Jen Yamato

KPop Demon Hunters keeps slaying

Extremely honored to be invited on @vox.com's excellent Today, Explained podcast to discuss some of the ideas on my Substack post about #KPopDemonHunters. Vox's explanatory journalism has been a major inspiration for my newsletter, so this meant a lot to me.

open.spotify.com/episode/62wW...

Always! Saving this to listen asap!

Thank you! Still amazed by the pieces of your Kaji collection that you brought 🙌

Meiko Kaji, center stage. Jen Yamato to her right and her interpreter to her left.

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 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."

Jenny Han on 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' series finale and why Belly had to go to Paris

Screenshot from Blue Crush with Michelle Rodriguez, Kate Bosworth, and another blonde actress.

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 the Zoom recording. Everyone is having a blast!

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...

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

And coming August...

2000s SPORTS mini-MEGA with @sepinwall.bsky.social, @thefienprint.bsky.social, @lindaholmes.bsky.social, & @jenyamato.bsky.social

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 👏

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.”

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...

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

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.

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...

nightmare fuel courtesy of #BringHerBack 📹 ▶️

I did….. 👀

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.

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” 🌶️🧨📚

What in the cursed camcorder just showed up at my door (and should I hit play)? #BringHerBack #A24

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 ...

“Facing pressure to scrub its website of diversity and inclusion references, a Japanese American National Museum leader says the museum will ‘scrub nothing.’” 🔥

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.

All-in for the Bernthalaissance

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.

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...

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.

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.

I too feel betrayed. Thank you for bringing this important matter to my attention @karajwarner.bsky.social!

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

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.

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”

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.

2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival Awards Winners Announcing the 2025 Jury and Special Award winners of the 32nd SXSW Film & TV Festival.

Part 2: Our winners have now been announced. It was a very fun deliberation discussing some very good documentaries.

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/

I remember that day! What a solid crate. So glad it’s served you well and glad you stopped to chat way back when!

Very sad to hear of David Ehrenstein’s passing. He was always a delight to chat with, and erudite indeed.