PETERSON REVIEWS
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Dreams Deferred in ‘Riding in Cars with Boys’
Penny Marshall’s biopic about the writer Beverly Donofrio practically shakes with compassion.
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‘The Day of the Locust’ is Almost Too Bleak
John Schlesinger’s ‘The Day of the Locust’ says what movies about Hollywood love to say almost as much as they do that ‘making movies is magical’: that this city is much more a town defined by shattered success and cynical commodification than it is a beautiful place where dreams have an unusual ability to come true.
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Muffled Screaming
On ‘The Souvenir: Part II’ and ‘Passing.’
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‘It Could Happen to You’ is So Lightweight, It Could Float Away
You watch it the same way you’d read a feel-good story in a small-town newspaper.
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Too High
On ‘The Stunt Man.’
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Horror Movies
On ‘Bergman Island’ and ‘Spencer.’
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The Profound Grief of ‘Fearless’
‘Fearless’ is one of the finest of all movies about grief I’ve seen.
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Overnight Success
‘The Barefoot Contessa’ is among the most pessimistic dramas about film stardom ever made.
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Upheavals
On ‘House of Gucci’ and ‘Belfast.’
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Worms
On ‘Last Night in Soho’ and ‘Dune.’
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‘Dance with the Devil’ Does Too Much
‘Dance with the Devil’ is a busy movie; its narrative poses so many potential problems for the characters they could practically form a line.
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Retrospections
On ‘The French Dispatch,’ ‘The Velvet Underground,’ and ‘The Last Duel.’
SEPTEMBER 2026
The Theme is ‘Based on an Article’
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‘Bigger Than Life”s Resounding Anger
By the film’s end, which offers no resounding resolution, you feel practically pummeled by its driving dilemma.
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
Peterson Reviews 