Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Song to Song is packed with stunning imagery, though setting his film in an architecturally bland city limits the distractions for his camera. 'Any experience is better than no experience,' Mara's Faye remarks. Any Malick is better than no Malick, I guess, but for anyone deeply moved by his incredible recent output, Song to Song is the big disappointment of 2017. Review

In It Comes at Night, as in Krisha, the home is where the hatred is. Review

Homecoming may not be a great Spider-Man movie, but it's the best Peter Parker movie we've seen to date. Review

This installment seems to tear up the timeline of previous movies in the series, now informing us that the titular robots have been on Earth since the days of King Arthur. Review

The Book of Henry is awful, but it's uniquely awful, a film that will likely find a future life as the subject of screenwriting classes and drunken midnight screenings. Review

Halfway through this tiresome tale, I found myself wishing I was watching another movie, and no matter how hard I tried to love Garcia's film, we just weren't meant to be together. Review

Resembling Churchill neither physically nor aurally, Cox's performance takes a few minutes for us to settle into, but once you accept the brave choice made here by the actor, you're left in no doubt that you're watching anyone but Winston Churchill. It's this turn by Cox that holds our attention in a movie that otherwise offers scant rewards with a presentation that perhaps would feel more at home debuting on TV on a Sunday even... Review

Wright's film is a wild road trip through American popular culture, but in ignoring the less savoury elements of American culture, it feels like a huge missed opportunity. Review

As it is, My Cousin Rachel is a film that asks its audience to follow a trail of crumbs, but when we eventually reach the main course, we've long lost our appetite. Review

In aiming to please the widest audience possible, The Mummy has a little of something for everyone to enjoy, but even more to frustrate. Review

As a narrative, Norman is one of the most frustrating you'll see this year, but Gere's quietly mesmerising performance makes this a little easier to ignore. Review

Those flaws aside, for the most part Wonder Woman is a fun romp, at its best when evoking classic derring-do pulp fiction, less successful when it believes it has something profound to say about humanity. Review

After the Storm may not quite hit the peaks of the director's recent modern masterpieces, but even second tier Koreeda is essential cinema, and any opportunity to witness Kirin Kiki's wonderfully wrinkled face break into a smile is worth seizing. Review

Lay its narrative out in a beat by beat arrangement and Detour is a routine road thriller, but what elevates it above such low grade fare is its experimental execution. The story isn't important here; Detour is all about the storytelling, and like the director he pays tribute so explicitly to here, Smith displays an ability to create a minor work of art with restricted means. Review

It's also a half-assed thriller, and it fails to integrate any humour into its tedious action sequences; it's like watching two separate movies, neither of which justify their existence. Review

There's more visual invention in Salazar's Revenge than you'll probably see in the rest of this summer's would be blockbusters put together, but Ronning and Sandberg's inspired direction can't paper over the cracks of a lazy script that introduces a whole raft of new characters only to cast them aside in favour of the never more annoying antics of Depp's Sparrow, arguably the most irksome character to appear in a Hollywood franc... Review

A $175 million fiasco aimed squarely at the Men & Motors crowd, the experience of watching King Arthur: Legend of the Sword can be replicated at home by playing the audio of a random episode of Danny Dyer's The Real Football Factories over any of Uwe Boll's straight to video medieval romps. Review

The whole affair feels as though Vigalondo is more concerned with scoring feminist ally points than in spinning a plausible narrative, and even the staunchest misandrist will struggle to get on board with the film's final act. Review

I doubt we'll witness a more effective use of music in a movie this year. Review

There are also far too many protagonists, and it becomes difficult to keep track of who exactly is still alive at any given time. Review

Despite a committed performance from Chastain that elevates the weak material, our protagonist at best comes off as some Katherine Hepburn robot constructed by bored MIT students. Review

With some script adjustments to clear up such confusing details, and a more innovative director at the helm, Sleepless could have been an electrifying piece of action cinema in the mould of John Wick. As it is, it's a lazy adaptation that fails to elicit even the most minor of visceral thrills. Review

A shame then that it all falls apart in the home stretch when Without Name seems to simply run out of ideas and devolves into a generic 'bad trip' movie, all psychedelic editing, abrasive sound effects and actors screaming naked into the wind. Review

After an opening that offers little in the way of innovation yet provides mild amusement nonetheless, Mindhorn spends its final hour wading through comedic quicksand, and you'll be left wishing you could watch an episode of Mindhorn the TV show, which looks like a riot, rather than Mindhorn the movie. Review