Film5000 Project
@film5000.bsky.social
I'm not a film critic, just a passionate movie buff. I was born in 1971, studied film in New York during the early ʼ90s, and have lived and worked on the outskirts of the industry all my adult life. Love reading about people's thoughts on cinema.
#2000meterstoandriivka ('25) ★★★+ Mstyslav Chernov's follow-up to 20 Days in Mariupol follows Ukrainian soldiers advancing towards a small village in an attempt to retake it from the Russians. www.film5000.com/2025/2000-me...
2000 Meters to Andriivka
AP photojournalist Mstyslav Chernov's follow-up to 20 Days in Mariupol, the powerful 2023 documentary that provided a first-hand, on-the-ground account of the first several weeks of the Russian inv...
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December 30, 2025 at 2:33 PM
#2000meterstoandriivka ('25) ★★★+ Mstyslav Chernov's follow-up to 20 Days in Mariupol follows Ukrainian soldiers advancing towards a small village in an attempt to retake it from the Russians. www.film5000.com/2025/2000-me...
#theplauge ('25) ★★★ This study in childhood cruelty and the struggle for acceptance follows a 12-year-old at an all-boys water polo camp who becomes part of a cruel hazing tradition. It'll take ya back and make you glad you don't have to be a kid anymore. www.film5000.com/2025/the-pla...
The Plague
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December 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM
#theplauge ('25) ★★★ This study in childhood cruelty and the struggle for acceptance follows a 12-year-old at an all-boys water polo camp who becomes part of a cruel hazing tradition. It'll take ya back and make you glad you don't have to be a kid anymore. www.film5000.com/2025/the-pla...
#MartySupreme ('25) ★★★★ Benny Safdie’s thrilling, funny, exquisitely made tale of an aspiring 1950s-era ping pong champ is as relentless and doggedly persistent as its protagonist, played by Timothée Chalamet in yet another terrific turn. Merry X-mas! www.film5000.com/2025/marty-s...
Marty Supreme
Merry Dang Christmas! After a year with a lot of coal in the stocking, how great to get this uncut gem on Christmas morning! The Safdie Brothers (Heaven Knows What, Good Time, Uncut Gems) are the l...
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December 26, 2025 at 2:28 PM
#MartySupreme ('25) ★★★★ Benny Safdie’s thrilling, funny, exquisitely made tale of an aspiring 1950s-era ping pong champ is as relentless and doggedly persistent as its protagonist, played by Timothée Chalamet in yet another terrific turn. Merry X-mas! www.film5000.com/2025/marty-s...
#TheSecretAgent ('25) ★★★+ Wagner Moura is awesome as a former school teacher fleeing a mysterious past who returns to the Brazilian city of Recife, where he tries to lay low in Kleber Mendonça Filho's compellingly leisurely '70s-era political thriller. www.film5000.com/2025/the-sec...
The Secret Agent
Brazilian writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho follows up his wild and weird 2019 western Bacurau, a collaboration with Juliano Dornelles, with this more straightforward historical political thril...
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December 25, 2025 at 1:56 PM
#TheSecretAgent ('25) ★★★+ Wagner Moura is awesome as a former school teacher fleeing a mysterious past who returns to the Brazilian city of Recife, where he tries to lay low in Kleber Mendonça Filho's compellingly leisurely '70s-era political thriller. www.film5000.com/2025/the-sec...
#EllaMcCay ('25) ★ One of the greatest comedy writers ever makes the rookie mistake nearly every kid trying to write their first terrible fantasy movie makes—all world-building, not storytelling. And the world Brooks builds... Jupiter Ascending was more credible. www.film5000.com/2025/ella-mc...
Ella McCay
It may seem like a weird thing to say this month, but sometimes Quentin Tarantino has a point. While I can't say I agree completely with his long-time assertion that the last couple of films by gre...
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December 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
#EllaMcCay ('25) ★ One of the greatest comedy writers ever makes the rookie mistake nearly every kid trying to write their first terrible fantasy movie makes—all world-building, not storytelling. And the world Brooks builds... Jupiter Ascending was more credible. www.film5000.com/2025/ella-mc...
#AvatarFireAndAsh ('25) ★★+ The best of James Cameron's Avatar pictures is still the same film with the same surface strengths and internal weaknesses, but at least this one finally has a good antagonist (at least for a while). www.film5000.com/2025/avatar:...
Avatar: Fire and Ash
I guess this is the best of the Avatar movies? They're all pretty much the same, but this one finally has a decent antagonist! (Well, for a little while anyway). James Cameron's Avatar pictures are...
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December 24, 2025 at 1:26 AM
#AvatarFireAndAsh ('25) ★★+ The best of James Cameron's Avatar pictures is still the same film with the same surface strengths and internal weaknesses, but at least this one finally has a good antagonist (at least for a while). www.film5000.com/2025/avatar:...
#eternity ('25) ★★ As a premise, this is a clever spin on the trusty afterlife-as-post-industrial-age-bureaucracy movie, with two attractive and amusing leads. Unfortunately, it's sunk by an unimaginative script, sluggish direction, and tedious supporting turns. www.film5000.com/2025/eternit...
Eternity
Since the dawn of the 1930s screwball comedy, the movies have had a ball depicting the first stage of the afterlife as a kind of post-industrial-age bureaucracy in which souls are shuffled through ...
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December 22, 2025 at 11:06 PM
#eternity ('25) ★★ As a premise, this is a clever spin on the trusty afterlife-as-post-industrial-age-bureaucracy movie, with two attractive and amusing leads. Unfortunately, it's sunk by an unimaginative script, sluggish direction, and tedious supporting turns. www.film5000.com/2025/eternit...
#hamnet ('25) ★ Chloé Zhao’s shallow, vapid, bereft of all mystery adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's speculative historical fiction novel about the tragic loss of Anne Hathaway's/Agnes Shakespeare’s young son is about as bad as Oscar-bait gets.
www.film5000.com/2025/hamnet/...
www.film5000.com/2025/hamnet/...
Hamnet
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December 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM
#hamnet ('25) ★ Chloé Zhao’s shallow, vapid, bereft of all mystery adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's speculative historical fiction novel about the tragic loss of Anne Hathaway's/Agnes Shakespeare’s young son is about as bad as Oscar-bait gets.
www.film5000.com/2025/hamnet/...
www.film5000.com/2025/hamnet/...
#Devo ('24) ★★★ One might think a Devo doc would need to be less traditionally made than this one, but it's precisely the "normalness" of these guys and their story that makes it so interesting. www.film5000.com/2025/devo/10...
Devo
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December 11, 2025 at 5:56 PM
#Devo ('24) ★★★ One might think a Devo doc would need to be less traditionally made than this one, but it's precisely the "normalness" of these guys and their story that makes it so interesting. www.film5000.com/2025/devo/10...
#Predators ('25) ★★★ Chris Hansen and the phenomenon surrounding his tabloid TV show, To Catch a Predator, get a critical evaluation in David Osit's insightful documentary, which clearly values passé journalistic concepts like context and consequence. www.film5000.com/2025/predato...
Predators
Documentarian David Osit (Thank You For Playing, Mayor) provides a hard-hitting exposé of the Dateline NBC spinoff To Catch a Predator, the ultimate "gotcha-TV" show in which host Chris Hansen woul...
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December 10, 2025 at 4:38 PM
#Predators ('25) ★★★ Chris Hansen and the phenomenon surrounding his tabloid TV show, To Catch a Predator, get a critical evaluation in David Osit's insightful documentary, which clearly values passé journalistic concepts like context and consequence. www.film5000.com/2025/predato...
#ThePenguinLessons ('25) ★★ Peter Cattaneo and Jeff Pope touch on the setting, history and character attitudes in this true story of an English teacher working in 1976 Argentina as it descends into violence & chaos, but rely too much on standard quirky English charm. www.film5000.com/2025/the-pen...
The Penguin Lessons
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December 9, 2025 at 2:39 PM
#ThePenguinLessons ('25) ★★ Peter Cattaneo and Jeff Pope touch on the setting, history and character attitudes in this true story of an English teacher working in 1976 Argentina as it descends into violence & chaos, but rely too much on standard quirky English charm. www.film5000.com/2025/the-pen...
#sentimentalvalue ('25) ★★★★★ Trier's exquisitely realized Bergmanesque comedy-drama about sisters reconciling with their estranged father explores complexities of intergenerational family dynamics and provides Skarsgård with a career-crowning role.
www.film5000.com/2025/sentime...
www.film5000.com/2025/sentime...
Sentimental Value
The Worst Person in the World director Joachim Trier and star Renate Reinsve reunite for this less whimsical, more Bergmanesque comedy-drama about two sisters, Nora (Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdot...
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December 8, 2025 at 1:48 PM
#sentimentalvalue ('25) ★★★★★ Trier's exquisitely realized Bergmanesque comedy-drama about sisters reconciling with their estranged father explores complexities of intergenerational family dynamics and provides Skarsgård with a career-crowning role.
www.film5000.com/2025/sentime...
www.film5000.com/2025/sentime...
#JayKelly ('25) ★ We might expect Baumbach to find the dark, ironic aspects of a story about a shallow man trying to be introspective and failing; instead, we get a maudlin, hamfisted mess of undercooked emotions, on-the-nose dialogue, and artless self-pity. www.film5000.com/2025/jay-kel...
Jay Kelly
Noah Baumbach (Greenberg, Frances Ha, Mistress America, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Marriage Story—to name just his most recent excellent pictures) stunned me with this embarrassingl...
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December 7, 2025 at 2:57 PM
#JayKelly ('25) ★ We might expect Baumbach to find the dark, ironic aspects of a story about a shallow man trying to be introspective and failing; instead, we get a maudlin, hamfisted mess of undercooked emotions, on-the-nose dialogue, and artless self-pity. www.film5000.com/2025/jay-kel...
#johncandyilikeme ('25) ★★ Colin Hanks delivers yet another rote, maudlin documentary that does capture some of what made Candy a one-of-a-kind entertainer, but leaves out too much in favor of repetitive sentiments and observations. www.film5000.com/2025/john-ca...
John Candy: I Like Me
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December 4, 2025 at 3:25 PM
#johncandyilikeme ('25) ★★ Colin Hanks delivers yet another rote, maudlin documentary that does capture some of what made Candy a one-of-a-kind entertainer, but leaves out too much in favor of repetitive sentiments and observations. www.film5000.com/2025/john-ca...
#TheWeddingBanquet ('25) ★★ The fresh, charming 1993 queer indie romcom about overcoming clashes of culture via farse is transformed into a 2025 queer indie millennial melodrama about not being able to get over oneself. www.film5000.com/2025/the-wed...
The Wedding Banquet
Ang Lee and James Schamus's first major hit gets a millennial update from writer/director Andrew Ahn (Driveways, Fire Island). The 1993 indie romcom charmed with its fresh, innovative story of a ga...
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December 3, 2025 at 7:09 PM
#TheWeddingBanquet ('25) ★★ The fresh, charming 1993 queer indie romcom about overcoming clashes of culture via farse is transformed into a 2025 queer indie millennial melodrama about not being able to get over oneself. www.film5000.com/2025/the-wed...
#peterhujarsday ('25) ★★★+ A 1974 conversation/interview between photographer Peter Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz is meticulously reimagined by director Ira Sachs and actors Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall, elevating the film beyond a mere exercise. www.film5000.com/2025/peter-h...
Peter Hujar's Day
The latest from Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange, Little Men, Passages) is an interesting curiosity that reimagines a 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, ...
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December 2, 2025 at 3:07 PM
#peterhujarsday ('25) ★★★+ A 1974 conversation/interview between photographer Peter Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz is meticulously reimagined by director Ira Sachs and actors Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall, elevating the film beyond a mere exercise. www.film5000.com/2025/peter-h...
#kontinental25 ('25) ★★★ A Transylvanian bailiff tries to reconcile her place in an ever more maddening and intolerant world in Radu Jude’s stinging indictment of nationalism and neoliberalism. www.film5000.com/2025/kontine...
Kontinental '25
Radu Jude follows up his epics Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World and Dracula with this small-scale story about a Transylvanian bailiff who must oversee the eviction of an elderly hom...
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December 1, 2025 at 3:47 PM
#kontinental25 ('25) ★★★ A Transylvanian bailiff tries to reconcile her place in an ever more maddening and intolerant world in Radu Jude’s stinging indictment of nationalism and neoliberalism. www.film5000.com/2025/kontine...
#radujudedracula ('25) ★★★ Romania's cinematic hooligan takes on its most iconic character. Less about Vlad the Impaler's literary legacy than how capitalism, fascism, & other isms suck the life out of their respective cultures more effectively than a vampire could. www.film5000.com/2025/dracula...
Dracula
I don't need to bore readers of my blog or my letterboxd account with all the reasons I think Bram Stoker's immortal gothic horror novel Dracula, while seemingly cinematic with its mysterious atmos...
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December 1, 2025 at 3:36 PM
#radujudedracula ('25) ★★★ Romania's cinematic hooligan takes on its most iconic character. Less about Vlad the Impaler's literary legacy than how capitalism, fascism, & other isms suck the life out of their respective cultures more effectively than a vampire could. www.film5000.com/2025/dracula...
#WakeUpDeadMan ('25) ★★ 3rd Benoit Blanc mystery attempts the light, breezy Agatha Christie-style fun of the 1st films mixed with something darker & more Gothic, but Johnson & the cast are not up to the challenge, so the heavy, pretentious film never comes to life. www.film5000.com/2025/wake-up...
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Yikes. After two rousingly entertaining all-star whodunits, the crackling Knives Out and the hilarious Glass Onion, Rian Johnson lays an egg with his third Benoit Blanc mystery. The fun of the firs...
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November 27, 2025 at 3:10 PM
#WakeUpDeadMan ('25) ★★ 3rd Benoit Blanc mystery attempts the light, breezy Agatha Christie-style fun of the 1st films mixed with something darker & more Gothic, but Johnson & the cast are not up to the challenge, so the heavy, pretentious film never comes to life. www.film5000.com/2025/wake-up...
#DieMyLove ('25) ★★★+ Lynne Ramsay adapts Ariana Harwicz’s novel about isolation and mental illness into a rivetingly spare and abrasive postpartum fever dream, with a Jennifer Lawrence performance worthy of comparison to Gena Rowlands. www.film5000.com/2025/die-my-...
Die My Love
Another top-notch downer from Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin, You Were Never Really Here). The Scottish filmmaker, along with playwrights Enda Walsh and Alice...
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November 26, 2025 at 3:16 PM
#DieMyLove ('25) ★★★+ Lynne Ramsay adapts Ariana Harwicz’s novel about isolation and mental illness into a rivetingly spare and abrasive postpartum fever dream, with a Jennifer Lawrence performance worthy of comparison to Gena Rowlands. www.film5000.com/2025/die-my-...
#Bugonia ('25) ★★ Yorgos Lanthimos and Will Tracy's remake of the Korean sci-fi black comedy Save the Green Planet! marks the first collaboration between this director and Emma Stone to play tediously one-note. www.film5000.com/2025/bugonia...
Bugonia
Of the four films directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone, this is the first one I haven't responded well to. While I would personally rank their four collaborations in the same order ...
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November 21, 2025 at 1:33 PM
#Bugonia ('25) ★★ Yorgos Lanthimos and Will Tracy's remake of the Korean sci-fi black comedy Save the Green Planet! marks the first collaboration between this director and Emma Stone to play tediously one-note. www.film5000.com/2025/bugonia...
#nouvellevague ('25) ★★★ Marbeck's ability to convey impish gleam in Jean-Luc Godard's eyes, though always behind sunglasses, makes Linklater's cosplay about shooing the industry-changing film a worthy supplement to the pleasures of simply watching Breathless again. www.film5000.com/2025/nouvell...
Nouvelle Vague
The second film of Richard Linklater's 2025 one-two punch of portrait-of-an-artist-and-an-era-period-pieces (actually, they're more of a kiss-kiss than a punch-punch) offers the flip side to his Bl...
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November 13, 2025 at 2:53 PM
#nouvellevague ('25) ★★★ Marbeck's ability to convey impish gleam in Jean-Luc Godard's eyes, though always behind sunglasses, makes Linklater's cosplay about shooing the industry-changing film a worthy supplement to the pleasures of simply watching Breathless again. www.film5000.com/2025/nouvell...
#RentalFamily ('25) ★★ This saccharine and condescending picture is the latest movie to explore the way Asian cultures embrace dishonesty and denial, because therapy is taboo. www.film5000.com/2025/rental-...
Rental Family
I must admit, I'm fascinated by the cultural embrace of dishonesty and denial that several recent Asian films have showcased. I first became aware of this phenomenon in Lulu Wang's 2019 movie The F...
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November 9, 2025 at 4:14 PM
#RentalFamily ('25) ★★ This saccharine and condescending picture is the latest movie to explore the way Asian cultures embrace dishonesty and denial, because therapy is taboo. www.film5000.com/2025/rental-...
#mistressdispeller ('25) ★★★+ A fascinating fly-on-the-wall glimpse into the ways class, commitment, and culture shape contemporary China's marital economy, and how being manipulated into telling lies can sometimes uncover a more profound truth. www.film5000.com/2025/mistres...
Mistress Dispeller
Hong Kong film director, producer, and cinematographer Elizabeth Lo's sophomore documentary is a fascinating exploration into the ways class, commitment, and culture shape contemporary China's mari...
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November 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
#mistressdispeller ('25) ★★★+ A fascinating fly-on-the-wall glimpse into the ways class, commitment, and culture shape contemporary China's marital economy, and how being manipulated into telling lies can sometimes uncover a more profound truth. www.film5000.com/2025/mistres...
#APOET ('25) ★★★ What if Rupert Pupkin were a Spanish poet who channeled his delusional energies into mentoring someone with actual talent? www.film5000.com/2025/a-poet/...
A Poet
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November 7, 2025 at 4:53 PM
#APOET ('25) ★★★ What if Rupert Pupkin were a Spanish poet who channeled his delusional energies into mentoring someone with actual talent? www.film5000.com/2025/a-poet/...