PETERSON REVIEWS
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The Slow Descent of ‘Fox and His Friends’
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1975 black comedy is rivetingly bleak.
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A Compassionate Look at Dementia in ‘Familiar Touch’
For South Sound: Writer-director Sarah Friedland’s feature debut dramatizes an 80-something-year-old woman’s transition from self-sufficiency into assisted living with empathy and care.
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‘Desperate Living’ Feels Like the End of an Era
John Waters’ last movie before making his foray into the mainstream is among his most underrated.
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‘Lan Yu’ is a Little Too Understated
Stanley Kwan’s romantic drama keeps things at the surface.
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The Perils of Passion in ‘Materialists’ and ‘Misericordia’
For 425: New movies from Celine Song and Alain Guiraudie, reviewed.
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The Infectious Optimism of ‘Better Than Chocolate’
Anne Wheeler’s 1999 ensemble comedy is fun without undermining the struggles of its characters.
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‘Punks’ is a Lovable Ensemble Dramedy
Writer-director Patrik-Ian Polk’s to-follow TV show — the two-season-long ‘Noah’s Arc,’ which premiered on Logo in 2005 — only expanded on ‘Punks’’ group-of-gay-people-figuring-life-out conceit.
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‘Kamikaze Hearts’’ Toxic Truth-Blurring
Our inability to confidently distinguish fantasy from fiction in Juliet Bashore’s pseudo-documentary from 1986 is part of what makes it exhilarating.
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The Heavy Style of ‘The Phoenician Scheme’
Wes Anderson’s trademark aesthetic rigor poses thrills and problems in his latest movie.
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In the Shadows
‘Victim,’ Basil Dearden’s tense 1961 noir, groundbreakingly depicted gayness with sympathy and homophobia with contempt.
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‘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.
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Acts of Love
‘The Ugly Stepsister’ and ‘April,’ reviewed.
DECEMBER 2025
The Theme is ‘Wild Cards’
ASDFJHGSD
More Than You Know
On ‘The Fabulous Baker Boys.’
November 6, 2025
October 27, 2025
September 17, 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
Get Shorty
It doesn’t matter that Howard Hawks’ 1946 adaptation of ‘The Big Sleep’ doesn’t make any sense.
September 15, 2025
Candy Land
Jacques Rivette’s free-wheeling 1974 epic ‘Céline and Julie Go Boating’ is charmingly confounding.
August 28, 2025
Peterson Reviews 