PETERSON REVIEWS
space
-
Being Man’s Best Friend is Serious Business in ‘Pick of the Litter’
Following a quintet of puppies as they train to become guide dogs, this 2018 documentary is equal parts fascinating and feel-good.
-
How the Northwest-Shot ‘Marcie’s’ Meets the Moment
For 425: Northwest filmmaker John Helde’s new Seattle- and North Bend-shot movie began development in 2019, but the professional and personal anxieties it captures haven’t lost their sense of urgency.
-
‘Max, My Love’ Could Stand to Be Sillier
This preposterously plotted comedy plays things a little too straight.
-
The Everyday Brutality of ‘Au Hasard Balthazar’
On Robert Bresson’s account of a donkey’s hard life.
-
‘Kedi’: A Charming, Easygoing Love Letter to Cats
The straightforward 2016 documentary gets to know Istanbul’s eye-poppingly large stray-cat population.
-
‘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.
-
The Seductive Spy Games of ‘Black Bag’
Plus: ‘Eephus’ is a quietly touching baseball movie.
-
The Thoughtful Pessimism of ‘White Dog’
Samuel Fuller’s American swan song is characteristically sharp and cynical.
-
‘The Cassandra Cat’ Feels Effortlessly Magical
On an affably strange 1963 comedy.
-
‘Mickey 17’: Bong Joon Ho’s Goofy Sci-Fi Follow-Up to ‘Parasite’
Plus: Art imitates life in Atom Egoyan’s ‘Seven Veils.’
-
‘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.
-
Walk on the Wild Side
The thematically rich ‘Cat People’ remains a high-water mark for 1940s horror.
SEPTEMBER 2026
The Theme is ‘Based on an Article’
ASDFJHGSD
The Harrowing, Empathetic ‘Streetwise’
Martin Bell’s landmark movie about teenage runaways and outcasts getting by in downtown Seattle is a haunting group portrait.
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
