5-25-77 (2022)

"Utterly Charming SF Fan Biopic"

Writer-Director Patrick Read Johnson's endearing biopic, detailing how he went from movie-obsessed fan to Hollywood film-maker, is getting a digital release from 101 Films.

From the moment nine year old Patrick (John Francis Daley) sees Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in a cinema with his parents, all he wants to do is make movies. He's aided by his parents buying him model kits and a movie camera, and by family and friend eager to join in with his hobby.

But it's much more than that. Patrick becomes obsessed with film-making, and with his film-making idols, in particular video effects wizard and SILENT RUNNING director Douglas Trumbull. He resolves to get to Hollywood and become part of the industry he loves, but he lives in a tiny town (population 750) in rural Illinois so how is he to achieve his dream?

A phone call from his mother (Colleen Camp) to the editor of American Cinematographer magazine and Patrick is on a flight to LA, where he gets to meet not just Trumbull but Steven Spielberg on the set of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. And as if that wasn't enough, he's the very first member of the general public to see an early rough cut of a film called STAR WARS. But when he returns home he finds it more difficult than he thought to decide whether he wants to go remain there or go back to California.

Apparently a true story, 5-25-77 refers to the date STAR WARS was released, and while that film features prominently, fans of other SF movies of the period, especially 2001, will have a blast with this and see part of themselves in Patrick's enthusiasm and frustrations. At 132 minutes it's perhaps a little overlong but it's a film that can stand proudly in the subgenre of 'movie about movies', and especially those about movie fans. It's at its best when it's being honest about the burning all-consuming passion so many fans have for cinema, and there are several passages of dialogue that hit home and sum up perfectly why so many people have so much love for the movies. If you're an SF movie fan you'll want to see this and if you're not it will go a good way to explaining why so many people are. Here's the trailer:

Patrick Read Johnson's 5-25-77 is out on digital from 101 Films on Monday 1st May 2023