Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

The thrillers that have come from the Blumhouse stable usually stumble when they attempt social satire with a straight face (think of the awful Purge series, the embarrassingly bad Black Christmas remake and whatever Run Sweetheart Run was), but their best movies are those that employ satire (Happy Death Day, Freaky). M3GAN is an addition to the latter camp... Review

As a problematic character, Tár is entertainingly awful, but awfully entertaining. Review

In essence Vienne may have simply filmed her play, but by centering the face of Brooks she employs one of cinema's great advantages over the stage – the close-up. Watching Brooks wrestle with his grisly memories makes for a deeply uncomfortable 60 minutes, and Capdevielle is creepily convincing as someone who has engaged in the sort of acts that fuel TV's True Crime industry. Review

The glue that holds the film together is Armstrong's performance. There are scenes that she rescues from Cage's somnambulist performance by injecting an energy curiously absent from her older co-star's turn. Ultimately it's Armstrong's film, and without making it explicit, the young actress does enough to suggest that she knows it too. Review

It's atmospheric to a point but never quite as unsettling as it wants to be, and despite its lofty air it resorts to cattleprod jump scares at points, Jenkin boosting the volume for an effect that relies on primitive shock rather than well constructed scares. Review

Pereda has made a strikingly assured feature debut. Sequences are pieced together with the studied skill of a veteran rather than a debutant. Review

Through Hilary and Stephen's relationship we get two awful tropes – the white saviour and the magic negro, with each serving to rescue the other. Review

Dickinson does a remarkable job in creating a sense of time and place, and despite the cast speaking with British accents, the snow-covered sets and frosty windows convince us we're in the Russia of the 1800s. It's just a shame there isn't more for us to become emotionally invested in beyond awaiting an awful man's just deserts. Review

It doesn't really work as either a slasher or a whodunit, but there is fun to be had with Exploited if you approach it in the right frame of mind (ie very drunk or very stoned). Review

Elsewhere Chazelle fills his movie with reenactments of famous Old Hollywood anecdotes and reworkings of scenes from other movies. Some of the comic vignettes are in dire need of editing... Review

The dialogue is truly atrocious, with lines a six-year-old kid would be embarrassed to have come out of the mouths of toy soldiers in his back yard. Review

Along with the standard biopic storytelling, Smoczyńska integrates elements of the various fantastical stories the girls conjured up, giving us magic realist images like that of a teenage boy drowning in a pool of Pepsi. Review

It's that absence of humour that proves Christmas Bloody Christmas's greatest folly. After the satirical opening sequence it's played relatively straight, but with no characters we care for there's a lack of stakes. Review

There's a lot of grimness in Rimini, but it's mostly a case of punching up, as Seidl mocks middle-class Europeans and their milquetoast taste in entertainment. Review

Nocebo review Finnegan puts us in the uncomfortable position of feeling contemptuous towards a villain whose actions we're entirely complicit with. He also takes a wry jab at capitalism's current hypocritical obsession with... Review

For all its flaws and the bitter taste it leaves, Summering is eminently watchable. This is solely down to how engaging its young leads are. Review

Arseni Khachaturan's naturalistic cinematography and Guadagnino's refusal to indulge in showy visuals greatly add to the gritty texture of Bones and All. Review

While you may not believe much of what you see in Armageddon Time, it may leave you impressed in parts. Review

At best, Confess, Fletch plays like a serviceable pilot for a TV show, and Slattery's Frank would make for a welcome recurring character. As a standalone movie, there just isn't enough substance to this endeavour. Review

Mescal and Corio have such a wonderful and believable chemistry that it's easy to forget they're being filmed. But Aftersun is the work of a new master filmmaker, an instant expert in pure cinema. Review

The Menu comes off as a comedy roast, a self-effacing but entirely unscathing in-joke among elites. Review

Madden and Laidlaw are always watchable as they perform their unsettling dance around one another, and Mandrake works best when it's examining the dark lengths mothers can go to when it comes to protecting their own children. When it later expands into the surrounding forest and loses sight of this simple dynamic, Mandrake gets a little lost in the woods. Review

It's a very smart film, but also a very thrilling movie, a rollercoaster that can be relished in the moment and contemplated weeks later. Review

It's difficult not to view Causeway as a piece of US government propaganda. Review