PETERSON REVIEWS
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The Illicit Affairs of ‘Passages’ and ‘The Innocent’
New movies from Ira Sachs and Louis Garrel, reviewed.
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Snow White, Remixed, in ‘Ball of Fire’
In which Barbara Stanwyck stands in for the princess as a fast-talking lounge singer named Sugarpuss and seven stuffy professors do the dwarves.
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‘Fuego’ Lives Up to Its Title
Isabel Sarli has genuine star power.
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Sex with a Smile
On the two truest distillations of Mae West’s screen image.
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Death and Desire in ‘The Kneeling Goddess’
Roberto Gavaldón’s ‘The Kneeling Goddess’ is about people who not only won’t get what they most desire — the pursuit of it will bring them to their ruin.
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‘No Man of Her Own’ Makes You Take a Silly Premise Seriously
‘No Man of Her Own’ is as good as it is — at least before it fulfills its melodramatic obligations — because its writers and director Mitchell Leisen give it all maybe more emotional legitimacy than it needs.
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Talk to the Hand: On ‘Talk to Me’
In ‘Talk to Me,’ the hand that feeds also bites back.
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A Fresh Start Gone Rotten in ‘East Side, West Side’
In ‘East Side, West Side,’ marriage becomes less a haven — something one should always aspire to — but something to be wary of.
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‘Claudine’ Finds Magic When It Can
Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones have immediate chemistry in this great romantic comedy.
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Fly Me to the Moon
‘Flash Gordon’’s very-intentional one-dimensionality and arch artifice add up to something delectable and fun.
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Disasters
On ‘John Carter,’ ‘Battleship,’ and ‘Savages,’ the movies that made Taylor Kitsch’s infamous 2012.
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New Worlds, New Problems in ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’
Happy Barbenheimer Weekend to all who celebrated.
MARCH 2026
The Theme is ‘Acting’
ASDFJHGSD
‘Hollywood Shuffle’ Cuts Deep
The movie established director-actor-co-writer Robert Townsend not only as an astute critic but a limber comedy performer in the improv tradition.
February 4, 2025
November 6, 2025
October 27, 2025
Disobedience
John Sayles’ groundbreaking ‘Lianna’ was a landmark — albeit a criminally underseen one — for lesbian representation in cinema.
February 25, 2026
Trouble in Paradise
On the screwball-comedy perfection of 1937’s ‘The Awful Truth.’
February 23, 2026
The Heart of the Matter
Asghar Farhadi’s ‘A Separation’ more than sidesteps divorce-movie expectations.
February 16, 2026
Peterson Reviews 