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Jen Yamato

@jenyamato.bsky.social
3.8K followers 328 following 77 posts

journalist | film critic movies, karaoke, repeat

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Reposted by Jen Yamato
Justin Chang @justincchang.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
The best documentary of 2025 arrives on MUBI this Friday. My review, from August:
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Annual #Oscars menu from Justin Chang, our king of puns 👑 Now hankering for some Sean Penne Benicio Del Taro Boba Chloé Zhao Long Bao
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Joshua Rothkopf @joshuarothkopf.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
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...
latimes.com
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.
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Jacob Oller @jacoboller.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Frederick Wiseman in 2015: www.avclub.com/frederick-wi...
AVC: You’ve made 41 films. Does it feel like you’ve made that many?

FW: No. But once it’s done I rarely go back and look at it again.

AVC: At the end of it all, is there something that you’d like to be remembered for in this genre and this form?

FW: Well, I’d like to be remembered for the 41 movies I’ve made!

AVC: Certainly you’ll be remembered for those. But, is there—

FW: No, but certainly, making movies is an effort is an attempt to leave a trace of your existence.

AVC: Can you imagine doing anything else as a career?

FW: Yeah, I thought of being Roger Federer, but it’s too late.
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
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
A bottle of the obsolete Canadian beverage Orbitz sits next to three screws and a lunchbox featuring the 1980s American space Western animated series BraveStarr
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Aaron Stewart-Ahn @badideas.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Oscar nominated co-writer of It Was Just An Accident has just been arrested in Iran. Statement by Jafar Panahi:
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
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. youtu.be/rEH7sF6pA4s?si=Gk1jawFu20c…
youtu.be
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
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Candice Frederick @candicefrederick.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
this is terrible. www.npr.org/2026/01/30/n...
npr.org
'Washington Post' journalists plea to Bezos: Don't gut our newsroom
Members of the newspaper's union say they have been warned the company could cut as many as 300 jobs, although no announcement has been made.
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Kristen Lopez @kristenklopez.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
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...
thefilmmaven.com
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
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
🚨 Universal has officially dated the next / 11th / (… final?) FAST & FURIOUS film, titled FAST FOREVER, for March 17, 2028 🚗💨
Universal Pictures sets March 17, 2028 release date for 11th Fast & Furious film
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
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
Teyana Taylor casual slay at the 2025 LA Film Critics Awards
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Los Angeles Film Critics Association @lafilmcritics.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
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
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Justin Chang @justincchang.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Happy LAFCA Voting Day, aka One Ballot After Another.
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Los Angeles Film Critics Association @lafilmcritics.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
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...
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Fuck Yeah! Meiko Kaji 梶芽衣子 @meikokaji.net · 03/10/2025
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.
Meiko Kaji, center stage. Jen Yamato to her right and her interpreter to her left.
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Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · 15/09/2025
Jenny Han on 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' series finale and why Belly had to go to Paris
latimes.com
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."
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SCREAM Drafts @screendrafts.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
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...
Screenshot from Blue Crush with Michelle Rodriguez, Kate Bosworth, and another blonde actress.
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SCREAM Drafts @screendrafts.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
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...
Screenshot from the Zoom recording. Everyone is having a blast!
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SCREAM Drafts @screendrafts.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
And coming August... 2000s SPORTS mini-MEGA with @sepinwall.bsky.social, @thefienprint.bsky.social, @lindaholmes.bsky.social, & @jenyamato.bsky.social
media.tenor.com
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
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Dino-Ray Ramos @dinoray.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
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...
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Fantastic #BleakWeek selection 👏
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
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...
washingtonpost.com
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.”
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Rio Dylan Hernandez @riodylan.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
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
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
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...
washingtonpost.com
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.
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
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” 🌶️🧨📚
washingtonpost.com
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.
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
What in the cursed camcorder just showed up at my door (and should I hit play)? #BringHerBack #A24
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
“Facing pressure to scrub its website of diversity and inclusion references, a Japanese American National Museum leader says the museum will ‘scrub nothing.’” 🔥
latimes.com
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 ...
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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
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.
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Scott Renshaw @scottrenshaw.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
All-in for the Bernthalaissance
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Rami Malek is a STEM vigilante Bourne out for justice in The Amateur, the latest in a current run of “men at work” action yarns. By-the-numbers with a few fun surprises, but between this and The Accountant 2, at least, we get 2x the Jon Bernthal this month www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
washingtonpost.com
Review | Rami Malek steps out in techno spy thriller ‘The Amateur’
A CIA analyst goes rogue for revenge in a by-the-numbers action film.
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Los Angeles Film Critics Association @lafilmcritics.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
We join our colleagues in @nsfc.bsky.social, @nyfcc.bsky.social and @bsfc.bsky.social in condemning the attack on NO OTHER LAND co-director Hamdan Ballal.
U.S. FILM CRITICS’ GROUPS 
CONDEMN VIOLENCE AGAINST HAMDAN BALLAL

We, the members of the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Boston Society of Film Critics, express our support for the Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal and condemn, in the strongest terms, the brutal and unlawful attack he suffered this week at the hands of Israeli settlers, as well as his detainment by Israeli authorities. We are gravely concerned for Mr. Ballal’s health and safety, as well as the safety of his loved ones, and, now that he has been released, extend our hopes for his full recovery from his injuries.

Mr. Ballal was assaulted near his home in Khirbet Susya, a village in the Masafer Yatta region of the occupied West Bank. Attacks on the residents of Masafer Yatta are nothing new, as we have seen from “No Other Land,” the Academy Award-winning documentary that Mr. Ballal co-directed with Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor. As critics representing four of the numerous organizations that honored “No Other Land” as the best documentary of 2024, we are infuriated that a filmmaker’s brave and principled advocacy has made him even more of a target in a community where Palestinians already exist under continual threat of displacement and violence.

One of the most powerful aspects of “No Other Land” — and the reason so many have tried, in vain, to limit its reach and silence its message — is that it is itself a rare feat of collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and artists, united by their belief in dignity and equality for all. By the very nature of its form and creation, the film represents, and dares to imagine, a more peaceful future. We applaud Mr. Ballal and his colleagues for the courage and artistry with which they have advanced that vision and affirm that it will never be forgotten.
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Kara Warner @karajwarner.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Finally (finally!!) watching this terrific show and NONE of y'all told me Gambit is just hanging out in crop tops all the time?! Wtf is up w/ my algorithm and also how dare @jowrotethis.bsky.social @jenyamato.bsky.social @marcbernardin.bsky.social @germainlussier.bsky.social not tell me about it
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C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Great film writing is essential for film lovers to better understand the films they love so much. And great film writing should be well compensated. You can't have a stable of brilliant minds on gig-economy salaries. You can exploit talent only so long before it leaves. Pay. The. Writers.
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Belated SXSW appreciation post! It was an honor to join @aishaharris.bsky.social & @timgrierson.bsky.social on the 2025 Documentary Feature jury, awarding our jury prize to Benjamin Flaherty’s SHUFFLE and special jury awards to THE PYTHON HUNT & REMAINING NATIVE. Great films, fascinating subjects.
A still from Benjamin Flaherty’s “Shuffle,” winner of the 2025 SXSW Documentary Feature Jury Prize SXSW 2025 Documentary Feature Jury Prize awarded to “Shuffle” A snake hunter on the hunt in Xander Robin’s SXSW 2025 special jury award winning documentary “The Python Hunt” Kutoven Stevens runs in Paige Bethmann’s special jury award-winning SXSW 2025 documentary “Remaining Native”
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Tim Grierson @timgrierson.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Part 2: Our winners have now been announced. It was a very fun deliberation discussing some very good documentaries.
sxsw.com
2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival Awards Winners
Announcing the 2025 Jury and Special Award winners of the 32nd SXSW Film & TV Festival.
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Nathan Cone @nathancone.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
A nice SXSW story from 10 years ago today. I was wandering by the “Bates Motel” pop-up and spotted @jenyamato.bsky.social, whom I only knew of from Twitter. “Hey, are you Jen Yamato?” I asked. “Yes,” she replied, and asked who I was. I introduced myself, that I was up from San Antonio. 1/
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Very sad to hear of David Ehrenstein’s passing. He was always a delight to chat with, and erudite indeed.
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Aisha Harris @aishaharris.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Yessss it was such a pleasure watching some really interesting docs and serving with Tim and Jen on the Documentary Feature jury. Catch me on the ground this weekend at my first SXSW in quite some time!
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Tim Grierson @timgrierson.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Happy to say I'll be serving on the Documentary Feature jury at @sxsw.com with @aishaharris.bsky.social and @jenyamato.bsky.social. (Also, it's my first SXSW: If you see me around Austin, say hi.)
sxsw.com
2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival Jury Announced
Discover the jurors for the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Awards and what to expect from this exciting lineup of film and tv premieres.
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
JUSTIN YOU ABSOLUTE MANIAC best Oscars menu to date 10/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ @justincchang.bsky.social
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Give The Monkey marketing team a raise
“Jesus saves / The Monkey kills” billboards in Los Angeles
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Joshua Rothkopf @joshuarothkopf.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
"I mean, it’s insane what he’s saying." Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, the co-directors of NO OTHER LAND, have thoughts about Trump's Gaza plan. @indiefocus.bsky.social spoke to them about the Oscars, self-distribution and what they see as a longer project of activism. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
latimes.com
The co-directors of 'No Other Land' on Trump's Gaza plan, the Oscars and the fight ahead
Made by a team of Palestinian and Israeli activist filmmakers, the Academy Award-nominated documentary is a look at life under occupation in a small West Bank village.
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Lindsey Bahr @ldbahr.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
apnews.com/article/suga... Oscar-nominated documentary exposes horrifying truths about Indigenous residential schools in Canada
apnews.com
Oscar-nominated documentary exposes horrifying truths about Indigenous residential schools in Canada
The discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at an Indian residential school in Canada in 2021 was just the catalyst for “Sugarcane."
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Bridget Jones has done some ludicrous things on the big screen (the stint in a Thai prison; the silly paternity mystery), but #MadAboutTheBoy is her least ridiculous/most moving chapter, and the best of the sequels. A good popcorn cry going streaming in the US. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
washingtonpost.com
Review | ‘Mad About the Boy’: A tender sequel gives Bridget Jones her groove back
24 years after “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” Renée Zellweger returns as the rom-com heroine now embarking on a steamy fling with a younger man.
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FANGORIA @fangoria.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
At last night’s LAFCA Awards, ANORA director Sean Baker read the letter he sent to FANGORIA in 1988, praising Chuck Russell’s THE BLOB. What happened next inspired him to pursue filmmaking. Great things happen when you write to The Postal Zone!
Sean Baker's Postal Zone submission from FANGORIA volume 1 issue 80.
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Taking over the @lafilmcritics.bsky.social IG tonight for our 50th anniversary awards gala ✨ go follow!
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
HEART EYES: a winking rom-com slasher that chops up genre tropes with satirical glee. Nails a tonal blend that’s hard to get right, with charismatic leads in Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt. Love a fake dating trope done well 😍 My review for @washingtonpost.com: www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
washingtonpost.com
Review | ‘Heart Eyes’: A rom-com slasher to steal the hearts of Cupid haters
A serial killer hunts happy couples in Josh Ruben’s satirical genre mash-up.
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Courtney Howard @lulamaybelle.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Seeing #BarbAndStarGoToVistaDelMar last night *in a theater* with a crowd primed to celebrate its comic genius restored my shimmer. Lovely to see Josh Greenbaum, Annie Mumolo & Steve Saklad touched by the earned praise. @lafilmcritics.bsky.social @jenyamato.bsky.social @katiewalshstx.bsky.social
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Jen Yamato @jenyamato.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
In 2021, Kristen Wiig & Annie Mumolo’s sublime BFF fantasia #BarbAndStarGoToVistaDelMar saw its theatrical release cancelled due to COVID. Last night director Josh Greenbaum channeled Edgar’s prayer introducing its first Q&A screening to a full house at the Egyptian w/ @lafilmcritics.bsky.social 🦐✨🌴
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