So. There’s this guy who reviews retro video games and generally goofs around on film, face plastered with a Grumpy-Cat-esque expression (see above). Been doing it since 2004, I think. Before YouTube. Now huge on YouTube.

Angry Video Game Nerd, also under cinemassacre.com, is really that: a nerd. But he’s so darn sincere. He loves what he’s doing. And he does most of the work involved himself.  (For instance, he once spent 122 hours on one of his videos, according to this nice Guardian article.)

And now, he’s pursued his childhood dream of making a feature-length film, Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie.

I can’t recall now if I saw a video about why this guy (James Rolfe, IRL) is making this film, or if it was my beau Cale who told me about it. Either way, it was poignant and exciting. I don’t watch AVGN on YouTube, and I’m not among his huge following. But I’m rooting for him. I love seeing someone pursue their dream, and it’s a gift to glimpse one coming true.

Cale is invested in this not just because he admires Rolfe’s pursuits, but because he’s also gotten to be involved. He’s helped on some of the special effects!

I see some of this same dream-pursuit in Cale. One of his goals in the past few years was to work on things he was passionate about. (That has included creating a TED-Ed video, taking time to draw, and also contributing to AVGN.) I am proud to see him working toward that goal, and am grateful to see him in those fulfilling times.

AVGN: The Movie will be campy and fun, and I can’t wait to watch it on the big screen! (It’s releasing in a few dozen cities — to mostly sold-out theaters — in the next month or two. Don’t worry: we have tickets!) It’s about the notoriously bad E.T. game, which is believed to be one of the main items in an Atari mass burial in a New Mexico landfill. I’ll leave you with the trailer: