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Peter Rainer

Tomatometer-approved critic

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Misery (1990) 87% EDIT “What keeps the film from being a morbid, claustrophobic bummer is Annie's rapid-fire waverings between peachy-keen normality and terror.” – Los Angeles Times Jan 21, 2026 Full Review Young Mothers (2025) 95% 4/5 EDIT “The Dardennes’ mobile camera and exclusive use of natural light is sometimes indistinguishable from what often passes for docudrama-style “realism.” What rescues the film from such an undue comparison is the quality of empathy on view.” – Christian Science Monitor Jan 16, 2026 Full Review The Choral (2025) 67% EDIT “Old-fashioned in the best sense. The period details are lovingly applied; the script, by the great Alan Bennett, is beautifully crafted; and the performances, led by the marvelous Ralph Fiennes as the town’s reluctant choirmaster, are all standouts.” – Christian Science Monitor Jan 16, 2026 Full Review Breakdown: 1975 (2025) 77% EDIT “It's a little too ambitious for its own good... But the clips are wonderful.” – FilmWeek (LAist) Dec 31, 2025 Full Review Franz (2025) 76% EDIT “I guess this is officially branded as a biopic, but it's weirder than, as one might expect from a film about Kafka, but maybe not weird enough.” – FilmWeek (LAist) Dec 31, 2025 Full Review The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) 95% EDIT “It's a problem movie. The only problem I have, and it's kind of central, is that the calls of the five-year-old are the actual phone calls... I have a problem with using real-life stuff like that in a movie, no matter how well-intentioned.” – FilmWeek (LAist) Dec 31, 2025 Full Review Is This Thing On? (2025) 86% EDIT “The acting was good, but in the end it's catharsis without a punchline.” – FilmWeek (LAist) Dec 31, 2025 Full Review Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) 66% EDIT “One of those grand follies, like Megalopolis, where the director is just completely into it... You still feel immersed in this world, but it's a world we've seen before.” – FilmWeek (LAist) Dec 31, 2025 Full Review Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) 92% 4/5 EDIT “The real miracle here is that none of this heavy lifting does much to bog down the proceedings. There are lapses and lulls in the storytelling. But to put it bluntly, you can be a Blanc or a Jud and still enjoy this movie. ” – Christian Science Monitor Dec 2, 2025 Full Review Auction (2024) 90% EDIT “A pretty good film.” – FilmWeek (LAist) Nov 25, 2025 Full Review Rebuilding (2025) 93% EDIT “It does have a certain low-keyless that is affecting, and Josh O'Connor is very good in it. It's just that, ultimately, it doesn't amount to a whole lot. ” – FilmWeek (LAist) Nov 25, 2025 Full Review Left-Handed Girl (2025) 98% EDIT “It's so well-acted, well-shot, and sensitive. ” – FilmWeek (LAist) Nov 25, 2025 Full Review Rental Family (2025) 87% EDIT “It has a terrific premise for a movie, at any rate... But it's a missed opportunity to get under the surface. ” – FilmWeek (LAist) Nov 25, 2025 Full Review Wicked: For Good (2025) 66% EDIT “The more I watched this movie, the more I wondered "Why is this franchise so popular?" ” – FilmWeek (LAist) Nov 25, 2025 Full Review Nouvelle Vague (2025) 91% 4/5 EDIT “It’s not simply a movie about how a landmark maverick movie got made. Its true subject is the exhilaration that comes from being part of an artistic escapade. It’s about how art -- the making of it and the appreciation of it -- can free you.” – Christian Science Monitor Nov 17, 2025 Full Review Train Dreams (2025) 95% EDIT “A beautiful tone poem of a movie. I hesitate to say that only because it implies something woozy and precious. “Train Dreams” is anything but.” – Christian Science Monitor Nov 13, 2025 Full Review The White House Effect (2024) 94% EDIT “An interesting case history in flubs.” – FilmWeek (LAist) Nov 10, 2025 Full Review Wisdom of Happiness (2024) EDIT “A fairly intimate one on one with the Dalai Lama. ” – FilmWeek (LAist) Nov 10, 2025 Full Review Ballad of a Small Player (2025) 48% EDIT “It's very loud, sleazy, lurid, and decadent -- and I enjoyed it. ” – FilmWeek (LAist) Nov 10, 2025 Full Review Love+War (2025) 100% EDIT “It's a powerful movie. It represents a portrait of someone with a really bifurcated life. ” – FilmWeek (LAist) Nov 10, 2025 Full Review Blue Moon (2025) 90% 4.5/5 EDIT “What gives the movie much of its poignancy and power is Hart’s realization, and ours, that the asperity and regret showcased in his famous lyrics are no longer in fashion. He knows his time has passed.” – Christian Science Monitor Oct 29, 2025 Full Review Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025) 61% 2.5/5 EDIT “It is by no means unprecedented that the life of a great performer can be so bifurcated. But to make us begin to understand the anguish on display here, the movie needed more emotional layers and fewer obvious signposts. ” – Christian Science Monitor Oct 29, 2025 Full Review It Was Just an Accident (2025) 97% 4.5/5 EDIT “The film’s moral issues don’t come across as tacked on. They arise organically and register as both intensely personal to the filmmaker and much larger in scope. The film even offers up, against all odds, a measure of hope. ” – Christian Science Monitor Oct 22, 2025 Full Review Casper (1995) 59% EDIT “Director Brad Silberling and screenwriters Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver can’t figure out how to play a lot of this material. They pour on the sentiment and then they pour on the dopiness.” – Los Angeles Times Sep 30, 2025 Full Review Ju Dou (1990) 100% EDIT “Ju Dou isn’t as luridly explosive as “Red Sorghum,” the previous Zhang Yimou-Yang Fengliang movie released in this country; it’s not as mad as that film. But, in its own dampened fashion, “Ju Dou” is true to its own depravity.” – Los Angeles Times Sep 30, 2025 Full Review
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