Category: the classics
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The Slow-Burning Dread of ‘Affliction’
‘Affliction’ is a frightening drama about the ripple effects of abuse.
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‘In the Bedroom’ is a Powerful Meditation on Grief
On actor turned director Todd Field’s first effort as a filmmaker.
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Bad Love in ‘Decision to Leave’ and ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’
New movies from Park Chan-wook and Martin McDonagh, reviewed.
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‘The Thing’ is an Early High for John Carpenter
Though initially poorly received, Carpenter’s 1981 masterpiece is now rightfully recognized for what it always was.
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Cate Blanchett Gives Her Best Performance Yet in ‘Tár’
Plus: Christian Tafdrup’s ‘Speak No Evil.’
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‘Across the 110th Street’ is a Bleak, Ambivalent Police Procedural
The film is a high-water mark for the 1970s procedural.
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‘Blue Collar”s Frankness Takes You Aback
‘Blue Collar’ doesn’t end on a hopeful note akin to the more widely seen, and still-good, mainstream unionization drama ‘Norma Rae,’ which came out the next year. It wades in, and stays put in, the hell of working a hard, badly paying job
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‘The Killing Floor’ is an Essential Historical Drama
‘The Killing Floor’ is as much an illuminating history lesson as it is a great, impassioned movie about the indignities of labor and the importance of fighting for a seat at the table.
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‘Norma Rae’ Still Invigorates
‘Norma Rae’ isn’t electrifying by force. Instead, just by carefully dramatizing the process of unionization, it captures the simple thrills of workplace organization — the pleasurable charge felt when you realize it’s possible to have a say in an arena where you never thought you’d have one.
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‘Chameleon Street’ Still Feels a Step Ahead
Faking it till you make it is rarely as literal as it is in ‘Chameleon Street.’
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A Young Woman Adrift
Sandrine Bonnaire is extraordinary in Agnès Varda’s masterful ‘Vagabond.’
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‘Summertime’ is an All-Time-Great Romantic Film
An American touching foreign land and getting “healed” in some way is a tired trope. But ‘Summertime’ energizes it.
Peterson Reviews 