PETERSON REVIEWS
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A Touching, Tentative Midlife Romance in ‘Starting Over’
Burt Reynolds, sans mustache, gives one of his best performances in Alan J. Pakula’s tender dramedy.
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‘Skinamarink’ Makes You Feel Like a Little Kid Again
‘Skinamarink’ taps into a child’s fear of the dark — and the monsters maybe lurking with it — with chilling clarity.
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Gene Kelly and Judy Garland Are Off the Charts in ‘The Pirate’
Vincente Minnelli’s ‘The Pirate’ is one of the oddest movies to come out of MGM’s musical golden era; it’s also among the most fun and boundary-pushingly playful.
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Struggling to Care About Billy Liar
It’s a mostly effective study of a young man who craves artistic success but isn’t willing to put in the work to make it happen, but it’s not very good at actually pulling us in.
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Short Takes: ‘Sick,’ ‘Broker,’ and ‘Women Talking’
A slasher, a road movie, and a stagey drama.
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‘Cover Girl’ Doesn’t Quite Know What to Do with Its Stars
There are a handful of moments in this hit 1944 musical where Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly remind you of their greatness, but they’re largely underserved by Charles Vidor’s static direction.
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The Cautious Optimism of ‘The Big City’
‘The Big City’ is blunt about the professional and personal difficulties that come with shifting tides.
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Overnight Successes and Falls from Grace in ‘Babylon’
‘Babylon’ intoxicatingly — if exaggeratedly and not always accurately — evokes the sugar-rush quality of silent moviemaking and the behind-the-scenes dramas surrounding them.
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The Best Movies of 2022
Looking back at a great year for cinema.
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‘Secret Defense’ is a Spellbinding Revenge Drama
Jacques Rivette takes a revenge plot and, subversively, is most interested in the mundane everyday details that would in most other movies be incidental.
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‘Outlaws’ is a Bad-Wig Crime Thriller
This Spanish drama has all the charge of a crime-doesn’t-pay TV movie.
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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is a Stunning Achievement — and a Bit of a Bore
James Cameron’s long-delayed follow-up to 2009’s ‘Avatar’ doubles down on visual spectacle and inert drama.
MARCH 2026
The Theme is ‘Acting’
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‘The Bad and the Beautiful’ is an Essential Hollywood Melodrama
Vincente Minnelli doesn’t mince anything here.
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 