PETERSON REVIEWS
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24 Hours in Hell
On ‘Old’ and ‘First Date,’
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Diane Keaton Plays Against Type in ‘Looking for Mr. Goodbar’
Keaton was just six months fresh from her career-making turn in ‘Annie Hall.’
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Traveling Man
On ‘Roadrunner’ and ‘Pig.’
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‘The Stranger’ is a Family-Reunion Drama with the Lift of a Thriller
‘The Stranger’’s subversiveness, unexpectedly, lies in its optimism — its unspoken plea for open-heartedness.
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‘Choose Me’ is Classed-Up Soap Opera
‘Choose Me’ is made up almost entirely of romantic entanglements.
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Ghosts
On ‘The Trial’ and ‘The Immortal Story.’
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‘Nightmare Alley’ is a Creepy Rise-and-Fall Story
The movie is so rousingly cynical, the possibility of instantaneous death comes off as sort of merciful.
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Slow Deaths
On ‘Black Widow,’ ‘Fear Street Part 1: 1994,’ and ‘No Sudden Move.’
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‘The Lovers’: The Vagaries of Love
‘The Lovers’ was as much of a headache as it was a pick-me-up for its director, Louis Malle, and its star, Jeanne Moreau.
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‘Merrily We Go to Hell”s Downward Spiral
True to its title, ‘Merrily We Go to Hell’ is a movie in which heavenly goodness is in short supply.
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‘Mr. Klein’ is Joseph Losey At His Best
On Losey’s chilling 1976 thriller.
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‘Summer of Soul’ is a Cause for Celebraton
You head home from ‘Summer of Soul’ clinging to any residual bliss.
OCTOBER 2026
The Theme is ‘Thrills and Chills’
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Sin and Vice
On ‘The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh,’ ‘Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key,’ and ‘All the Colors of the Dark,’ an informal trilogy from Sergio Martino starring Edwige Fenech.
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
