Filmrecensies van Eric Hillis

The makers of the recent spate of American Christian themed movies could learn a lot from Journey to the Shore, a movie that wears its spiritualism on its sleeve, but doesn't feel the need to rub said sleeve in your face. There's nothing mean spirited or bigoted about its message, and as an atheist I had no difficulty identifying with and warming to its central conceit. Recensie

Better suited to a two-night TV mini series, Our Kind of Traitor is very much a character drama, and it boasts a cast well up to that task (Lewis is a standout as a very British spy), but the story's players are paper thin at best, caricatures at worst. Our Kind of Traitor isn't my kind of thriller, and it probably won't be yours. Recensie

Malick offers us so much stunning imagery here - an astronaut's view of the earth bathed in the emerald light of the aurora borealis and a multi-storey car showroom at night, standing out in the LA night like a barroom aquarium - that even if you fail to engage with his film's theme, there should be enough eye candy on display to keep anyone remotely interested in cinema dazzled for two hours. Recensie

Director Joe Stephenson fits comfortably in the lineage of great British social realist filmmakers like Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Alan Clarke and Shane Meadows with an assured, confident and mature debut behind the camera, while young actor Scott Chambers delivers a contender for performance of the year in his first feature lead role. Recensie

The film conveys the appeal of music in an explicit manner lacking in most biopics of genuinely talented performers. In many ways it could be considered a musical companion to Tim Burton's Ed Wood, as both movies are celebrations of talentless yet undoubtedly passionate figures. Recensie

Subtlety has never been Vallee's strong point but Demolition really takes the crumbling biscuit. The epistolary nature of the narrative allows Vallee to lazily dish out character backstory and exposition through the Gyllenhaal narrated letters of Davis. You could listen to Demolition as an mp3 and you wouldn't miss a beat. Recensie

Considering the gap between this and her 2005 debut, Hadzihalilovic's sophomore effort is relatively slight, running at a mere 80 minutes and featuring a storyline that could probably have been handled more efficiently in a 20 minute short. It's a visually impressive piece of work, but there's little to sink your teeth into in narrative terms. Recensie

Had O'Brien and his co-writers allowed us more time to get to know their film's protagonists, we may have cared more about their plight, but The Timber is a movie as paper-thin as its accompanying layer of snow is thick. Recensie

At its best, Son of Saul resembles a prison camp take on the similarly grim Ukrainian sign language drama The Tribe. At its worst, the film's stubborn aesthetic feels like a gimmick - 'Hardcore Henry's Holocaust'. Recensie

While everyone involved likely wants to put Jane Got a Gun behind them, the film that finally makes it onto screens is far from a trainwreck. It's a coherently made western with competent performances; it's just not very compelling. Recensie

The marketing for Captain America: Civil War encourages viewers to choose a side - Team Cap or Team Iron Man. I'll side with the referee; they can't blow the final whistle on this mediocre franchise soon enough. Recensie

Friend Request is yet another sub-mainstream horror movie that shows no understanding of its genre. It's devoid of the basic elements that make horror work; tension, suspense and atmosphere are shunned in favour of - BANG - jump scares, as per bloody usual. To quote one of the film's more amusing lines, "Unfriend this dead bitch!"... Recensie

Elba's Briar is such a stereotypical action cinema protagonist you can almost see plastic chads hanging from his frame, indicating where he's been broken out of a mould. Once he hooks up with Michael, the movie begins to reference every '80s action movie possible. Recensie

Criminal may be packed with star names, most of whom likely spent no more than two days on set, but it establishes its b-movie sensibility early on, a welcome relief from the many Hollywood movies that go out of their way to be taken seriously despite boasting similarly ridiculous premises. For the most part, the movie is a lot of fun, and it's only its extended running time that stops it short of becoming a future Friday night... Recensie

There are plenty of movies that prove hanging out with boisterous young American men can be not just fun, but enlightening; Big Wednesday, Breaking Away and Fandango are three of the best, but Linklater's film has none of the melancholic uncertainty that elevates those examples. Recensie

If you walked into the cinema unknowingly, you could be forgiven for believing you had stumbled into a screening of an episode of Starsky & Hutch. An amateurish energy keeps the film moving at a rapid pace, even if it does get bogged down at times in the underdeveloped Frances Taylor subplot. Recensie

I can't recall a single line of dialogue from Our Little Sister, but I remember every scene vividly, and I know exactly how each one made me feel. This is the mark of a truly great filmmaker, and Koreeda may be the greatest orchestrator of quietly conducted human drama working in cinema today. Recensie

This testosterone-fuelled, sadistic and misogynistic horror show is an endurance test all but the most ardent supporters of GamerGate will fail. Its effects are certainly breath-taking, but rather than asking "How did they do that?", we find ourselves asking "Why did they do that?"... Recensie

Trier and Vogt have fashioned a very human set of humans. I'd gladly watch more relative non-adventures of the Reed family, but I'll settle for whomever else Trier decides to study under his finely tuned microscope. Recensie

Like the great Disney movies of old, The Jungle Book knows how to scare, delight and thrill children, of all ages. Not taking your kids to see this would be an act of parental neglect, but I advise all adults to see it themselves, children in tow or not. Trust in me. Recensie

Ultimately, THWW is a tale of confusion. Asked to shove a square peg into a round hole, the screenwriters are unable to come up with a convincing and simple narrative, leaving the audience scratching their heads in a futile attempt to make sense of any of this. But... Recensie

Those with an interest in mathematics will likely consider this a wasted opportunity to bring one of their heroes and his work into the public sphere - but casual viewers will find it a harmless time passer, thanks mainly to a charming performance from Irons. Recensie

Dheepan promises a ripped from the headlines examination of the immigrant experience, but ultimately devolves into a generic vigilante thriller. It's a Michael Winner movie for the cheese and wine set. Recensie

Hood sets up some simple elements that effectively rack up the tension; the loaves of bread on the little girl's stall is a wonderful, Hitchcockian device that visually acts as an ambiguous and nerve-wracking countdown, causing us to shout at the screen for passersby to purchase some bread. Hood's loaves of bread generate as much nervous sweat as Hitchcock's glass of milk in Suspicion. Recensie