Tweets
A selection
For better or worse, a lot of my writing as an adult is on Twitter. I’ll think of different ways to curate historical posts—there are almost 9000 of them—but here’s a simple pass at it.
- Five most recent
- 2025 highlights
- Commonplace book
- Favorite pictures
- Closest I’ve ever come to going viral
Five most recent
In Jackson Heights (2015). Best scenes, all lessons about community:
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) March 22, 2026
(1) Percussion concert in laundromat (Support the arts, esp. amateurs figuring it out)
(2) Nonagenarian without friends (The world is lonely—reach out!)
(3) Taxi school (Share what you know and teach others!)
Walked by the Hayes Theater and saw that Alden Ehrenreich is in a play called Becky Shaw—his Broadway debut. Went in blind just for him (I love him in Tetro and Hail, Caesar!), and he was fantastic! The character is such a caustic ass, but he shapes him into a full, flawed human pic.twitter.com/pT0hnLEBQT
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) March 21, 2026
Where Is the Friend's House? (1987), in 35 mm. As a child, your physical map of the world is obviously uncharted, but your mental model of what might happen and how people could react to you when you first test the limits of your autonomy is also terrifyingly, wondrously blank
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) March 21, 2026
Finished Melville: His World and Work by Andrew Delbanco. Amazing historical context and insight; beautiful readings of the texts. So glad this was my intro to books on Melville pic.twitter.com/tXwnE5SjVJ
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) March 20, 2026
"smarting bitter of the water,—carried the bitter in my mouth all day—bitterness of life—thought of all bitter things—Bitter is it to be poor & bitter, to be reviled, & Oh bitter are these waters of Death, thought I."
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) March 19, 2026
Melville's Journals, Jan. 26, 1857 (quoted in Delbanco's bio) pic.twitter.com/4uI6PNKfHy
2025 highlights
Marty Supreme (2025). Good Time to Uncut Gems to Marty Supreme is a legendary filmography in the making. As intense as those films (if you can imagine), with a complex role for Timmy, delusional and despicable, charming and scrappy. What a team (Khondji, Fisk!) across the board pic.twitter.com/78rivXaWuM
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) October 7, 2025
Commonplace book
I post a lot of quotes from books and movies as I stumble on them, so that they stay with me longer. Here are some of my favorites.
Woolf: "And so the writer ... suffers, especially in the creative years of youth, every form of distraction and discouragement." pic.twitter.com/8XIYGKzhpr
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) February 6, 2017
Ratatouille (2007), DCP, 2nd time. "The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends." I cried, @BradBirdA113
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) December 30, 2014
From "Marizibill" by Apollinaire, translated by Ron Padgett. "Je connais gens de toutes sortes / Ils n'égalent pas leurs destins" pic.twitter.com/AqBndRUufE
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) January 4, 2021
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) April 22, 2017
How Green Was My Valley (1941), on film. "I thought when I was a young man that I would conquer the world with truth."
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) May 27, 2013
Streaming: Mr. Thank You (1936) by Hiroshi Shimizu pic.twitter.com/mJhBxI8QKO
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) December 25, 2015
"Go now. Let me mourn my youth in peace." pic.twitter.com/4P8gFisZG0
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) October 31, 2015
DVD: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) pic.twitter.com/PshfhWu1BM
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) October 4, 2015
DVD: Night and Fog (1955). "Who among us keeps watch from this strange watchtower to warn of the arrival of our new executioners?"
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) November 22, 2012
DeLillo anticipates big data and the Internet of things pic.twitter.com/DTJqYI6CoX
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) March 21, 2015
Orwell: after 30, many "abandon the sense of being individuals at all" and "are simply smothered under drudgery" pic.twitter.com/F60YOoJe5q
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) March 18, 2015
Streaming: A Hard Day's Night (1964). "I'm going parading before it's too late!" pic.twitter.com/j7DxYEkeB5
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) March 1, 2015
Streaming: Metropolitan (1990). "This must be how the failure starts: an incompetence in mastering the common tasks of everyday life."
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) March 29, 2013
Streaming: The Last Days of Disco (1998). "What if 'thine own self' is not so good? What if it's pretty bad?"
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) October 28, 2013
DVD: Punch-Drunk Love (2002), second time. "I don't know if there is anything wrong because I don't know how other people are."
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) October 27, 2013
Before Midnight (2013). "This is the natural human state—always a little dissatisfied, perpetually discontented."
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) November 28, 2013
Favorite pictures
Comparison of anamorphic 35 mm, 70 mm, and @IMAX 15-perf 70 mm at @MovingImageNYC pic.twitter.com/1uePpFvKCk
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) April 27, 2014
This guy ... So damn nice, I can't get over it. And his cinephilia and geekery and brilliance continue to inspire #PTAnderson pic.twitter.com/BQ3Fb0XuU1
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) August 7, 2017
Closest I’ve ever come to going viral
Somewhat embarrassed to say that I'm very fond of P.S. I Love You (Swank is one of our best, and her work here is heartbreaking) and Letters to Juliet (Seyfried, Redgrave, Gael, peevish British guy—what's not to love?) https://t.co/nzKKevt1ul
— Niels Joaquin (@nielsj_) July 18, 2018