Category: Review
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‘Lisa’ is a Hidden Slasher-Movie Gem
The lived-in mother-daughter relationship at the center of co-writer and director Gary Sherman’s 1990 movie eclipses its conventional slasher-movie B plot.
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‘Habit’ Isn’t Your Average Vampire Movie
The 1997 not-quite-horror film, written, directed, and edited by star Larry Fessenden, is intriguingly slippery.
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‘The Fourth Man’’s Stylish Misdirections
On the cusp of his American breakthrough, Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven’s 1983 movie is a stylish, quasi-parodic precursor to his own ‘Basic Instinct.’
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The Stupid Pleasures of ‘Malice’
Though this twisty-turny domestic thriller gets increasingly ridiculous, it’s never boring.
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‘The Perfect Guy’ Goes Through the Erotic-Thriller Motions
Sanaa Lathan is stranded in David M. Rosenthal’s lethargic ‘Fatal Attraction’ knockoff.
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‘I’m Still Here’ is a Devastating Family Drama
For 425: Fernanda Torres is outstanding as a matriarch coming to terms with a cruel truth.
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Delirium
Increasingly reappraised after it was tepidly received in 2003, Jane Campion’s ‘In the Cut’ potently flips the script on the typically straight male gaze-dominated erotic thriller.
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The Charming Trashiness of ‘Wild Things’
John McNaughton’s overheated Florida noir benefits from not taking itself too seriously.
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A Playing-Against-Type Danny Glover (Mostly) Holds ‘Switchback’ Together
Otherwise, this crime thriller is cluttered and overly complicated.
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The Unrelenting Grimness of ‘Frozen River’
Misty Upham and especially Melissa Leo are excellent in this frostbitten drama.
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‘Chilly Scenes of Winter’’s Post-Breakup Blues
Writer-director Joan Micklin Silver potently examines how lost love can push a once-stable person off their rocker.
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‘Presence’: Steven Soderbergh’s Audacious Take on Haunted-House Horror
Shot from a ghost’s-eye view, the adventurous filmmaker’s not-quite-horror movie has more tricks up its sleeve than its ingenious formal gimmick.
Peterson Reviews 