Aaron Hillis

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Premiere, Village Voice
For 194 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 40% higher than the average critic
  • 9% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 7.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Aaron Hillis' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 58
Highest review score: 100 Take Out
Lowest review score: 0 Unthinkable: An Airline Captain's Story
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 99 out of 194
  2. Mixed: 44 out of 194
  3. Negative: 51 out of 194
194 movie reviews
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    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Never Here
    Up through the ambiguous ending, Thoman withholds the story’s bigger puzzle pieces, which is satisfying when the focus is on Miranda’s quietly traumatic unraveling. Yet as a mystery, Never Here teases too much naturalism to get away with the haunting abstruseness Lynch does in his masterful return to Twin Peaks.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Extraordinary Ordinary People
    Folklorist Alan Govenar has dedicated himself to exalting their work in dozens of books and films. His knowledge and affection are contagious, but this enjoyable documentary is a sampler plate crammed with bite-size pieces that only hint at the original fare’s distinctive flavors.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Aaron Hillis
    The Future Perfect
    With unpretentious formal rigor and a lighthearted deadpan, the film tracks Xiaobin’s development through self-reflexive escalation.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    The Teacher
    The setup may be as unsubtle as a metaphoric morality lesson about Europe’s not-too-distant past, or perhaps it’s politically timeless; it’s not a far leap to also think about a certain someone’s insane need for backscratching loyalty within the White House.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Aaron Hillis
    Machines
    Machines proves both uncompromising and unforgettable.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Aaron Hillis
    Endless Poetry
    This self-reflexive ode to following muses, finding meaning in nothingness, and transcending the sensitive roadblocks between fathers and sons is loopy, irreverent, and more intensely personal than anything its mystic creator has invented before.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Aaron Hillis
    Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
    Herzog smartly takes a broad, bird's-eye perspective of our early techno-evolution.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 90 Aaron Hillis
    Pee-wee's Big Holiday
    Manically imaginative and very funny.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Songs My Brothers Taught Me
    The performances are undeniably authentic, the cinematography could make Terrence Malick stand to give a slow clap, and sometimes a sensitive mood and evocative milieu are enough to sustain when there's barely a plot.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Coming Home
    Viko Nikci's undeniably poignant doc surprisingly chooses to follow threads of hope and forgiveness over the angers of injustice.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Aaron Hillis
    Youth
    Elegantly shot to emphasize the suffocating atmosphere of its believably frightening scenario, the film speaks clearly about generational expectations and the disintegration of the middle class, even when the brothers communicate without using words.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Hyena
    The film's convoluted moral trajectory to hell may be as unoriginal as quoting Taxi Driver, and the pervasive violent menace can be needlessly punishing (including a drugged sexual assault), but as stylish, scorched-earth entertainment, it'll get you in its teeth.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Below Dreams
    As the waves of this cinematic dream break, the profundities left behind come not from character arcs, but observed states of being that feel subjectively experienced.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Aaron Hillis
    The Lesson
    It's a tough, gripping watch made emotionally rewarding through trenchant plotting and Gosheva's tight-lipped expressiveness.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    What About Me
    Come for the cult of personality, stay for the nostalgia of a dirtier, dodgier, far cooler scene.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Aaron Hillis
    Jimmy P.
    Amalric's impish dexterity and Del Toro's mild catatonia make for a memorable mismatch, but Jimmy P.'s profound slow burn might be too clinical for some to consider dramatic.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    The Pretty One
    Kazan holds together a decent coming-of-age script that's emotionally sincere if tonally unfocused.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Pig Death Machine
    Too madcap or not self-serious enough to be called transgressive, Moritsugu's degenerate romp splits the tonal difference between Nick Zedd and John Waters.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Off Label
    Don't discount October Country filmmakers Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher's tragicomically beautiful art-doc, which sensitively favors unflinching testimonials and visually impressionistic observations over journalistic activism.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Aaron Hillis
    Cavedigger
    The line between creative ambition and risky obsession is sharply drawn—or rather, carved out of New Mexico sandstone—in the life and work of wholly motivated artist Ra Paulette.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Centro Histórico
    A rich, artful quartet of shorts mirroring the diverse idiosyncrasies of four significant auteurs.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Aaron Hillis
    Computer Chess
    So far the funniest, headiest, most playfully eccentric American indie of the year, Bujalski's perceptive avant-garde comedy...teases out unanswered existential and behavioral questions about mankind's curious obsession with artificial intelligence and automation.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Aaron Hillis
    The Girls in the Band
    The retro photos and footage are also bountiful and, natch, jazzily edited enough that the standard talking-head techniques are instantly forgivable.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Aaron Hillis
    Filly Brown
    Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos's variation on the too-familiar subgenre (the rising inner-city superstar here is a Latina tomboy) is more heartfelt, humanistic, and entertaining than such a clichéd showbiz cautionary tale has any right to be.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 63 Aaron Hillis
    Meet the Fockers
    De Niro is constantly upstaged by the showstopping, sunburnt duo of Streisand and Hoffman, but even their material is so recycled (more Focker puns, etc.) that it doesn’t matter who steals the most chuckles.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Aaron Hillis
    Chats perchés
    Marker's even-handedness and playful spirit tries to show that innocent art and activist politics are two sides of the same culture, even if deviant government duplicity threatens the balance between them.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 63 Aaron Hillis
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    An enjoyable mess that aimlessly goofs like "Men in Black" when its script calls for "Black Adder."
    • 72 Metascore
    • 63 Aaron Hillis
    The Aristocrats
    The Aristocrats lies halfway between two potentially great films: it's neither a smartly austere succession of jokesmiths with all the critique left to the audience, nor a deconstructionist essay on "crossing the line" and the language of comedy itself.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 88 Aaron Hillis
    Carnage
    A truly remarkable and compassionate debut from a savvy, self-confident filmmaker. No bull.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Aaron Hillis
    Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
    Anchorman is the kind of wonderful, cotton-candy escapism that should leave you with the right kind of stomachache.
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