With I Love Boosters approaching it second weekend at the box office, Boots Riley has made a fan out of at least one of his peers.

After the writer/director shared a behind-the-scenes look at the film’s daring chase scene, which was shot on a miniature set of the Bay Area, Guillermo del Toro took to social media to sing Riley’s praises.

“Not enough is said about how much Boots uses hand-made things instead of digital things!” wrote the 3x Oscar winner on X.

Riley shared the review on his own profile. “The maestro noticing this is a great feeling. I Love Boosters is in camera. There is VFX (comping, cleanup, etc), but no CGI,” he wrote.

“Learned from the maestro,” added Riley in another post. “Go see I Love Boosters in theaters ASAP to see what Maestro Del Toro is talking about.”

Continuing to explain some of his behind-the-scenes process with practical effects, Riley credited Oakland-based stop motion animators Mystery Meat Media for creating the people in $100,000 suits toward the end.

For the scenes filmed in fashion mogul Christie Smith’s (Demi Moore) office, Riley noted he “tilted a set 17 degrees” to give the location a surreal sharp angle, which adds to the film’s absurdist physical humor.

Meanwhile, to give the illusion of an electromagnetic beam coming from a futuristic device, Riley explained he used a “water hose against black,” adding, “One version with white light, one version with red light. Then comped it in to the shot w the device. Smaller scale. One shot, against a rug, is at full scale.”

Now in theaters, I Love Boosters stars Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige and Poppy Liu as a crew of boosters (aka professional shoplifters/equal opportunists), who take aim at cutthroat fashion maven Christie Smith (Demi Moore). It’s like community service.

The cast also includes Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, Jason Ritter, Eric André, Alan Z and more.