PETERSON REVIEWS
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‘The Five Heartbeats’ Invigorates the Biopic Form
Director-star-co-writer Robert Townsend’s initially shrugged-at, decades-spanning drama about the lives and careers of Black, 1960s vocal-group members is lovable even when it’s employing genre clichés.
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‘Powwow Highway’ is an Exemplary Road Movie
A Martinez and Gary Farmer are terrific in Jonathan Wacks’ 1989 comedy-drama.
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‘Weapons’ is a Step Down for Zach Cregger
A busy narrative approach and some resonant topicality can’t obscure the much-buzzed-about movie’s limitations.
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The Boundless Energy of ‘She Shoots Straight’
Corey Yuen’s 1990 revenge thriller is a masterclass in action filmmaking.
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Frenemy Melodrama ‘The Turning Point’ Lets Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft Down
The 1977 Oscar nomination-gobbling soap opera is far more tedious than one might expect.
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Romantic Commitment is a Nightmare in ‘Together’
For South Sound: ‘Together’ and ‘The Naked Gun,’ reviewed.
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Brighter Days Ahead
Lino Brocka’s ‘Manila in the Claws of Light,’ from 1975, has rightfully long been heralded as the crown jewel of Filipino cinema.
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Sexy Beast
Alain Delon was at his most astonishing-looking in ‘Purple Noon,’ René Clément’s 1960 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s dark, seductive ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley.’
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Iggy Pop’s Raw Power
For 425: What I saw at the rock iconoclast’s show at Redmond’s Marymoor Park.
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‘To a Land Unknown’ is a Harrowing, Deeply Compassionate Thriller
Danish-Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel’s long-in-the-making second feature is one of the year’s best movies.
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‘The Inkwell’ is Marred by Bad Judgment
Matty Rich’s second — and surprisingly last — movie is a pretty good coming-of-age drama until it reaches its ill-conceived conclusion.
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The Fascinating Parallels of ‘Million Dollar Mermaid’
Esther Williams plays, in this 1952 biopic, the only person who came close to her unusual type of stardom.
JUNE 2026
The Theme is ‘Pride’
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‘Desperate Living’ Feels Like the End of an Era
John Waters’ last movie before making his foray into the mainstream is among his most underrated.
May 25, 2026
May 13. 2026
March 27, 2026
Superheroines
On Julia Loktev’s towering, terrifying ‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow.’
March 30, 2026
Everything Everywhere
William Greaves’ ‘Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One’ is almost 60 years old and still feels ahead of the curve.
March 11, 2026
Next Big Things
Gregory La Cava’s ‘Stage Door’ is often at once hysterically funny and brutally pragmatic about the personal toll a career in entertainment can take.
March 4, 2026
Peterson Reviews 