Luke Y. Thompson

Darby Duffin and Adam Jones’ FISH & MEN: NAPLES INTERNATIONAL Film Fest REVIEW; the fishing crisis and the journey our fish takes from the sea to our dinner

By Luke Y. Thompson 5 years ago

Sometimes it’s nerve-wracking going to see a documentary you’re pretty sure will tell you that you need to fix something. But that’s a bad reason to ignore it. Most folks involved in documentaries about ecological devastation, for example, hope to change the minds of environmental deniers. If we long for results like that, what does it say if we can’t take it when our own sacred cows – or fish – come under scrutiny?

Meg Daniels and Manie Robinson’s Proper Pronouns at HOT SPRINGS DOCUMENTARY Film Fest REVIEW: finds true faith in gender expression

By Luke Y. Thompson 5 years ago

TV news and social media tend to pump things up to the extreme, but Proper Pronouns shows the positive side of this life. Masses out to protest anti-trans laws; accepting congregations draped in rainbow flags laying hands upon one another, and the worst we see is an occasional Confederate flag or some local country boy acting bewildered about these new-fangled “unisexual” bathrooms.

Daniel Lombroso’s WHITE NOISE at HOT SPRINGS DOCUMENTARY Film Fest REVIEW; reminds us who the true deplorables are

By Luke Y. Thompson 5 years ago

There’s a lot of potentially triggering talk in this film, which lets the bad people say what they want to say. So how’s it different from, say, Fox News or AM radio? Mostly in that these people say the quiet parts out loud. Trump may claim to be not politically correct, and say terrible things to rile people up, but even he’s not quite at the low, low level of these fans of his who want full racial separatism at best, civil war at worst.

Lisa Donato’s GOSSAMER FOLDS: Film Review from OUT ON FILM 2020; delivers warm 80s story of underdogs helping each other out

By Luke Y. Thompson 5 years ago

Scott and Grey are so, so good that it’s their dynamic that matters. As a dictionary-obsessed only child, Scott spits out ten-dollar vocabulary words with hilarity and accuracy, while Grey portrays a powerful woman who may get irritated with less-enlightened folks but rarely sees herself as any kind of victim.

Sarah Pirozek’s #LIKE at HARLEM Film Fest REVIEW; a Stephen King-Like Mash-Up of Nostalgia and Torture

By Luke Y. Thompson 5 years ago

Reconciling the two tones – that of the wistful last summer drama and the torture-deathtrap horror – is tricky, and not necessarily as marketable as favoring one over the other. But that’s a problem for the bean counters; creatively, it’s a risk that pays off, and captures the mood swings of a not-yet adult who rarely doubts her own moment to moment impulses.

Mike Mosallam’s BREAKING FAST at BENTONVILLE Film Festival REVIEW; described as My Big Slim Middle-Eastern Gay Non-Wedding – and that’s just fine

By Luke Y. Thompson 6 years ago

Where Breaking Fast goes deeper is in the roots of the character conflict being so culturally specific. Mo assumes his own liberal take on Islam is the only right one, and homophobia in the religion merely an aspect of colonialism. Kal has his own family issues that make trusting hard. When they and their comic-relief best friends fight, they’re pulling at resilient weeds that have bedeviled far more patient cultivators.