Luke Y. Thompson

Producers Tamra Raven and Aaron Steinberg shine a light on Chicago’s Educare with TOMORROW’S HOPE

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

Part of what we understand the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation is looking to do is to use filmmaking to get people to think more and care more overall about how access to education (specifically early education) is essential to the concept of caring for kids everywhere. As one of the parents in the film points out, kids “are our future.” It’s vexing how this seems like something that everyone wants to make happen – and yet, as a country we keep dropping the ball.

Nicole Mejia’s A PLACE IN THE FIELD: Santa Barbara Film Festival Review: us through a veteran’s redemptive journey back to himself

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

Part of Mejia’s goal in making the film was to represent the Latino veteran point of view, using magical realism and other cultural touchstones. The result feels nonetheless universal, though the coyote metaphor that reoccurs feels specific. In addition to being desert creatures who howl, coyotes are also symbolic of tricksters, and the nickname for folks who smuggle migrants across borders. Without spoiling, those meanings all come into play.

From Screamfest 2021: Ben Charles Edwards’ FATHER OF FLIES is a nightmarish creep-out

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

here’s nothing quite like the rush a viewer can have when a film that was seemingly just plodding along suddenly pulls everything together, clicks into gear, and hits the gas. Whether one thinks it consciously, or feels it subliminally, that “I wasn’t sure this filmmaker knows what they’re doing, but yeah, they actually do” beat is what makes festival viewing so satisfying sometimes. It’s often unknown territory, and buried treasure is not always there to be found. But Ben Charles Edwards knows what he’s doing in Father of Flies. And that’s reenacting his own nightmares, and giving them to you instead.

Julio C. Padilla’s THE ISLAND OF THE DOLLS does some taboo-busting with his short film …From Screamfest 2021

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

Julio C. Padilla: “The way I see this story is that it is not pro-life or against it. Abortion itself was not intended to be the central theme or idea. It is more about one of the many ways an abortion can be done and about the situation behind the abortion (what leads Xochitl to make the decision to abort). Based on my research some women die because of clandestine abortions, others may regret what they did, while some may not care.”

Conor McMahon’s LET THE WRONG ONE IN delivers a distinctly Dublin dance with draculas from Screamfest 2021

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

The main vampire in the situation, a bridezilla-to-be who gets bitten at a bachelorette party in Transylvania, could be seen as a metaphor for people who won’t allow such things as an international plague to put the slightest cramp in their style. Or, more simply, just the general obliviousness of youth. At any rate, she sees the young adult population of Dublin and its love of nightclubs as a particularly fertile feeding ground, and Deco is just one of the early victims along the way. But the queen succubus’ betrothed happens to be played by Anthony Head…for exactly the reasons you’d suspect. His skills may be slower in this story, but the man is still a mentor for vampire slayers.

Bridget Smith and Samuel Gonzalez Jr.’s THE RETALIATORS drags a preacher through hell on earth — From Screamfest 2021

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

up is familiar: two beautiful girls take a creative driving shortcut through scary rural territory. Of course, they break down, and get attacked by…things. But just when they think they have a handle on the situation as some sot of zombie attack, a bloody faced man yells “They’re not zombies!” Heads appear to explode. And the film’s point of view completely changes.

Craig Low ‘s MOVIN DAY: the deceptive simplicity of his short film, MOVIN DAY from Screamfest 2021

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

Craig Low: “I find that people love sad details, whether we want to admit it or not. It’s odd, but everyone always wants to know how it happened when they hear of someone’s death. The opening shot is designed to have the audience asking, “How and why is that box sad?”. Then when they find out, they’re not just hearing exposition but actually listening to it.” 

MANASANAMAHA director Deepak Reddy talks about flashbacks, relationships and the universality of debating where to eat dinner

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

You might as well practice saying “Manasanamaha” now. An inspiring and original short film that’s been collecting awards, it’s set for expansion into a feature next. Literally meaning “Salutations to Mind,” it’s not quite as cerebral as all that, though the slightly unreliable narrator Surya (Viraj Aswin) may think it is. As he speaks directly to camera, he remembers failed relationships, assesses them, and attempts to demonstrate how they all began happily, even though in most cases there were plenty of red flags indicating how things would end.

Lane Michael Stanley’s ADDICT NAMED HAL probes beneath the banality of addiction — Austin Film Festival review

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

Stanley’s script remains agnostic over treatment efficacy. At its most optimistic, it suggest that having someone else to live for is the key to surviving the rest. At the other end, it implicitly criticizes the zero-tolerance mindset which says that even a sip of booze is such a failure that, well, shit, a person might as well fail in a blaze of glory and do heroin at the same time.

Anna Baumgarten’s DISFLUENCY has more to say than just the words that come out — Austin Film Festival review

By Luke Y. Thompson 4 years ago

In the film festival program blurb, one of the film’s topics is described as “the never-ending process of healing.” That’s true of trauma, addiction, what-have-you…but it’s a phrase that can also apply to life. We can – and must – always heal, always figure out what ails us and rebound better. Even the most educated of intellectuals sometimes utter a disfluency, as even the best of us encounter their metaphorical equivalent in life.