PETERSON REVIEWS
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‘Mississippi Masala’: A ‘Romeo and Juliet’-Style Rom-Com with a Much Happier Ending
At the end of ‘Mississippi Masala,’ we don’t get an end-all, be-all resolution. Instead we stumble into a temporary clearing.
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Nicole Beharie is Sublime in ‘Miss Juneteenth’
‘Miss Juneteenth’ is an intimate, lived-in drama.
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In ‘The Might Quinn,’ the Central Mystery Almost Feels Besides the Point
This is a film that so expressively creates a milieu, and so observantly cultivates its character dynamics, it could contain no police procedural narrativizing and still make for solid entertainment.
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No Business Like Show Business
On ‘On the Record’ and Showbiz Kids,’ both on HBO Max.
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The Startling, Subversive Voyeurism of ‘Variety’
‘Variety,’ so wound up and tormented without a singular release, haunts.
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Doing Too Much
On Ken Russell’s ‘The Boy Friend,’ ‘Lisztomania,’ and ‘Gothic.’
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Bifurcated Romantic Drama ‘Paris Blues’ is More Interested in the Less-Interesting Couple
‘Paris Blues’ has gusto musically and visually; the performances frequently spark. But this is a film whose boldness only comes in glimmers.
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A Star is Not Born in ‘Smithereens’
On Susan Seidelman’s devastating 1982 comedy.
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‘Thirteen’: Rebel Girls
‘Thirteen’ is ultimately about as thick-stroked and (perhaps inadvertently) fear-stoking as an after-school special, just better-acted and more idiosyncratically made.
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2020 Vision
On ‘Palm Springs,’ ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,’ and ‘The Old Guard.’
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‘Under Capricorn’ is Hardly the Fiasco It’s Been Made Out to Be
Alfred Hitchcock long insisted that 1949’s inconsistent period melodrama ‘Under Capricorn’ — which lost money, which got bad reviews upon release, which sat between commercial letdowns ‘Rope’ and ‘Stage Fright’ — was a failure.
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The Purgatorial Drama of ‘My Brother’s Wedding’
I was less compelled by the plot’s movement than I was by how Burnett captures the dynamic between family members.
APRIL 2026
The Theme is ‘High Anxiety’
ASDFJHGSD
The Unrelenting Grimness of ‘Frozen River’
Misty Upham and especially Melissa Leo are excellent in this frostbitten drama.
March 27, 2026
February 4, 2026
November 6, 2025
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 