PETERSON REVIEWS
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‘The Black Stallion’’s Beautiful Surfaces
Though Carroll Ballard’s 1979 movie is one of the most ravishingly shot children’s films ever made, one might wish its storyline were as carefully crafted as its aesthetic splendor.
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The Seductive Spy Games of ‘Black Bag’
Plus: ‘Eephus’ is a quietly touching baseball movie.
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The Thoughtful Pessimism of ‘White Dog’
Samuel Fuller’s American swan song is characteristically sharp and cynical.
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‘The Cassandra Cat’ Feels Effortlessly Magical
On an affably strange 1963 comedy.
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‘Mickey 17’: Bong Joon Ho’s Goofy Sci-Fi Follow-Up to ‘Parasite’
Plus: Art imitates life in Atom Egoyan’s ‘Seven Veils.’
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‘Deep Blue Sea’: A ‘Jaws’ Riff for the Post-‘Jurassic Park’ Era
Renny Harlin’s creature feature gives you the goods without changing the formula too drastically.
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Walk on the Wild Side
The thematically rich ‘Cat People’ remains a high-water mark for 1940s horror.
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The Family That Stays Together
‘The Monkey’ and ‘Vermiglio,’ reviewed.
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Outgoing Grand Cinema Leader Philip Cowan: ‘I’m Ready to Step Away’
For South Sound: Retiring later this year after nearly 20 years in the role, the executive director of the Tacoma organization discusses the accomplishments he’s most proud of, favorite memories, and why he wouldn’t necessarily call himself a film buff.
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‘Antiporno’’s Productive Unsexiness
Sion Sono’s sui-generis 2016 feature abrasively and abstractly critiques the cultural and cinematic limitations — particularly as they relate to sexual expression — placed on women.
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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.
MARCH 2026
The Theme is ‘Acting’
ASDFJHGSD
‘Hollywood Shuffle’ Cuts Deep
The movie established director-actor-co-writer Robert Townsend not only as an astute critic but a limber comedy performer in the improv tradition.
February 4, 2025
November 6, 2025
October 27, 2025
Disobedience
John Sayles’ groundbreaking ‘Lianna’ was a landmark — albeit a criminally underseen one — for lesbian representation in cinema.
February 25, 2026
Trouble in Paradise
On the screwball-comedy perfection of 1937’s ‘The Awful Truth.’
February 23, 2026
The Heart of the Matter
Asghar Farhadi’s ‘A Separation’ more than sidesteps divorce-movie expectations.
February 16, 2026
Peterson Reviews 