When we talk about the 2026 movie release calendar, we’re often getting excited for the biggest, most epic movies Hollywood can make, whether it be one of the upcoming Star Wars projects or superhero flicks from the MCU and DCU. But take it from a guy who worked on the VFX for 15 years: sometimes the most meaningful projects are the closest to home.
Meet Anthony Lucero, an accomplished VFX artist who has been instrumental to editing the visual effects for VFX leader Industrial Light & Magic on famed films including The Avengers and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. His latest movie is a gem of an independent dramedy called Paper Bag Plan, and CinemaBlend spoke to him about how his experience on big spectacle films influenced him to change directions.
Lucero and his wife self-funded Paper Bag Plan, which is a movie about a father and son, Oscar and Billy, with the father being the lifelong caretaker to his disabled son. When Oscar is diagnosed with cancer, he decides to train his son in grocery store bagging as a first step to inspire him to gain more independence. Lucero told me this of his firsthand influences on making the movie:
It’s inspired firstly by my mom, and my disabled brother Eddie. He passed away back in 2009 at the age of 47, but he wasn’t supposed to live past two, and then past four, and past six. But, my mom, she loved the heck out of him. The one thing that Eddie could do is he could open his mouth [and] she would put a spoonful of pureed food up to his mouth. That was the extent of what Eddie could do. He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t move. But, the relationship between my mom and my brother was really beautiful. She’d lift him outta the bed, down the hallway and into the bath up until her late seventies.
The writer/director’s experience watching his mother and brother’s relationship for decades allowed him to bring the topic to light with authentic experience under his belt. Lucero was also inspired by his late sister Margie, who died unexpectedly in 2018 of cancer. She left behind her daughter Sarah, who had Angelman’s Syndrome and the cognitive ability of a one-year-old. As he continued in my interview:
With my brother Eddie, we had always had that thought of like, once my mom passes, who’s gonna take care of Eddie? There were seven siblings, and so it’s the elephant in the room that you don’t wanna talk about. It’s like, ‘Well, what’s going to happen?’ So, that’s the kind of film I wanted to make. What happens to all of these people with disabilities once their caregiver goes? Oftentimes it’s their parents.
In a 2024 study, the Inevitable Foundation found 66% participants are “unsatisfied” with how disability and mental health are currently represented in movies and TV. While there’s certainly been some examples to point to in the media in recent years, like Bring Her Back’s use of a blind character or Disney+’s Out Of My Mind’s depiction of a young girl with cerebral palsy.
Paper Bag Plan is a solid example of a filmmaker using his lived experience with disability to tell an affecting story. As Lucero also told us:
I will say how these films came about was because of working on these VFX films, because I worked long, long hours on these films. And then, when you finally see the end result, a lot of the films I worked on were great, but some of them were not so good. You’d sit there in the theater and you watch it, an I would just have this thought of, ’Oh my gosh, had they just concentrated on the story a bit more, it would’ve been a good film.’
Paper Bag Plan is very different from his work for ILM, but he did note there are probably 120 VFX shots in the movie, which was actually donated to the film. Anthony Lucero said this as well:
When I do my feature films, that’s sort of want to concentrate on the opposite. I wanna concentrate on the actors and the characters and the story and the plot development. And that’s at the forefront of my film. And the VFX just helps tell the story a little bit more. But, yeah, it’s very polar opposite from what I did at my day job.
The movie has primarily only played in the festival and awards circuit thus far, but it’s earned rave reviews by critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with one calling it “a little film that is a big surprise.” I myself was moved and entertained by Paper Bag Plan, which I found to have relatable themes I haven’t seen on film much, and done in a way that kept me engaged and uplifted. Look out for Paper Bag Plan on VOD, as it will be available to rent this February.
