Seventeen was made by arguably the most talented filmmaker working in England at the time. Review

While Medoff's film is surprisingly touching, it's first and foremost a horror movie, one that goes to some shockingly dark places. Review

Cold Wallet never quite nails its tone, veering from the black comedy of Michael Bay's Pain & Gain with its out-of-depth meatheads to something darker in its final act. Review

Torres has rightly received plaudits for her performance. Aside from Torres, Salles has assembled a strikingly good ensemble. Review

Had The Other Way Around been made by a Scandinavian filmmaker you can't help but suspect the scenario would have been played as an absurdist comedy. Trueba's film has a light tone, but laughs are thin on the ground. Review

Perkins is playing this for laughs rather than scares, and his shocks do indeed result in hilarity. Review

You can't help but wish these two performances had been saved for a more deserving film, and they ultimately do little to enliven a disastrously misjudged attempt to refashion an epic myth as a gritty drama. Review

The Last Showgirl largely plays out in a series of vignettes, many of which are individually interesting, but there's a lack of strong connecting tissue. It's not so much a fully realised screenplay as a series of ideas for scenes strung together. Review

September Says draws us into its unnerving little world via three captivating performances and Labed's ability to keep us on edge, at least until we suss the derivative direction in which her film is taking us. Labed's film is a flawed debut, but one that suggests more satisfying work to come, and in Tharia and Kann she may have discovered two future stars of British cinema. Review

Hviid and writer Anders Frithiof August pull off an impressive balancing act of keeping the drama grounded enough to avoid veering too far from its factual roots while injecting enough dramatic elements to ensure we're involved beyond merely watching the process play out. Review

There's a reason The Gorge went unproduced, for despite its great setup, the actual script is in dire need of a few rewrites to iron out its many issues. Review

With a winning combination of romance, comedy, crushed skulls and decapitations, Heart Eyes makes for the perfect date movie. Review

Even without Hitchcock's cinematic flair, The Skin Game would likely be a gripping watch thanks to its performances. Review

Leigh, Jean-Baptiste and Austin click together to produce some startling work. Review

For all of its promise of canine vs human bloodshed, Project Silence is a frustratingly neutered affair. Review

The 16mm photography of Thodoros Mihopoulos simultaneously creates a vibrant immediacy while giving To a Land Unknown a timeless quality. Review

Rebellious Iranian writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof opens his latest incendiary work with an analogy that correlates to how the youth of his country (specifically young women) are strangled by the oppression of their elders... Review

Bring Them Down might be described as a contemporary western, and Abbott's Michael is exactly the sort of taciturn protagonist with a shady past you might find strapping on their old pistol for one last duel at dawn. Review

We know how all this ultimately plays out, but the thrill comes from seeing Mason, Arledge and their crew comes up with technical solutions on the fly while grappling with the morality of sticking a camera in the face of tragedy. Review

These are messy and very human characters of the sort that Sang-soo has mastered in his prolific career. But By the Stream is one of his more humorous films, and its breezy tone means we don't really think about the depth of it all until it's over. Review

Such minor gripes aside, Companion is a highly entertaining and original take on the robot goes rogue trope. Review

That's ultimately the biggest problem with Dark Match: for a movie that features so much action in the ring, its staging doesn't do enough to make it stand out from what the WWE and other franchises offer audiences on a near nightly basis. Review