PETERSON REVIEWS
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The Bold Visions of ‘The Beast’ and ‘The People’s Joker’
New movies from Bertrand Bonello and Vera Drew, reviewed.
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‘Dogfight’: A Tender Precursor to ‘Before Sunrise’
Nancy Savoca’s period romance does a lot with a little.
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The Passion of ‘Billie Jean’
‘The Legend of Billie Jean’ is an odd cocktail that goes down easy.
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The Goofy Alarmism of ‘High School Confidential!’
The infamous 1958 high-school drama epitomizes product-of-its-time silliness.
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‘My Own Private Idaho’ is Lucky to Have River Phoenix
Writer-director Gus Van Sant’s insistent overstylization would sink the film if not for the heartbreaking, vivid work of the late actor.
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End Times
‘Civil War’ and ‘Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World,’ reviewed.
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‘Girlhood’: A Bracing Coming-of-Age Drama from Céline Sciamma
Sciamma avoids the genre’s fondness for sentimentality.
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Fresh from a Grammy Win, säje Looks Ahead
The vocal supergroup won a Grammy earlier this year. Now, it’s turning its focus to touring and a new album.
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‘Monkey Man’ is Relentless — for Better and for Worse
Dev Patel’s directorial debut — which he also wrote, co-produced, and stars in — is frequently thrilling. It can also feel overstuffed.
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Fire and Rain
On ‘Running on Empty.’
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The Harrowing, Empathetic ‘Streetwise’
Martin Bell’s landmark movie about teenage runaways and outcasts getting by in downtown Seattle is a haunting group portrait.
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‘Jawbreaker’ Could Stand to Go Even Further
Obviously indebted to 1989’s ‘Heathers,’ the teen comedy needs to be finer-tuned for the darkness — and preposterousness — of its premise to fully work.
SEPTEMBER 2026
The Theme is ‘Based on an Article’
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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
