PETERSON REVIEWS
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Short Takes: ‘The Little Mermaid,’ ‘You Hurt My Feelings,’ and ‘Master Gardener’
Disney, Nicole Holofcener, and Paul Schrader.
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‘Wendy and Lucy’ is a Moving — and Harrowing — Survival Drama
Williams isn’t given a lot to say, but her performance emits her character’s unspoken convictions in a way that tells us everything we need to know about a tenacious young woman struggling to maintain that tenacity.
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‘The Last Hurrah’ Plays Like Political Fan Fiction
John Ford’s 1958 movie isn’t among the political satires to have an angry, acidic touch. Its objects of scorn are teased mostly in a hair-ruffling way.
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‘Cactus Flower’ Makes It Seem Easy to Do Comedy
Everybody is on their A game in this pitch-perfect farce.
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Crashing and Burning in ‘Showing Up’ and ‘Fast X’
New Kelly Reichardt and ‘Fast and Furious’ nonsense.
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‘The Money Pit’ Digs Itself Into a Hole
‘The Money Pit’ pretty much has just one joke.
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The Quiet Rage of ‘The Best of Everything’
Whatever its shortcomings are, the seriousness with which ‘The Best of Everything’ takes the struggles of young women is remarkable for its era.
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Short Takes: SIFF Edition
On ‘Year of the Fox,’ ‘My Animal,’ and ‘Love to Love You, Donna Summer.’
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Goldie Hawn Gives One of Her Funniest Performances in ‘Housesitter’
She and Steve Martin are so good that it doesn’t bother you much how preposterous the movie is.
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Too Much Too Soon in ‘Bright Lights, Big City’
Like the best-selling book on which it’s based, the movie is smart and efficient — has a certain elegance to it — without ever going anywhere particularly interesting.
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‘Swing Shift’: A Good Movie That Could Have Been Great
Rumor has it that Jonathan Demme’s WWII soap opera had been a masterpiece before his final cut was tampered with by Hawn and her producing partner.
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‘Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret’ is a Winning Coming-of-Age Movie
Plus: ‘Clock’ is intriguing, but ultimately ineffective, pregnancy horror.
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 