Mike Cuenca is the kind of director that most mainstream Hollywood and most mainstream press ignores most of their life, then when they are about 80 years old or gone, they all grovel over them using their big words and academic tropes, as if they were there for him along. 

Auteur directors and artists including Beth and Scott B, Nick Zedd, Richard Kern, Kenneth Anger, Rachel Amodeo, and Lydia Lunch are a few such examples. Shunned to the gutters as punk rock, indie outsiders, they now get lip service in national rags and haughty museums that use 3 or 4 letter abbreviations as their identity. There are a few exceptions who broke through the noise: Harmony Corrine, Danny Boyle, David Lynch. Mike Cuenca could probably care less either way. 

Cuenca’s artistic output is staggering, and puts most other filmmakers to shame. He’s already made 4 feature films, and is releasing a whopping 7 more in 2024 that you’ve probably never even heard of or seen—but you should. Cuenca can make two kids drinking coffee something you don’t want to miss a second of.  A true auteur with a powerful aesthetic both visually, and sonically, Cuenca’s background as a musician fuels the immediacy and power of his brilliant compositions, which would do John Cassavetes proud.  

Whereas Sofia Coppola makes beautiful, visually striking films with cool music for multi-million-dollar budgets, Cuenca makes even more visceral, cinematic compositions, with even more obscure cool music, on a shoestring budget. That fact alone lends an element of authenticity and integrity to his work that many of his peers could never have—although they pretend to.

Cuenca is the real deal, and his work is worth watching. Filled with beautiful hipsters, legit druggies and misfits, carnies and con-men, his ensembles are magnificent, and his cinematography; generally lensed by Jessica Gallant—hailed by “Variety”—is exquisite.  

Born and raised in Westminster, California, Mike Cuenca is a Cuban American, self-taught, DIY writer and director. He is now in post on the real-time vignette tetralogy, “Boys About Town“. When not making movies, Cuenca records music with his dark-alternative band “Some Daggers Wear Red.” 

His growing body of work centers around the theme of personal identity with a dose of slapstick absurdity. Cuenca cites his biggest influence as the Kuyavians, who he says reportedly “invented cheese sometime around 5000 BC.” He lives in East Hollywood, CA with his cat Seymour.

-Bruce Edwin, Hollywood Sentinel