| 100 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Seeps with melancholy, old wounds, repressed anger, lust. That it is also caustically funny and heartwarming is miraculous.
|
| 100 |
Mr. Showbiz
Unfolds like quietly engrossing short fiction, reminding us that there are few things more pleasurable than being in the hands of a good storyteller.
|
| 90 |
Washington Post
Inspired, sublime fun.
|
| 90 |
Wall Street Journal
A handsome, absorbing debut feature by the fiction and television writer Henry Bromell.
|
| 90 |
Washington Post
Megan Rosenfeld
Anyone interested in serious film should absolutely not miss it.
|
| 88 |
Baltimore Sun
In the full-house ensemble of Henry Bromell's Panic, Neve Campbell is the wild card.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
Robert K. Elder
Graced by bleak, stylized direction and an insightful ending that suggests that nothing ever really ends, this first feature film by "Northern Exposure" and "Homicide" writer and producer Bromell is a promising debut.
|
| 83 |
Portland Oregonian
Panic never lets you forget that Donald Sutherland can be one of America's greatest actors.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
A sneaky and smart film noir.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
Enigmas make Panic involving, and suspenseful.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
A small movie, to be sure, but it's also a thoroughly original one.
|
| 80 |
Rolling Stone
A black-comedy gem.
|
| 80 |
TV Guide
From the opening lines to the epilogue (one of the film's few misfires), this taut first feature from TV producer and novelist Henry Bromell sustains a taut mood of unease and isolation, and the ensemble performances (TV starlet Campbell's included) have the qualities of the highest-caliber stage work.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
Hopefully find the audience it deserves.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Not the kind of movie anyone will remember at Oscar time. But no one who sees it will forget it.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A nifty little neo-film noir that's a lot more intriguing and watchable than half the films that make it to the multiplexes.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
A defiantly offbeat and accomplished piece with a dream ensemble acting out one man's nightmare, it deserves not to fall through the cracks.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
This bleak, oh-so-dark comedy is one of the best movies you almost didn't get to see.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
A small gem in the postholiday depression.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
Steeped in metaphor as it is, Panic offers a more naturalistic analysis of male midlife crisis than the grotesquely overpraised "American Beauty."
|
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
A lot of this is quite well done, but Bromell has a tendency to have too schematic an aesthetic agenda for his story: treating film noir like kabuki is not necessarily the best way to go, no matter how beautifully you do it.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
This bright noir, with gleaming cinematography by Jeffrey Jur, is as single-minded as a short story, but the premise is almost too clever.
|
| 50 |
New York Post
Boasts some genuinely intelligent and funny sequences and some nicely painful scenes of domestic tension - as well as surprisingly strong performances from actors like Neve Campbell and Donald Sutherland.
|
| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
The atmosphere is more compelling than the plot, but the story does pack a surprise or two.
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