Conor Holt

YouTube video by Snips Movies Inside The Video Store: Episode Seventy-Two (30 Years of Snips! Mark Polonia! Second Run! Bava!)

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 Physical Media Advocate Edition 21: August 01, 2025 The Physical Media Advocate Edition 21: August 01, 2025 - Kindle edition by Verrill, Ryan, Giesea, Stan, Bellwoar, Rachel, Ercolani, Eugenio, Gowland, Ryan, Holt, Conor, Viers, Michael, Long, Jeremy, Kadaver, Uncle, Rodriguez, Ryan Luis. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Physical Media Advocate Edition 21: August 01, 2025.

www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0FK...

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

Vidiots Launches Initiative to Preserve Rare VHS, with 1,500 Tapes Identified So Far Vidiots and BAVC are partnering to digitize rare VHS from Vidiots' legacy collection — starting with the first 100 of 1,500 titles.

Physical media forever 📼

'The Black Cauldron' Turns 40: Inside the Forgotten Disney Film That Was Deemed 'Too Scary' Before 'The Little Mermaid' and the Disney Renaissance, there was this oft-overlooked dark fantasy tale.

www.remindmagazine.com/article/3325...

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

The Physical Media Advocate Edition 18: May 01, 2025 The Physical Media Advocate Edition 18: May 01, 2025 - Kindle edition by Verrill, Ryan, Giesea, Stan, Bellwoar, Rachel, Cibener, Daniel, Donnelly, Lori, Folger, Penny, Holt, Conor, Peters, Jon, Moitoza, Bill, Toivonen, Vance. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Physical Media Advocate Edition 18: May 01, 2025.

Here’s the link to Issue 18 @disc-connected.bsky.social

www.amazon.com/Physical-Med...

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”

The Palestinian film THE TEACHER opens in LA today. It’s a flawed, but still potent and timely drama shot in the West Bank about an educator holding on to hope and humanity amid the daily devastation. I reviewed it for @latimes.com Hope you might give it a read: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

James Cromwell explains the emotional resonance of his final line in BABE

“That’ll do, Pig. That’ll do.” #TCMFF

He remembers a different kind of baseball, relaxed and chatty. 'Eephus' gets it on film Director Carson Lund used to play seriously as a kid but caught the film bug. He bridges his two passions with 'Eephus,' a movie that captures a waning pastime.

EEPHUS is now available on VOD, one of the best movies of the year so far, even for someone like me who is not into baseball. I interviewed director Carson Lund about the making of it and his love for the unhurried sport. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

The animatronics in THE LEGEND OF OCHI are astounding. I wrote a deep dive into how they were crafted and brought to life. For LA Times, I talked to director Isaiah Saxon, to animatronics legend John Nolan, and other artists involved. The BTS photos are incredible: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

YouTube video by ScarecrowVideoSEA VIVA! Physical Media Episode 90: Happy Birthday

We're making some changes--for the better hopefully! Now you get a helping of Viva EVERY WEEK, with shorter, easier to digest yet still deliciously filling, episodes! Here's episode 90--with a mailbag, some rapid recs, and a rundown of SACRED SPIRIT and PARK LANES. youtu.be/QYiAHxd-t6w?...

Conor has an amazing VHS collection, but more importantly, he is incredibly passionate about physical media and video stores. He made a wonderful zine about LA’s video stores past and present and has become a historian on the subject. Follow him on here and on IG @vhs_spectacular