PETERSON REVIEWS
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For ‘Belly,’ Looking Amazing is Nearly Enough
Music-video extraordinaire Hype Williams’ one and only feature film has long had a negative reputation for preferring style over substance. That’s not a bad thing.
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‘Her Private Hell’ is a Provocative Bore
Nicolas Winding Refn’s first feature-length project since 2016’s ‘The Neon Demon’ is too uninteresting to make you want to give too much air to the outrage it seems to half-anticipate.
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‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Makes You Appreciate Alicia Keys More
For 425: Inspired by the singer-songwriter’s early life, the Tony-winning play is doing a multi-day stint at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre this week.
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The Romanticized Alienation of ‘Fallen Angels’
Wong Kar-wai’s 1995 drama makes loneliness look improbably cool.
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‘The Odyssey’ is Christopher Nolan’s Best Movie in Years
Plus: The dreamy, hard-to-pin-down quality of Avalon Fast’s ‘Camp’ is a feature, not a bug. (For South Sound)
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‘Thief’ Nails Its Set Pieces
The 1981 drama’s rather elegiac narrative isn’t nearly as affecting as it should be, though.
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‘The Invite’ is a Riotous Marriage Comedy
Plus: ‘Maddie’s Secret,’ John Early’s homage to the 1980s’ TV movies of the week, pulls off the unexpected. (For 425)
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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.
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‘Night Nurse’: Georgia Bernstein’s Atmospheric, Opaque Feature Debut
The filmmaker’s audacious, narratively undernourished new feature has, above all else, great style.
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‘Rock & Rule’ Could Use a Lot More Rock
As star-studded as this 1983 cartoon for adults’ soundtrack is, it features far fewer musical sequences than you’d expect.
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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.
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‘Jackass: Best and Last’ Plays It Safe
The storied prank franchise’s purportedly final chapter only underscores how well 2022’s ‘Jackass Forever’ functioned as a finale.
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 