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Carlos Aguilar

@carlosfilm

Film critic/journalist. Mexican 🇲🇽 DACA. Bylines LA Times, New York Times, IndieWire, RogerEbert, Backstage

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13.11.2024
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Latest posts by Carlos Aguilar @carlosfilm

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A global phenomenon, KPOP DEMON HUNTERS is nominated for 2 Oscars. For LA Times (De Los) I profiled Danya Jimenez, the Mexican American talent from Orange County who co-wrote the animated hit.

Read here: www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

04.03.2026 17:07 👍 23 🔁 10 💬 1 📌 1
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Crazy Old Lady review: Carmen Maura shocks in economical thriller Maura’s tonally fluid performance confirms the film’s lighter undercurrents.

"Argentine writer-director Martín Mauregui’s proficiently entertaining CRAZY OLD LADY, the legendary actress steps into the horror genre as a dangerous protagonist,” writes @carlosfilm.bsky.social.

27.02.2026 17:30 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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My interview with Alejandro González Iñárritu for LA Times about his new installation at LACMA, “Sueño Perro,” is in print today. The experience is a dreamlike celebration of footage that didn’t make it into the final cut of AMORES PERROS.

Read here: www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

26.02.2026 01:31 👍 10 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

A lot of “cinephiles” don’t care for animation. They don’t watch it, they don’t write about it. They still see it as a lesser medium, so it’s not surprising that some people are upset about KPOP DEMON HUNTERS being added to Criterion. I hope Criterion adds more animated films.

24.02.2026 16:22 👍 41 🔁 11 💬 5 📌 1
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I hung out with Alejandro González Iñárritu at his “Sueño Perro” installation, which debuts at LACMA this week. It’s a dreamlike experience celebrating the 25 years of AMORES PERROS and the magic of film projection. Here’s my interview with him for LA Times’ De Los: www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

24.02.2026 01:32 👍 22 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
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I hung out with Alejandro González Iñárritu at his “Sueño Perro” installation, which debuts at LACMA this week. It’s a dreamlike experience celebrating the 25 years of AMORES PERROS and the magic of film projection. Here’s my interview with him for LA Times’ De Los: www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

24.02.2026 01:32 👍 22 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
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Alejandro G. Iñárritu resurrects lost footage from 'Amores Perros' in new LACMA installation "I've changed a lot as a filmmaker, but I'm still the same idiot I've always been," says Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Opening Feb. 26 at LACMA, his new art installation celebrates 25 ...

“Alejandro G. Iñárritu resurrects lost footage from ‘Amores Perros’ in new LACMA installation”

@carlosfilm.bsky.social got a private guided tour of the exhibit with Iñarritu himself www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

23.02.2026 21:22 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Before you decide to comment on the situation in Mexico, remember that the criminal organizations there obtain their guns from the U.S. and that that the U.S. is the main consumer for their products.

23.02.2026 03:42 👍 36 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
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My piece on MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND was also in print today in NYT (so lucky to have two pieces in print in the same day). It was a joy to write. You can read it at this gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/m...

18.02.2026 02:30 👍 31 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 1
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My interview about the Oscar-nominated animated film ARCO made it to print today in the NYT. I talked to director Ugo Bienvenu about making hopeful sci-fi, respecting children’s intelligence, Dragon Ball Z and Miyazaki: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/a...

17.02.2026 17:55 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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I talked to Tim Curry and Brian Henson about MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND for the NYT. The swashbuckling adventure turns 30 today. It was such a delight to write this one.

Read here: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/a...

17.02.2026 00:46 👍 25 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0
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THE SECRET AGENT wins Best International Film at the Independent Spirit Awards. “Cinema is a manifestation of memory itself. and remembering is also a political act.”🇧🇷🏆

15.02.2026 22:56 👍 65 🔁 18 💬 0 📌 5
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A really fun Q&A with Kleber Mendonça Filho after a screening of his Oscar-nominated wonder THE SECRET AGENT. We talked about some of the film’s biggest stars like Tânia Maria and the Hairy Leg, as well as cinema as a vehicle to preserve memory 🇧🇷🏆

15.02.2026 04:05 👍 28 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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my @letterboxd.social lists are getting oddly specific

14.02.2026 18:02 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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The best L.A. movies that didn't make our 101 list, according to Angelenos Movies about Los Angeles that Times readers love but didn't make our 101 best list include "American Gigolo," "Tequila Sunrise," "Get Shorty" and — yes — "Crash."

You loved our 101 best L.A. movies list — and hundreds of you had no problem telling us what we forgot to include. Here are your 14 top picks for the movies we left off. (Consider us repentant about "American Gigolo," but no quarter given on "Crash.") www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

13.02.2026 22:29 👍 16 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
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Review: He dreams of becoming the 'Goat' in a sports movie that lacks competitive edge Produced by Stephen Curry (who also voices a giraffe), Sony's by-the-numbers animated sports movie reduces inspiration, drive and problem-solving to predictable beats.

I didn’t much like GOAT, feels like just another taking animals movie following all the tropes and relying on vapid internet related jokes. But the animation is undeniable eye-catching, especially the backgrounds. I reviewed it for LA Times. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

13.02.2026 20:00 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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For the New York Times I interviewed Ugo Bienvenu about his Oscar nominated film ARCO, the power of hopeful science fiction, and the epiphanies that put him on the path to working in animation.

Read here: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/a...

13.02.2026 17:19 👍 9 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Had a wonderful time at press preview for the Academy Museum’s new exhibit on Miyazaki’s PONYO. A much needed bit of whimsy and a reminder of why hand-drawn animation, unequivocally made by humans, feels so wondrous and timeless.

13.02.2026 00:32 👍 19 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1

América: 🇵🇷🇲🇽🇦🇷🇧🇴🇧🇷🇧🇿 🇨🇦🇨🇱🇨🇴🇨🇷🇨🇺🇩🇴🇪🇨🇸🇻🇬🇹🇬🇾🇭🇳🇯🇲🇭🇹🇳🇮🇵🇦🇵🇾🇹🇹🇺🇸🇺🇾🇻🇪

09.02.2026 06:15 👍 35 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

In this moment I think of my aunt who risked her life to come here in the 1970s. Then in the 2000s she took me in so I could have a chance beyond our circumstances in Mexico. Immigrants and children of immigrants we are dreams embodied. We defy our destinies to forge new ones.

09.02.2026 03:09 👍 47 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 1

¡Seguimos aqui!

No matter how much they call us “illegals,” how badly their hate corrodes their insides, they won’t ever take away our dignity. We are more than cheap labor, we are more than a document. We are extraordinary by default.

¡Seguimos aqui!

09.02.2026 01:48 👍 31 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
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No lie. Bad Bunny naming every country in the Americas right before “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” made me so emotional. And all the flags were there 😭🇲🇽

09.02.2026 01:37 👍 38 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 1

Green Day singing “American Idiot” At the #SuperBowl . Beautiful.

08.02.2026 23:09 👍 13 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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I need the #SuperBowl halftime show to have some of this “Gozadera” energy, maybe some flags.

08.02.2026 21:25 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Last night I had the honor of moderating a Q&A with director Kaouther Ben Hania after a screening of her sobering, Oscar-nominated film THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB. It was so moving to hear the film has played in Gaza, as part of a humble festival put together amid the destruction.

08.02.2026 15:20 👍 21 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
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For LA Times I reviewed SCARLET, the new film by Japanese animation great Mamoru Hosoda. A movie that asks us to forgive our enemies, even when they show no remorse. That’s a big ask, but it gives the film major emotional stakes.

Read here: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

07.02.2026 20:34 👍 13 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 1
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Review: 'Scarlet,' an animated take on 'Hamlet,' mines an unlikely strain of compassion Japan's Mamoru Hosoda returns with a visually creative version of "Hamlet" that digs beyond grief into realms of revenge and forgiveness.

More quality films await the adventurous: @carlosfilm.bsky.social calls Japanese animator Mamoru Hosoda's SCARLET "the director’s most sobering and intense effort to date." www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

06.02.2026 22:47 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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In my first piece for Sphaera, I wrote about why there are less U.S. Latino films than Latin American ones. And the hope that the global interest in Latin music can eventually extend to Latino film. Wrote this before Bad Bunny’s Grammy win.

Read here: sphaera.vip/articles/lat...

06.02.2026 18:53 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 1
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Essay: Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show will be a history lesson for the ages Historian Jorell A. Meléndez-Badillo hopes Bad Bunny's halftime show will combat "acute ignorance" about Puerto Rico and its ongoing entanglement with the United States.

“Latin American, Caribbean, United States and Latinx communities,” writes @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social. “ I believe Bad Bunny’s performance will invite people to understand the beauty and complexity of our people’s history, even if it makes outsiders uncomfortable.”

www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

06.02.2026 03:44 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
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Muppets in print! My interview with Alex Timbers on the new THE MUPPET SHOW special is in the LA Times today.

Read here: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

06.02.2026 02:28 👍 10 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0