PETERSON REVIEWS
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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.
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‘Kamikaze Hearts’’ Toxic Truth-Blurring
Our inability to confidently distinguish fantasy from fiction in Juliet Bashore’s pseudo-documentary from 1986 is part of what makes it exhilarating.
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The Heavy Style of ‘The Phoenician Scheme’
Wes Anderson’s trademark aesthetic rigor poses thrills and problems in his latest movie.
NOVEMBER 2026
The Theme is ‘Sibling Bonds’
ASDFJHGSD
‘Visible Secret’ is a Low-Key, Surprisingly Spooky Romantic Comedy
Ann Hui’s 2001 movie posits what a rom-com might look like with a ‘Sixth Sense’-esque underlay.
October 16, 2026
August 19, 2026
May 25, 2026
Smoke and Mirrors
Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s inventive documentary isn’t just about the disgraced entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes.
October 19, 2026
Ghost World
Kaneto Shindō’s ‘Kuroneko’ is still forward-looking in its contempt for patriarchal devastation.
October 15, 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
