PETERSON REVIEWS
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How the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art is Celebrating a Seminal Northwest Artist
For 425: ‘James W. Washington, Jr.: Many Hats, One Spirit’ debuted at the museum on July 4.
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Proto-Noir ‘Out of the Fog’ is Engaging But Ineffective
The 1941 drama’s antifascist messages are muddled by its celebrations of conformity and the status quo.
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Back in Action
‘F1,’ ‘M3GAN 2.0,’ and ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up,’ reviewed.
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Odds & Ends: June 2025
Notes from the last month.
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‘Drunktown’s Finest’ is an Affecting Ensemble Drama
Sydney Freeland’s 2014 drama’s realism doesn’t undercut its sensitivity.
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The Slow Descent of ‘Fox and His Friends’
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1975 black comedy is rivetingly bleak.
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A Compassionate Look at Dementia in ‘Familiar Touch’
For South Sound: Writer-director Sarah Friedland’s feature debut dramatizes an 80-something-year-old woman’s transition from self-sufficiency into assisted living with empathy and care.
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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.
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‘Lan Yu’ is a Little Too Understated
Stanley Kwan’s romantic drama keeps things at the surface.
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The Perils of Passion in ‘Materialists’ and ‘Misericordia’
For 425: New movies from Celine Song and Alain Guiraudie, reviewed.
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The Infectious Optimism of ‘Better Than Chocolate’
Anne Wheeler’s 1999 ensemble comedy is fun without undermining the struggles of its characters.
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‘Punks’ is a Lovable Ensemble Dramedy
Writer-director Patrik-Ian Polk’s to-follow TV show — the two-season-long ‘Noah’s Arc,’ which premiered on Logo in 2005 — only expanded on ‘Punks’’ group-of-gay-people-figuring-life-out conceit.
SEPTEMBER 2026
The Theme is ‘Based on an Article’
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In ‘Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros,’ It’s All in the Process
Revisiting Frederick Wiseman’s 44th documentary, which trains its gaze on the Troisgros family and its various culinary pursuits.
August 19, 2026
May 25, 2026
May 13. 2026
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.
August 7, 2026
Working Girls
‘Broken Mirrors,’ Marleen Gorris’ 1984 follow-up to her still-transcendent feminist drama ‘A Question of Silence,’ expands on its predecessor’s themes while dramatically improving on its writer-director’s aesthetic command.
July 9, 2026
Found Connections
Donna Deitch’s ‘Desert Hearts’ was a breakthrough for lesbian representation in cinema. It also achieves another rarified thing: Characters who feel like they exist outside a screenplay’s bounds.
June 30, 2026
Peterson Reviews 