Patrick Willems

Early life According to Willems, his mother came to the United States from County Clare, Ireland in 1980, and met his father in Saratoga Springs, where Willems was born and raised.

Career

Initial short films While attending Saratoga Springs High School, Willems formed a film club with fellow student Max Rouzier, with whom he hosted a school film festival. he and Rouzier formed an independent film production company, Lumberjack Films.

Between 2013 and 2015, Willems produced a number of short films which paid homage to various well-known productions and filmmakers.

Video essays

In 2016, Willems uploaded his first video essay, which critiqued the color grading of the MCU films.

In 2023 he produced The Patrick (H) Willems Star Wars Holiday special, which featured previous channel guests.

Film projects Starting in 2020, during video essays, Willems began incorporating short serialized segments about a coconut named Charl. The story arc closed out in his feature directorial debut, Night of the Coconut. The film was released on June 17, 2022 on the streaming platform Nebula.

In 2025, Willems released his short film The Dinner Plan, starring Griffin Newman, John Hodgman, and Miriam Shor, onto Nebula.

In 2025 it was announced Willems would direct an episode of the Nebula anthology series Sub/Liminal, executive produced by Dan Jinks. Later in the same year he was appointed by Nebula as Director of Scripted Development.

Personal life Willems is based in Brooklyn. His parents frequently appear in his videos.

Reception Colin Gorenstein of Salon praised Willems' 2015 "What if Wes Anderson Directed X-Men?" short film, saying that his imitation of Anderson's visual style "checks across the board". In Vulture, Sean Fitz-Gerald described it as having "just the right hint of auteur-esque pretension". In Pajiba, Alberto Cox Délano praised Willems' videos for their thorough analysis and research, entertaining narrative segments, and breadth of their coverage of the film medium. Mike Redmond praised a 2020 video discussing the Star Wars franchise following the release of the film The Rise of Skywalker, calling it a "calm, rational examination".

In International Policy Digest, Will Mann reviewed Willems' directorial feature debut Night of the Coconut.