Email Author Luke Y. Thompson

Awards

• 2008 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club, published April 5, 2007

  "Fight Club"

• 2008 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club, published July 5, 2007

  "Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em"

• 2007 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club, published July 20, 2006

  "Unreal Estate"

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2000 Stories by Luke Y. Thompson

• Sneakin' a Peek

  published December 14, 2000

  There tend to be two poles when it comes to making semiautobiographical movies about one's childhood, and both are designed to make the viewer... More >>

• Green Dregs and Ham

  published November 16, 2000

  There once was a man, and he called himself Seuss, Who wrote the best children's books ever produced. With drawings... More >>

• Witch Is Which?

  published October 26, 2000

  Although it must have been a no-brainer to make a sequel to The Blair Witch Project, it was hard to imagine an intelligent follow-up to a... More >>

• House of Race Cards

  published October 26, 2000

  Italian-Americans might be glad to note that Two Family House, which focuses on the Italian community on Staten Island, features not... More >>

• The Negro Problem

  published October 19, 2000

  Let's be honest: As much as people may complain about Spike Lee's public pontifications on race, or his controversial stances, or his being a... More >>

• Substance Over Style

  published September 14, 2000

  At the age of 10, young Martin (Jeremy Kreikenmayer) is forced by his single mother to finally meet the father he had avioded seeing every year.... More >>

• Only Human

  published September 14, 2000

  There's plenty of campaign rhetoric about working families, but who ever talks about one of the biggest problems of the working man today--massive... More >>

• An Affair to Remember

  published August 31, 2000

  Try to resist the urge to yell "Focus!" during the first five minutes or so of An Affair of Love. It's been a while since a director has actively... More >>

• Jaws: The Revenge

  published August 31, 2000

  Amanda Peet has extraordinarily large teeth; you're surprised she can close her mouth. It may be in vogue for hot, young, would-be sex symbols to... More >>

• Tears of a Clown

  published August 17, 2000

  In a perfect world, any documentary about televangelists narrated by RuPaul and a couple of sock puppets would be hailed as the conceptual... More >>

• Fight Club lite

  published July 27, 2000

  It's a premise that's bound to succeed. A young man living on the edge is trying to pull it all together while frequenting 12-step programs and... More >>

• The sick sense

  published July 6, 2000

  Is there a more bankrupt genre than the parody movie? Many movies nowadays are so painfully self-aware and referential that there often isn't much... More >>

• Saving Private Mel

  published June 29, 2000

  Despite what many believe, it doesn't come down to explosions, star power, or millions of greenbacks thrown at the producers. The true indicator... More >>

• Crash of the Titan

  published June 15, 2000

  It's the year 3028, and man...is an endangered species! (Haven't we heard that somewhere before, like last month?) But this time around,... More >>

• Yo Momma

  published June 8, 2000

  Could there be any less appealing image than that of an obese, dress-wearing Martin Lawrence scratching his ass, as featured on the poster for... More >>

• Misery loves company

  published June 1, 2000

  It's hard to imagine a more relentlessly somber basis for a movie than Jane Hamilton's 1994 novel, A Map of the World. In it, Alice Goodwin... More >>

• Green light

  published May 11, 2000

  Given that most film studios have multimillion-dollar marketing budgets with which to target 18- to 25-year-olds, it's astonishing how little they... More >>

• Natalie good

  published April 27, 2000

  You're just going to have to accept that Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd are far too glamorous for the roles they inhabit in Where the Heart... More >>

• Re-boot

  published April 20, 2000

  There should be more submarine movies. They provide a no-brainer formula for success: claustrophobic setting, invisible enemy whose approach must... More >>

• Detox for dummies

  published April 13, 2000

  Rehab, sweet rehab. Last resort of the alcoholic, the drug addict, and the would-be suicide. Free room and board, lots of tender loving care, and... More >>

• Lightweight

  published April 6, 2000

  Film topics are cyclical, of course, and boxing movies are currently enjoying their return to the spotlight. Or maybe "enjoying" is too strong a... More >>

• Barks like a Dogme

  published March 30, 2000

  What is it with filmmakers and mental retardation? It seems as though use of the differently abled as a central theme ranks second only to... More >>

• Jet set

  published March 23, 2000

  Is America ready for the Hong Kong action style? Certainly there are many fans of the more balletic, guns-and-martial-arts, fly-through-the-air... More >>

• Fantasy Ireland

  published March 16, 2000

  Hollywood may be crass when it comes to cloning success, but it's not alone. Take the British Isles, for instance, ever since the success of a... More >>

• Crash landing

  published March 16, 2000

  What if fate has something horrific in store for you, and you can't escape it? It's an idea that has been around for a long time, from Oedipus... More >>