Jen Yamato
@jenyamato.bsky.social
journalist | film critic movies, karaoke, repeat
The best documentary of 2025 arrives on MUBI this Friday. My review, from August:
Justin Chang@justincchang.bsky.social · last yr."Evil is not eternal, and truth will surely win." On dissidence, despair, and defiant hope in Julia Loktev's extraordinary five-part documentary, MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART I — LAST AIR IN MOSCOW. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Annual #Oscars menu from Justin Chang, our king of puns 👑 Now hankering for some Sean Penne Benicio Del Taro Boba Chloé Zhao Long Bao
Justin Chang@justincchang.bsky.social · 7mo agoBehold! My 2026 Academy Awards menu, full of #Oscar-themed options for breakfast, lunch and Sinners. As always, I'd like to thank the Academy — and my wife, for being the best editor and partner in pundom.
These days, identity horror is too sharp for the half-realized makeover of SLANTED. Bringing the fire (and FACE/OFF references) @jenyamato.bsky.social reviews. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
Review: In too-timid Asian American assimilation horror ‘Slanted,’ something’s not quite white
Shirley Chen and Mckenna Grace expertly inhabit one role, that of a high schooler who lunges for social acceptance via a risky medical procedure.
latimes.com
Spotted at @maximumfun.org HQ — a rare bottle of one of Earth’s most precious resources (per the excellent/in theaters Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, iykyk) on a shelf next to a BraveStarr lunchbox and three (3) random screws 👀 cc: @jorcru.bsky.social
Oscar nominated co-writer of It Was Just An Accident has just been arrested in Iran. Statement by Jafar Panahi:
The Trump regime arrested four journalists, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon, today. This blatant suppression of the First Amendment is part of a larger plan: to control not just what we do, but what we see and access. Watch. https://youtu.be/rEH7sF6pA4s?si=Gk1jawFu20cRuJ1-
Why Does Trump Hate Sesame Street?
Why is Trump so hell-bent on defunding PBS?It’s part of a larger plan — one where he can control not just what we do, bu
youtu.be
Was surprised how many people noticed the abundance of influencers WB invited to the WUTHERING HEIGHTS premiere. I used that to talk about influencers as celebrities, their lack of transparency on the pay for play model, and trying to be "honest" in their reviews. thefilmmaven.com/wuthering-he...
Wuthering Heights Might Have Gone Mad With Influencers and People Are Noticing
This is the first time I've noticed people bringing up how many influencers went to an event
thefilmmaven.com
🚨 Universal has officially dated the next / 11th / (… final?) FAST & FURIOUS film, titled FAST FOREVER, for March 17, 2028 🚗💨
Teyana 🔥 Taylor Backstage after winning the L.A. Film Critics Awards this month, and now a first-time Oscar nominee. 📸: Matt Harbicht via @lafilmcritics.bsky.social
Los Angeles Film Critics Association@lafilmcritics.bsky.social · 9mo agoTeyana Taylor, winner of the 2025 L.A. Film Critics’ Best Supporting Performance Award for her portrayal of Perfidia Beverly Hills in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER — and now, Academy Award nominee — photographed at the 51st Los Angeles Film Critics Awards. 📸 Matt Harbicht
Thank you so much for following along as we selected our winners and runners-up for this year. You can see our complete results here: www.lafca.net/Years/2025.php
Happy LAFCA Voting Day, aka One Ballot After Another.
Good morning. In about two hours, we will begin this year's awards voting. However, there is one prize that we have already announced: Our Career Achievement recipient will be Philip Kaufman. www.lafca.net/pressRelease...
Day 1 of Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子) at Beyond Fest was insane. I recorded the entire Q&A with her and Jen Yamato and put it on YouTube for you. youtu.be/rVFcM-O-Ua0 Apologies for the quality, I have an older phone and my seat was near the back. I've got more, but it'll have to wait.
Jenny Han on 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' series finale and why Belly had to go to Paris
Jenny Han on 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' series finale and why Belly had to go to Paris
The author, producer and showrunner knows fans are restless about how her hit Prime Video series might end, but she says she "loves surprising people."
latimes.com
The Varsity Squad is back at the Draft Table, and this time they're in the 21st Century! '00s SPORTS mini-MEGA Drafted by @lindaholmes.bsky.social, @jenyamato.bsky.social, @thefienprint.bsky.social, & @sepinwall.bsky.social Listen everywhere! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
ICYMI One of podcasting's great traditions continued, as @sepinwall.bsky.social, @thefienprint.bsky.social, @lindaholmes.bsky.social, & @jenyamato.bsky.social joined the Draft Table to competitively / collaboratively rank the 13 best SPORTS films from the 2000s! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
And coming August... 2000s SPORTS mini-MEGA with @sepinwall.bsky.social, @thefienprint.bsky.social, @lindaholmes.bsky.social, & @jenyamato.bsky.social
two men are talking in front of a crowd and one of them says that 's a bold strategy
ALT: two men are talking in front of a crowd and one of them says that 's a bold strategy
media.tenor.com
Watched OVERCOMPENSATING and had an unexpected existential crisis. Read about how Benny’s own journey is such a familiar story for any queer person going to college — no matter what generation you’re in. Read via new issue of the DIASPORA newsletter! thisisdiaspora.substack.com/p/overcompen...
Fantastic #BleakWeek selection 👏
Courtney Howard@lulamaybelle.bsky.social · last yr.#TheLastAmericanVirgin: A bleak sex comedy where a new girl in town must chose between 2 bad matches: a handsome player OR a sadsack wuss. Diane Franklin is magnetic, embodying teen girl realness to perfection. Banger soundtrack, tho not all needle drops work (“Oh No”) #BleakWeek
Disney’s latest live-action remake recycles several of the same gags, camera shots & needle drops from 2002’s animated LILO & STITCH without adding enough new to the mix. Newcomer Maia Kealoha is the biggest reason to give this far less nuanced rework a spin: www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
Review | ‘Lilo & Stitch’: An adorable alien remake with no new tricks
Newcomer Maia Kealoha shines in Disney’s now-familiar tale of a Hawaiian girl and her extraterrestrial “dog.”
washingtonpost.com
Such a brilliant conceit at the heart of this film. I too am still mulling over the heady brew of fucking, despair, paranoia and growing old. #Cronenberg #TheShrouds #filmsky
Jen Yamato@jenyamato.bsky.social · last yr.Death and how we live with loss is such a personal, nebulous, tricky thing. Cronenberg’s The Shrouds manages to be at once haunting and erotic, a morbidly funny meditation on grief that burrows deep and stays there. Still thinking about it weeks later. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
Death and how we live with loss is such a personal, nebulous, tricky thing. Cronenberg’s The Shrouds manages to be at once haunting and erotic, a morbidly funny meditation on grief that burrows deep and stays there. Still thinking about it weeks later. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
Review | Got grief? David Cronenberg has an app for that in ‘The Shrouds.’
Vincent Cassel stars as a grieving tech magnate uncovering a conspiracy in the filmmaker’s latest creepy thriller.
washingtonpost.com
She’s sold millions of books, amassed 1M TikTok followers, and is about to release her 14th novel #KingofEnvy, all just 5 years after making her publishing debut. Still, bestselling romance author Ana Huang tells me: “If my mother ever read one of my spicy scenes, I don’t think I’d ever recover” 🌶️🧨📚
How BookTok sensation Ana Huang brings the spice
Ahead of the release of her 15th novel, “King of Envy,” the author looks back at a whirlwind five years.
washingtonpost.com
“Facing pressure to scrub its website of diversity and inclusion references, a Japanese American National Museum leader says the museum will ‘scrub nothing.’” 🔥
Japanese American National Museum takes a stand against DOGE cuts to NEH
The National Endowment for the Humanities warned museums across the country that it was slashing funding, including money previously pledged to places such as LACMA and the Japanese American National ...
latimes.com
A reminder that if the government can send migrants to a prison camp without any due process, it can send U.S. citizens there, too. I know because this happened to me and my family in 1942.
