PETERSON REVIEWS
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I’m on Spring Break. Posts will resume on April 20.
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Basic Instinct
‘Fair Play’ and ‘The Royal Hotel,’ reviewed.
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Marki Bey Makes ‘Sugar Hill’ Worth Watching
This voodoo-heavy revenge thriller is so-so, but Bey’s steely performance gives it some charge.
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‘Ghostwatch’ is a Masterwork of the Found-Footage Horror Subgenre
‘Ghostwatch’’s blacklisted quality only heightens the good time
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Terror and Transformation in ‘The White Reindeer’
Recognized as one of Finland’s first genre movies, Erik Blomberg’s feature debut is a chilling story of domestic malaise and transformation.
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‘Five Dolls for an August Moon’: A Stylish, Silly Riff on ‘And Then There Were None’
Mario Bava’s waterlocked mystery is far from his best, but it’s at least predictably great to look at.
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Love and War in ‘Strange Way of Life’
On Pedro Almodóvar’s new short.
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The Force and Fury of ‘The Last of the Mohicans’
Still unlike anything he’s ever done, Michael Mann’s 1992 historical epic is spectacular in a how-did-they-do-this kind of way without letting its astonishing presentation eclipse everything else.
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François Truffaut’s Taming of a ‘Wild Child’
The French filmmaker’s dramatization of the real-life case of Victor of Aveyron is frequently moving, but it’s hampered by its aloof presentation and Truffaut’s casting of himself in the lead role.
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Short Takes: ‘Fremont,’ ‘Cassandro,’ and ‘The Origin of Evil’
Movies about immigration, wrestling pioneers, and rich people behaving badly.
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‘Swept Away’: A Shrill, Smart Survival Movie
Lina Wertmüller’s celebrated 1974 movie is an endurance test nearly equal parts offensive and perceptive.
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You Wish ‘Geronimo: An American Legend’ Unfolded from a Different Vantage Point
Walter Hill’s movie is both clear-eyed about the monstrousness of the American government and prone to preferencing the perspectives of white characters.
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‘Clearcut’ is Far Sharper Than Most Revenge Movies
Graham Greene is a force in Ryszard Bugajski’s chilling, thought-provoking 1991 thriller.
APRIL 2026
The Theme is ‘High Anxiety’
ASDFJHGSD
The Unrelenting Grimness of ‘Frozen River’
Misty Upham and especially Melissa Leo are excellent in this frostbitten drama.
March 27, 2026
February 4, 2026
November 6, 2025
Superheroines
On Julia Loktev’s towering, terrifying ‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow.’
March 30, 2026
Everything Everywhere
William Greaves’ ‘Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One’ is almost 60 years old and still feels ahead of the curve.
March 11, 2026
Next Big Things
Gregory La Cava’s ‘Stage Door’ is often at once hysterically funny and brutally pragmatic about the personal toll a career in entertainment can take.
March 4, 2026
Peterson Reviews 