PETERSON REVIEWS
-
‘Joint Security Area’ Emotionally Complicates the Whodunit
Park Chan-wook’s Korean Demilitarized Zone-set mystery is less interested in investigative twistiness than the surprisingly touching, then tragic, backstory behind its plot-driving murders.
-
Misery Business
‘Splitsville’ and ‘Caught Stealing,’ reviewed.
-
Candy Land
Jacques Rivette’s free-wheeling 1974 epic ‘Céline and Julie Go Boating’ is charmingly confounding.
-
The Nasty, Brutish, and Short ‘Three on a Match’
This entertaining, bite-size soap is almost absurdly bleak.
-
The Late-Period Hits and Misses of ‘Honey Don’t!’ and ‘Highest 2 Lowest’
For 425: New movies from Ethan Coen and Spike Lee, reviewed.
-
Crispin Glover Isn’t the Best Thing About ‘Rubin & Ed’
Despite giving the flashiest performance in Trent Harris’ giddily weird comedy, it’s the lower-key Howard Hesseman who runs away with the movie.
-
Avery Cochrane’s Pop Confections
For 425: The Seattle-based singer-songwriter discusses her new single, her artistic process, the perils of social media, and what inspires her.
-
Paths of Resistance
‘A Special Day,’ Ettore Scola’s moving, antifascist two-hander from 1977, features stunning work from Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.
-
The Powerful Testimonies of ‘Sudan, Remember Us’
Journalist and filmmaker Hind Meddeb’s latest project is an indispensable, multiperspective account of resistance.
-
‘The Five Heartbeats’ Invigorates the Biopic Form
Director-star-co-writer Robert Townsend’s initially shrugged-at, decades-spanning drama about the lives and careers of Black, 1960s vocal-group members is lovable even when it’s employing genre clichés.
-
‘Powwow Highway’ is an Exemplary Road Movie
A Martinez and Gary Farmer are terrific in Jonathan Wacks’ 1989 comedy-drama.
-
‘Weapons’ is a Step Down for Zach Cregger
A busy narrative approach and some resonant topicality can’t obscure the much-buzzed-about movie’s limitations.
JANUARY 2026
The Theme is ‘Endings’
ASDFJHGSD
‘In the Bedroom’ is a Powerful Meditation on Grief
On actor turned director Todd Field’s first effort as a filmmaker.
November 6, 2025
October 27, 2025
September 17, 2025
The Hunger
Antonio Pietrangeli’s 1965 black comedy ‘I Knew Her Well’ is one of its decade’s most undersung works.
December 18, 2025
Parallel Lines
Zeinabu irene Davis’ one and only feature-length movie, 1999’s ‘Compensation,’ has gotten a well-deserved second life this year.
December 3, 2025
Do the Right Thing
Abbas Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy-commencing ‘Where is the Friend’s House?’ empathetically sees the world through a particularly well-meaning child’s eyes.
November 12, 2025
Peterson Reviews 