Last night I did something I thought I would never do: watch the movie 5-25-77. The reason I didn't expect to watch it was because it had languished in production hell for so long I had honestly given up hope of its ever having a wide release.
My first memory of this film was in early 2006. I knew the actor (John Francis Daley) from Freaks and Geeks, and the plot of the movie seemed interesting, so I began to follow its progress. Carrie Fisher was originally supposed to play the mother (she appears briefly, and vaguely, in the first teaser trailer), and Christopher Lloyd was originally cast as Herb Lightman (he appears in the second trailer). For all these reasons, I was really eager to see this movie. Fisher was then replaced by Colleen Camp, and Lloyd by Austin Pendleton, but I still eagerly anticipated this movie.
Back then IMDB still had messageboards, and I would visit this one every now and then. The director, Patrick Read Johnson, would occasionally drop by to give status updates and interact with other users on this site. I think he even answered one of my questions one time. He assured us that, despite various setbacks, the movie would eventually be released. So I waited. But as the years went by I started to lose hope. The movie changed names a couple of times, was screened at a festival here or there, but other than that nothing. I would check back every year or so, but no progress appeared to have been made. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would never see this movie. Until late November 2022 when I said 'Why not?' and I checked again, expecting nothing at all. And to my surprise, there it was, available to stream. After waiting for over 16 years, I would finally be able to watch 5-25-77.
Other reviewers have already described the plot and offered their critique, so I won't delve into that here. Suffice to say that I thought it was enjoyable, charming and funny. The acting was good and the characters interesting. I particularly enjoyed the performance of Steve Coulter as Patrick's friend and sometimes-reluctant actor in Patrick's movies.
In short, after waiting so long for this movie to be released, I was really glad to finally be able to watch it, and I was not disappointed. Kudos to Patrick for not giving up. You persevered and released your labor of love so everyone can now have the opportunity to watch it. In the movie, your younger self worked passionately on movies and achieved his goals despite setbacks and hardships. And the same can be said of you working hard on completing 5-25-77. It may not have been easy, but you did it. Well done!
