Day: December 30, 2010

REVIEW: The King’s Speech [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“There’s a ‘bob’ in it for you; you’ll go home a rich man” Here is a film about the making of a king through speech, both as a wartime oration to the public and as rudimentary elocution, aptly named The King’s Speech. With Hitler’s rise at the cusp of WWII, the stability of the throne in England needed a strong figure. King George V (Michael Gambon) had grown ill and his heirs included an eldest son (Guy Pearce’s David) in love with a twice-married woman and the stately, yet horribly…

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REVIEW: Somewhere [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“Hey Johnny. You’re having a party.” Ever since her debut film—a favorite of mine—The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola has spiraled into a mode of minimalist storytelling. Receiving raves from critics and a Best Screenplay Oscar for her sophomore effort Lost in Translation, I began to wonder what I was missing. It was a good film, but a transcendent piece of cinema introducing us to a new master of the medium? I didn’t even think it was her best film, let alone all that. Perhaps it is in the simplicity where…

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