PETERSON REVIEWS
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‘The Pornographers’ is an Amiable Dark Comedy
Shōhei Imamura’s dark comedy has a lot more on its mind than just sex for money.
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Old Friends, Together Again, in ‘Past Lives’ and ‘The Blackening’
Celine Song’s acclaimed feature debut and an inspired horror comedy, reviewed.
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‘Primal Fear’ is Glossy Garbage
‘Primal Fear’ is cheaply fun, but some of that fun is weighed down by thoughts of the better movie it could have been.
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Things Fall Apart: Two by Uli Edel
Two by Uli Edel.
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Turbulence
Two ‘90s gems — ‘Drylongso’ and ‘The Doom Generation’ — are restored and as invigorating as ever.
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‘Runaway Bride’: A Match Made in Hell
It’s hard to buy that someone who’s nationally humiliated you could be your soulmate, and ‘Runaway Bride’ isn’t charming enough to do any convincing otherwise.
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‘The Cotton Club’ is Slight But Beautiful to Look At
Even the encore cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1984 box-office flop feels dramatically hollow.
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‘8 Million Ways to Die’ is an Uneasy, But Engaging, Neo-Noir
The movie always feels uncomfortable. Its attempts to be a labyrinthine mystery, a squalid noir, and a somewhat serious study of alcoholism’s destructiveness all have a similar quality to walking around in clothes that don’t fit.
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Reality Bites in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ and ‘Reality’
A dazzling animated movie and an acting showcase, reviewed.
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‘8MM’ is Almost Comically Grim
‘8MM’’s portrayal of the underground-porn world conversely has the texture of one imagined by a well-off 60-something who wouldn’t know much about that kind of thing.
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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.
OCTOBER 2026
The Theme is ‘Thrills and Chills’
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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
