Happy 40th Anniversary to Vidiots! From Santa Monica to Eagle Rock, from VHS to 4K, this legendary video store continues to champion cinema & make it available to everyone. Long live Vidiots!

For LA Times, I interviewed the directors of LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN, my favorite animated film of the year, about a Belgian girl in Japan who thinks she is God. A joy to hear from directors Mailys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han about this triumph: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Vote YES on Prop 50! #ElectionDay #Vote #California

For #Halloween we are Sensei’s “a few small beers.”

Vampire? No, I’m Weird Al! Now won’t you invite me in? #Sinners #WeirdAl #Halloween

Happy 30th Anniversary to GOOSEBUMPS! The premiere episode “The Haunted Mask” still haunts my nightmares. #Goosebumps

For the New York Times, I talked to Vasilis Marmatakis, the Greek artist behind the unique posters for Yorgos Lanthimos’ brilliantly bizarre films starting with DOGTOOTH, and for every film since, including his latest, BUGONIA: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/m...

Blockbuster Video opened its first store on October 19th, 1985 in Dallas. It grew to over 9000 stores worldwide. Now there’s only one left in Bend, Oregon. 40 years of rise & fall, from unbeatable brand to nostalgic memory. Save the Video Store. #BlockbusterVideo

I’m so excited to part of the features jury for the Animation Is Film Festival, which kicks off today, alongside actor and filmmaker Jemaine Clement and Oscar-winning animator Torill Kove. Looking forward to discussing the strong lineup.

Tonight! I’m thrilled to be a guest on the @disc-connected.bsky.social YouTube show, talking about new physical media releases, and this week’s topic: obscure horror films! Join us at 6:30pm PST!

Honored to have written the liner notes for the Criterion Premieres release of Jia Zhangke’s masterful CAUGHT BY THE TIDES. One of the absolute best films released this year. Feel very lucky to have my writing in this one. @criterion.bsky.social

THE DEAD is coming to @criterion.bsky.social! John Huston’s stunning final film is a masterful adaptation of James Joyce, and now it’s finally coming to BluRay/4K! AND it includes the out-of-print documentary John Huston & The Dubliners! #Criterion

AZTEC BATMAN: CLASH OF EMPIRES reimagines the cape crusader as an Aztec warrior fighting Spanish conquistadors in Tenochtitlán. For De Los at @latimes.com , I interviewed the Mexican team behind it, director Juan Meza-Leon and producer Jose Carlos Garcia de Letona: www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

RIP Drew Struzan. Thank you for your amazing posters, especially the holy trilogy of 90s Pirate films: HOOK, MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND and CUTTHROAT ISLAND. You were truly one of a kind.

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

“You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind.”

Mexican party for a 1-year-old baby: “We are having a few small beers.”

ONE BATTLE OF FIVE ARMIES AFTER ANOTHER (2025) Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

I talked to THE Stephen King for the New York Times, as well as to directors Edgar Wright, Mike Flanagan, Mary Lambert, Andy Muschietti and Francis Lawrence, who’ve made films based on his novels, about bringing the author’s words to the screen: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/m...

If your parents got their green card through the amnesty in the ‘80s, they didn’t do it “the right way.” They just got lucky. Before that they were in the same shoes as the undocumented people being persecuted right now. The fact that some of you forget that is atrocious.

Politicians and rich people only condemn violence as "political" when it kills someone rich and famous. When trans people are targeted for violence by the state or by right wing influencers, when immigrants are racially profiles and put in camps, when protestors are brutalized, that's just normal.

Sunday at Gardena Cinema: EL MARIACHI and DESPERADO double feature! VHS swap in the lobby at 6pm! Tickets available in the link below. #RobertRodriguez

For De Los at @latimes.com, I profiled Oscar Nuñez, the actor who played Oscar Martinez in THE OFFICE and now THE PAPER. We discussed the character that has been part of his life for 20 years, and he spoke out about the current anti-immigrant climate in this country: www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

I read a lot about 'the convenience of streaming', but personally I find 19,000 films under one roof to be pretty convenient. When you factor in no subscriptions, no price increases, and no titles being randomly deleted, it's hard to beat.

The 61st Cinecon Classic Film Festival! Terrific rare films from the 1910s to the 1960s, and wonderful guests including Ann-Margret and Mamie Van Doren! Classic film fans are the best. #Cinecon61

VHS Double Feature! Come see EL MARIACHI and DESPERADO at the Gardena Cinema: Sunday, 8/14! VHS swap in the lobby at 6pm! Tickets available in link below. #RobertRodriguez #VHS

So excited to share this one! Mexican American actor Tonatiuh is the breakout star of KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN for his electrifying performance. I hung out with him at El Mercadito in Boyle Heights, where he is from, to profile him for LA Times’ Fall Preview: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Feared HAMNET could be too much of a departure for Chloé Zhao, but she grounds the story on Shakespeare to the elemental forces of the world. In Jessie Buckley’s performance sorrow is devastatingly visceral, it courses through the physical body until it transcends via the divine.

Guillermo del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN is the astounding culmination of the monster/human dichotomy fueling his oeuvre. The creature is now built from the same flesh as its maker and shares his paternal wound. Elordi and Isaac breathe stirring anguish into their respectively monstrous parts. Beautiful.

It's Friday, so here's your new episode of Inside The Video Store! This week there's a nod to the 30th anniversary of Snips Movies, as well as a new Eastern European section c/o Second Run, and a stack of Mark Polonia films. What a mix! youtu.be/ykbD6ccqVuA

I was doing a movie with Tsui Hark (and Oliver Stone's producer, A. Kitman Ho), back in 1997. A live action adaption of "Lupin III", that we would have done with Jim Carrey. Alex Ho (lovely, lovely man) ended up losing the rights, so it never happened. Craziest screenplay I ever wrote! #scriptsky

My interview with Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones and the great Luis Guzmán about WEDNESDAY season 2 is in print today, on the cover of the LA Times’s Entertainment section!! Happy about how this piece came together. It’s online here: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

The 61st Cinecon Classic Film Festival is coming up! I talked with Cinecon’s Stan Taffel & Bryan Cooper about this year’s lineup, special guests, and the beauty of the shared theatrical experience. Issue 21 of The Physical Media Advocate from @disc-connected.bsky.social is out now!

VIDEOHEAVEN comes to LA this week! Three chances to see this incredible documentary about video store history. Wednesday at @vidiots.bsky.social, Thursday at Videotheque, and Friday at @amcinematheque.bsky.social. Get your tickets! #Videoheaven

Physical media forever 📼

Happy 40th Anniversary to THE BLACK CAULDRON! It may have been a flop in 1985, but this terrific animated fantasy deserves a second chance from Disney fans. Very proud to write about it for Remind Magazine! Link below. #TheBlackCauldron

VHS Fest 9! By plane & car, my friends @carlosfilm.bsky.social, Daniel & I trekked to the Mahoning Drive-In for the ultimate VHS get-together. An incredible weekend of tape trading & cult film screenings in the sweltering Pennsylvania heat. #VHSfest9

“In our own land, we have no home. They want to kill us … In Mexico, there is only poverty. We can’t make a home there either. And here in the north, we aren’t accepted. When will we find a home, Enrique? Maybe when we die, we’ll find a home.”

VIDEO VIOLENCE in NYC! The iconic SOV video store horror film. Tonight at @ifccenter.bsky.social, co-presented by Night Owl Video. Intro by Alex Ross Perry! #VideoViolence #Videoheaven

VIDEOHEAVEN opens today at @ifccenter.bsky.social! The ultimate love letter to video stores! Q&A tonight and Saturday with Alex Ross Perry. Check out my interview with Perry in Issue 18 of The Physical Media Advocate. #Videoheaven

PONYBOI follows an Intersex sex worker in New Jersey trying to escape their harsh environment for a dreamlike reality. For De Los at @latimes.com, I profiled Salvadoran American star and screenwriter River Gallo. We talked Bruce Springsteen and Intersex visibility: www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

We’re halfway through 2025, these are my 10 favorite films released this year so far (listed alphabetically). Still have lots to catch up on, but here’s where I’m at.

Favorite Films of 2025 so far: The Encampments That They May Face the Rising Sun Sorry, Baby Sinners

Happy 100th Anniversary to THE GOLD RUSH! Charlie Chaplin’s comedic masterpiece premiered 100 years ago today at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood! #TheGoldRush

I really loved Pixar’s ELIO. I found it deeply poignant, at times melancholic, and dazzlingly realized. And Glordon, the fluffy space worm, is adorable. I reviewed it for @ign.com: www.ign.com/articles/eli...

Toothless had been a fan-favorite since the first HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON film in 2010. For @latimes.com, I talked director Dean DeBlois, and two key artists, about the character’s transformation for the new live-action/CG hybrid movie that’s now in theaters: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Happy 40th Anniversary to Studio Ghibli! What does the future hold for the greatest film studio in history? Hayao Miyazaki contemplated that question in this clip from phenomenal doc THE KINGDOM OF DREAMS AND MADNESS.

Sean Baker last night at the Gardena Cinema holding the Mexican blu-ray of TANGERINE I got for him through my brother. They played ANORA to a sold out crowd. The great Jen Yamato moderated the Q&A. Thanks @conorholt.bsky.social for delivering the blu-ray and taking the photo.

West Hollywood #NoKings #AbolishICE

“The right way”