Gustavo Makes Movies About People Who Think Too Much

Gustavo Luciano Gonzalez is a filmmaker obsessed with the little things—the awkward silences, the existential spirals, the way grief sneaks up on you when you’re just trying to get through a Tuesday. A New Jersey-born Puerto Rican, Gonzalez writes and directs darkly funny, deeply personal films about people at war with their own thoughts. If Eric Rohmer had grown up on indie music blogs and social anxiety, or if Noah Baumbach had been raised on pernil and plátanos, their films might resemble his.

He made noise on the indie circuit with Thoreau, a contemplative short that won Best Editing at the Golden Door Film Festival and scored nominations for Best Local Film and Best Actor (Ralf Jean Pierre). His next project, Millennials and Hypochondriacs, leaned into the absurdity of modern anxieties, earning a Best Short Film nomination at the Official Latino Short Film Festival, plus a Best Actor nod for Luis Torres. The film also grabbed another Best Local Film nomination at Golden Door.

Now, Gonzalez is in post-production on Superreal, a dark comedy that asks: What if you could actually hang out with a younger version of your mom? And what if that weekend made you question everything you thought you knew about her, yourself, and the way we grieve? It’s an intimate, surreal character study—a little magical, a little tragic, and unexpectedly hilarious.

By day, Gonzalez works in brand marketing, a reality that gives his films an extra layer of why am I here, and what am I doing with my life? existentialism. But make no mistake—he’s a filmmaker through and through. His stories don’t just represent Latino characters; they live in their world, capturing the rhythms of culture without forcing a statement. He’s got that rare mix of specificity and universality, making films about self-doubt, ambition, and the never-ending search for meaning.

His characters might not always know what they want. But Gonzalez does—he wants to make movies that feel real, even when they’re a little surreal.