articles written by Janey Pancake
For those of you who have seen Nacho Vigalondo’s time-travel thriller Timecrimes, you may be surprised to learn that the director is actually known for his comedic efforts in film (at least in his native country, Spain). I was surprised. I did find humor in Timecrimes but I mostly remember it as a disturbing brain-twister....
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I’ve been wracking my brain trying to find a way to describe Kim Min-suk’s film, Haunters. I don’t think I’m alone in having words fail me in this regard, as it’s synopsis on the festival site is – while accurate – kind of lacking too. Which is to say, the movie I saw was...
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This Norwegian release by director Morten Tyldem (based on Jo Nesbo’s book of the same name) is a tightly wound thriller about a successful headhunter and art thief who suffers from a serious Napoleon complex. Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) compensates for his lack of stature in the ways one generally expects – owning a...
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The last thing I was expecting to find at this year’s Fantastic Fest was a heartwarming family film…and yet, the first film I’ve encountered here – Yoshihiro Nakamura’s A Boy and His Samurai – was exactly that. And I loved it. A harried, over-extended single mom and her six year old son spot a...
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Drive is one strange little movie – it also happens to be one of my favorite releases out this year. Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Grosling and Carey Mulligan – Drive reminds me a bit of Bullitt, or the kind of movie Nicolas Cage might have made in the late ’80s and...
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In many ways, Attack the Block (directed by Joe Cornish), is the movie I wish Super 8 had been. Being one of several, high-concept, sci-fi, alien-themed films released this year, Attack the Block stands out among the crowd for it’s strong story-telling, great performances, even pacing and innovative alien design. The fact that is also...
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We’ll be heading down to Austin once again to cover Fantastic Fest, a genre festival featuring the best in horror, sci-fi, suspense and the downright bizarre. Today festival organizers announced the second wave of film programming. You can read about some of the feature films below. MOVIES ON FIRE: HONG KONG ACTION CLASSICS- presented...
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I was nine years’ old when I saw the film based on Peter S. Beagle novel of the same name, The Last Unicorn. I loved it – fiercely – enough to read the book years later, enough to own the film when it came out on DVD and even enough to purchase – scent...
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I really enjoy films that fall into the ‘One Crazy Day/Night’ category – the ’80s were ripe with them, After Hours, Adventures in Babysitting, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Something Wild are among my favorites. There is something very appealing about watching ordinary people cope with absurdly unusual circumstances in a short span of time –...
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Warning: this review contains mild(ish) spoilers (and run-on sentences) – a bunch of them. As a matter of fact, I would refrain from reading it unless you have already seen the film (and/or if you treasure good grammar). Truth be told, I’ve been dreading writing about this movie. Not because I didn’t enjoy...
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