Category: Review
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‘Urban Cowboy’ is a Country-Fried Cash-in
James Bridges’ handsomely shot 1980 drama is fairly openly indebted to 1977’s ‘Saturday Night Fever.’
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Memory and Family Are Not to Be Trusted in ‘Romería’
Now playing on The Criterion Channel, Carla Simón’s elegant new movie fictionalizes her genealogical history with productive reticence.
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The Perennially Relevant ‘Ladybug Ladybug’
The frustrations at the heart of Eleanor and Frank Perry’s 1963 Cold War drama have barely faded.
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The Meticulous Empathy of ‘Descendant’
In 2019, a sunken slave ship was discovered, after years of speculation, in Alabama’s Mobile River. A great 2022 documentary, ‘Descendant,’ powerfully probes the aftermath.
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‘Sherman’s March’ is Pretty Exhausting
It’s easy to see why Ross McElwee’s 1986 documentary was so influential. It can also be enervating.
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‘The Hamptons’ is a Compulsively Watchable Nightmare
Barbara Kopple’s 2002 documentary saps the mythic vacation destination of any romanticization.
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The Triumph and Tragedy of ‘The Joy Luck Club’
Wayne Wang’s 1993 adaptation of the homonymous Amy Tan novel was a breakthrough that deserved to trigger more of an industry ripple effect than it ultimately did.
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‘The End of Oak Street’ is Entertainingly Derivative
Plus: The much-delayed Looney Tunes comedy ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ is, for the most part, worth the wait. (For 425)
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Strong, Stoic Types
Director-star Paul Newman’s 1971 treatment of Ken Kesey’s ‘Sometimes a Great Notion’ perceptively observes the corrosiveness of toxic masculinity.
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Coming-of-Age Drama ‘Sugar Cane Alley’ Doesn’t Sugarcoat Things
Euzhan Palcy’s excellent debut feature set the stage for a career making social issue-forward movies that managed to be both hopeful and unsentimental.
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‘My Mom Jayne’ is a Moving Act of Familial Investigation
Mariska Hargitay’s 2025 voyage into her iconic mother’s past abounds in tenderness and hard truths.
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‘Dark Star’ Hinted at What Was to Come
Serving as the feature-length debuts of both John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon, the 1974 space comedy has several of the traits for which both filmmakers would come to be recognized.
Peterson Reviews 