PETERSON REVIEWS
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‘The Story of a Three-Day Pass’: An Early Triumph for Melvin Van Peebles
Van Peebles would only get bigger — and bolder.
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Small Gestures, Big Problems in ‘Charulata’
On Satyajit Ray’s masterful romantic drama.
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‘The Crime is Mine’: Murder is Their Business
François Ozon’s frothy screwball comedy homage harkens back to the heightened style of 2002’s ‘8 Women.’
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A Doomed, One-Sided Love in ‘Senso’
On Luchino Visconti’s sumptuous, devastating melodrama.
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‘Go Fish’: A Heartfelt, Pioneering Romantic Comedy
Rose Troche’s breakthrough was a milestone for lesbian representation.
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‘Mystic Pizza’ is an Essential Coming-of-Age Comedy
Roger Ebert now-famously predicted that the film’s three leads would soon become movie stars; the promising ebullience of their performances still shines through.
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Odds & Ends: January 2024
Notes from the last month.
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‘The Car’ is About What You’d Expect
A hybrid of ‘Christine’ and ‘Jaws,’ this thriller about a self-driving car that hits the gas only so that it can kill people isn’t necessarily bad, but it doesn’t do anything that interesting with its premise, either.
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On Steve McQueen’s So-Called Vanity Project
Notes on ‘Le Mans.’
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‘Death Race 2000’ is a Tongue-in-Cheek Dystopian Thriller
The performers — particularly the in-on-the-joke cool Mary Woronov and the comically always-fuming Sylvestor Stallone — know precisely what kind of movie this is and seem to be luxuriating in the material, just as we are.
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The Poignance of ‘Crossroads’
Watching Britney Spears in her one and only movie hits differently now than it might have in 2002.
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Being There
‘The Zone of Interest’ and ‘Origin,’ reviewed.
OCTOBER 2026
The Theme is ‘Thrills and Chills’
ASDFJHGSD
The Surprising Sensitivity of ‘The Leopard Man’
This proto-slasher from 1943 takes pains to show that its victims are more than their fates.
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
