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.
#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/...
#TrainDreams ('25) ★★★ Quiet, immersive adaptation of Denis Johnson's novella lulls you into a semi-liminal state with soporific narration from Will Patton, allowing this minimalist epic to transport you to an earlier time in the nation's history. www.film5000.com/2025/train-d...
Train Dreams
This adaptation of Denis Johnson's 2011 novella is the sophomore directorial effort of Clint Bentley, who, with his creative partner Greg Kwedar, wrote and produced Transpecos and Sing Sing, both d...
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November 5, 2025 at 4:19 PM
#TrainDreams ('25) ★★★ Quiet, immersive adaptation of Denis Johnson's novella lulls you into a semi-liminal state with soporific narration from Will Patton, allowing this minimalist epic to transport you to an earlier time in the nation's history. www.film5000.com/2025/train-d...
#QueensOfTheDead ('25) ★★+ Romero's amusing take on her dad's legacy is mash-up of Night, Dawn, and Day set in world of queer nightclub denizens. Fun, but like most movies of this ilk, it can't build to an original climax, ceases to function while lumbering forward. www.film5000.com/2025/queens-...
Queens of the Dead
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November 3, 2025 at 5:09 PM
#QueensOfTheDead ('25) ★★+ Romero's amusing take on her dad's legacy is mash-up of Night, Dawn, and Day set in world of queer nightclub denizens. Fun, but like most movies of this ilk, it can't build to an original climax, ceases to function while lumbering forward. www.film5000.com/2025/queens-...
#frankenstein ('25) ★★ It comes as no surprise that the only interesting character in monster-obsessive del Toro's take on the ultimate monster story is the monster in this overproduced, underwritten, over-acted, underwhelming epic telling of the tale.https://www.film5000.com/2025/frankenstein/17350
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein gets yet another screen treatment, even though there has been nothing new to say with this iconic tale of life, death, creation, ambition, and madness over the last four...
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November 1, 2025 at 3:19 PM
#frankenstein ('25) ★★ It comes as no surprise that the only interesting character in monster-obsessive del Toro's take on the ultimate monster story is the monster in this overproduced, underwritten, over-acted, underwhelming epic telling of the tale.https://www.film5000.com/2025/frankenstein/17350
#BlueMoon ('25) ★★★+ A captivating, theatrical, meditative, melancholy comedy about the great songwriter Lorenz Hart, brought lovingly to the screen by the unexpected (for this material) duo of Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke. www.film5000.com/2025/blue-mo...
Blue Moon
Richard Linklater is an odd choice as director, and his frequent collaborator, Ethan Hawke, is a strange choice as star for this theatrical, meditative, melancholy comedy about the great songwriter...
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October 31, 2025 at 4:10 PM
#BlueMoon ('25) ★★★+ A captivating, theatrical, meditative, melancholy comedy about the great songwriter Lorenz Hart, brought lovingly to the screen by the unexpected (for this material) duo of Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke. www.film5000.com/2025/blue-mo...
#IfIHadLegsIdKickYou ('25) ★★★+ Rose Byrne delivers a relentlessly compelling performance as a mother whose life is crashing down around her in the movie NightBitch could have been if it had the guts. www.film5000.com/2025/if-i-ha...
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
I do love a memorable title, and this movie lives up to its unusual moniker. Rose Byrne delivers a relentlessly compelling performance as a therapist named Linda whose life is crashing down around ...
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October 30, 2025 at 1:25 PM
#IfIHadLegsIdKickYou ('25) ★★★+ Rose Byrne delivers a relentlessly compelling performance as a mother whose life is crashing down around her in the movie NightBitch could have been if it had the guts. www.film5000.com/2025/if-i-ha...
#TronAres ('25) ★ We might have to just admit that 1982's Tron is not a substantial enough property to build an entire series or universe around. www.film5000.com/2025/tron:-a...
Tron: Ares
How did Disney manage to screw this concept up worse and worse with each attempt? The flaws in the first Tron are understandable. The filmmakers were trying to push the envelope with dazzling new t...
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October 29, 2025 at 2:13 PM
#TronAres ('25) ★ We might have to just admit that 1982's Tron is not a substantial enough property to build an entire series or universe around. www.film5000.com/2025/tron:-a...
#springsteendelivermefromnowhere ('25) ★ Combining boomer biopic and millennial apology porn, the latest reductive music bio explores the artistic process behind an iconic album using cinematic's most uncreative forms of expression. www.film5000.com/2025/springs...
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Writer/director Scott Cooper manages to combine my two least favorite types of movie—boomer biopic and millennial apology porn—and adds the now-fully-coalesced terrible Gen-X filmmaker trope of sub...
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October 28, 2025 at 12:53 PM
#springsteendelivermefromnowhere ('25) ★ Combining boomer biopic and millennial apology porn, the latest reductive music bio explores the artistic process behind an iconic album using cinematic's most uncreative forms of expression. www.film5000.com/2025/springs...
#thelongwalk ('25) ★★ + Stephen King's allegory for the Vietnam draft now plays more like a bleak yet comforting Gen-Z Rollerball, in which most of the characters are kind and supportive to each other, even though that makes no sense. www.film5000.com/2025/the-lon...
The Long Walk
This relentlessly bleak, laughably illogical, yet undeniably compelling picture is the latest adaptation from Stephen King's seemingly endless supply of lesser-known novels and short stories (this ...
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October 12, 2025 at 1:26 PM
#thelongwalk ('25) ★★ + Stephen King's allegory for the Vietnam draft now plays more like a bleak yet comforting Gen-Z Rollerball, in which most of the characters are kind and supportive to each other, even though that makes no sense. www.film5000.com/2025/the-lon...
#downtonabbeythegrandfinale ('25) ★★ This least grand finale imaginable is what ChatGPT would write for you if you fed it all the prior Downton scripts and asked it to write a final movie that gives every character about the same number of lines. www.film5000.com/2025/downton...
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
Downton Abbey is the last TV show I watched every episode of, before essentially swearing off all new television, so I wasn't gonna skip the movies. The first series of Julian Fellowes' delightful ...
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October 11, 2025 at 3:07 PM
#downtonabbeythegrandfinale ('25) ★★ This least grand finale imaginable is what ChatGPT would write for you if you fed it all the prior Downton scripts and asked it to write a final movie that gives every character about the same number of lines. www.film5000.com/2025/downton...
#OneBattleAfterAnother ('25) ★★ PTA's shaggy yet tense combination of vibes movie and epic chase picture, sprinkled with side-eyed political commentary and dark humor, sure isn't the movie I think these times call for. www.film5000.com/2025/one-bat...
One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson's epic political thriller is the most hotly anticipated film of the year. The sprawling action movie was shot in VistaVision and is even playing at a few theaters in its native...
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September 25, 2025 at 1:14 PM
#OneBattleAfterAnother ('25) ★★ PTA's shaggy yet tense combination of vibes movie and epic chase picture, sprinkled with side-eyed political commentary and dark humor, sure isn't the movie I think these times call for. www.film5000.com/2025/one-bat...
#SpinalTap2TheEndContinues ('25) ★ The cinematic equivalent of the old Chris Farley Show sketch on SNL done without intention or irony: "Hey, you remember... that time... when you said your amps went to 11? That was awesome."
www.film5000.com/2025/spinal-...
www.film5000.com/2025/spinal-...
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
For four decades, the peerless comedy combo of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer have found creative ways to keep their Spinal Tap characters (and copyright) alive, dusting off t...
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September 24, 2025 at 6:03 PM
#SpinalTap2TheEndContinues ('25) ★ The cinematic equivalent of the old Chris Farley Show sketch on SNL done without intention or irony: "Hey, you remember... that time... when you said your amps went to 11? That was awesome."
www.film5000.com/2025/spinal-...
www.film5000.com/2025/spinal-...
#TheBaltimorons ('25) ★★★+ Michael Strassner and Liz Larsen shine as mismatched strangers on a refreshingly low-key yet emotionally high-stakes misadventure through Baltimore on Christmas Eve in Jay Duplass' delightfully melancholy alt-holiday comedy. www.film5000.com/2025/the-bal...
The Baltimorons
Jay Duplass, who, along with his younger brother Mark, was a major force in the DIY filmmaking movement dubbed "mumblecore" in the Aughts, makes his solo directorial debut with this all-in-one-day ...
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September 12, 2025 at 11:55 AM
#TheBaltimorons ('25) ★★★+ Michael Strassner and Liz Larsen shine as mismatched strangers on a refreshingly low-key yet emotionally high-stakes misadventure through Baltimore on Christmas Eve in Jay Duplass' delightfully melancholy alt-holiday comedy. www.film5000.com/2025/the-bal...
#splitsville ('25) ★★★★ 4 friends attempt to unlock the secrets to relationship happiness by experimenting with open marriage in this hilarious, wonderfully-crafted, surprisingly relatable farce from filmmaker/stars Michael Angelo Covino & Kyle Marvin. www.film5000.com/2025/splitsv...
Splitsville
The sophomore outing of writer/producer/director Michael Angelo Covino and writer/producer Kyle Marvin (who together run the production company Watch This Ready) is a hilarious farce about modern m...
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September 10, 2025 at 4:59 PM
#splitsville ('25) ★★★★ 4 friends attempt to unlock the secrets to relationship happiness by experimenting with open marriage in this hilarious, wonderfully-crafted, surprisingly relatable farce from filmmaker/stars Michael Angelo Covino & Kyle Marvin. www.film5000.com/2025/splitsv...
#caughtstealing ('25) ★★+ Aronofsky crafts an amusing if forgettable genre exercise made to evoke the post-RezDogs crime indies that flooded screens in the '90s; Austin Butler leads a terrific cast with fun turns by Liev Schreiber and Vincent D'Onofrio. www.film5000.com/2025/caught-...
Caught Stealing
Austin Butler leads a terrific cast in this '90s-era New York period piece, shot, designed, and tricked out to evoke the vibe of the myriad low-budget indie crime capers that flooded cinemas after ...
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September 9, 2025 at 12:56 PM
#caughtstealing ('25) ★★+ Aronofsky crafts an amusing if forgettable genre exercise made to evoke the post-RezDogs crime indies that flooded screens in the '90s; Austin Butler leads a terrific cast with fun turns by Liev Schreiber and Vincent D'Onofrio. www.film5000.com/2025/caught-...
#lurker ★★+ Russell's debut about relationship dynamics of male twentysomethings looking for acceptance captures universal & timeless truths, but the world of the characters & the visual look are so off-putting it's hard (for an old guy like me) to care. www.film5000.com/2025/lurker/...
Lurker
The debut feature by TV writer turned director Alex Russell follows a twenty-something clothing store clerk named Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) who falls in with a rising pop star named Oliver (Archi...
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August 29, 2025 at 4:49 PM
#lurker ★★+ Russell's debut about relationship dynamics of male twentysomethings looking for acceptance captures universal & timeless truths, but the world of the characters & the visual look are so off-putting it's hard (for an old guy like me) to care. www.film5000.com/2025/lurker/...
#TheNakedGun ('25) ★★★+ Akiva Schaffer and co pull off an impressive feat, not just remaking the beloved ZAZ spoof movie without embarrassing themselves but delivering one of the funniest studio comedies we've gotten in many, many years. www.film5000.com/2025/the-nak...
The Naked Gun
The Lonely Island's Akiva Schaffer helms this remake of the much-loved David Zucker/Jim Abrahams/Jerry Zucker spoof movie classic, The Naked Gun. The original 1988 film was based on the ZAZ team's ...
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August 12, 2025 at 2:43 PM
#TheNakedGun ('25) ★★★+ Akiva Schaffer and co pull off an impressive feat, not just remaking the beloved ZAZ spoof movie without embarrassing themselves but delivering one of the funniest studio comedies we've gotten in many, many years. www.film5000.com/2025/the-nak...
#Eddington ('25) ★★+ Aster's COVID-era thiller plays like a filmmaker processing thoughts in real-time rather than ruminating on complex situations & themes. Not an issue if his observations were different from what most of us have thought about every day since 2020. www.film5000.com/2025/eddingt...
Eddington
Ari Aster's neo-western period-piece-about-today stars Joaquin Phoenix as the sheriff of the titular New Mexico town, who makes a series of reactionary decisions as a result of his town's COVID-19 ...
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August 11, 2025 at 1:39 PM
#Eddington ('25) ★★+ Aster's COVID-era thiller plays like a filmmaker processing thoughts in real-time rather than ruminating on complex situations & themes. Not an issue if his observations were different from what most of us have thought about every day since 2020. www.film5000.com/2025/eddingt...