PETERSON REVIEWS
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‘The Novice’ is an Intense Filmmaking Debut
Plus: HBO Max’s ‘The Fallout’ examines a sensitive subject with empathy and care.
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‘Alone Together’ is a Riveting Portrait of an Artist in Quarantine
Plus: ‘Flee.’
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In ‘Scarecrow,’ the Small Details Count the Most
Photographer turned filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg’s unpolished, expansive direction complements his characters’ dawdling, their ever-changing relationship, and the wide-open possibilities of the road.
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‘Vera Drake’ is Devastating
The arc of ‘Vera Drake’ engenders some thriller-like tension but never rises into the sensationalism it easily could.
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‘Duelle’ Feels Neither Here Nor There
This is a willfully unpindownable gambol of a movie whose mysteriousness and dream-like quality are hypnotic virtues rather than alienating setbacks.
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‘The Package’ Does Exactly What It’s Supposed To
‘The Package’ is all smart and watchable without being transcendent.
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The Exhausting Cleverness of ‘Scream 5’
This nonetheless fun sequel’s nonstop self-awareness can tread into overkill territory.
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Penélope Cruz Gives One of Her Best Performances in ‘Parallel Mothers’
Plus: Vanessa Kirby is the reason to see new VOD release ‘Italian Studies.’
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‘Bacurau’: Thoughtful Thrills
Filho and Dornelles seamlessly prop up fun without curtailing the very-real horrors of colonialism and political malfeasance their story evokes.
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In ‘A Hero,’ A Good Deed Goes Bad
In ‘A Hero,’ an act of good samaritanism slowly morphs into what feels like the onset of a curse.
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‘Heist’ Energizes the One-Last-Job Cliché
The performances are universally good. Everyone has a tight handle on so-called “Mamet speak”; no one ever comes across merely as a device for the wicked games to continue.
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‘Night Moves’: It’s Hard to Be a Hero
The most interesting thing about ‘Night Moves’ is not the details of its snarled-up narrative but the psychological and emotional complications that inform it.
JUNE 2026
The Theme is ‘Pride’
ASDFJHGSD
‘By Hook or By Crook’ is a Moving Ode to Friendship
Despite its low budget and the sometimes-amateurishness of its performances, it isn’t obvious that 2001’s ‘By Hook or By Crook’ was made by people who came into filmmaking practically on a whim.
May 25, 2026
May 13. 2026
March 27, 2026
Superheroines
On Julia Loktev’s towering, terrifying ‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow.’
March 30, 2026
Everything Everywhere
William Greaves’ ‘Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One’ is almost 60 years old and still feels ahead of the curve.
March 11, 2026
Next Big Things
Gregory La Cava’s ‘Stage Door’ is often at once hysterically funny and brutally pragmatic about the personal toll a career in entertainment can take.
March 4, 2026
Peterson Reviews 