Month: January 2012

REVIEW: Things I Don’t Understand [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“Tomorrow doesn’t exist until it’s today” Faith is defined as believing without seeing. We give so much impetus to its use on the afterlife that it’s easy to forget the need for such fidelity in ourselves. The question of what happens when we die is one people love to debate because we all hold our views tight enough stop another’s opinion from squeezing through. Atheists, spiritualists, and the religious all have their idea of emptiness or awakening and each becomes lost in their quest without first enjoying the now. Nobody…

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REVIEW: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none” In 1972 the United States broke ties with Sweden as their media equated the bombings of Hanoi to Nazism and shortly before that TV Guide’s editor wrote an exposé about the Anti-American sentiments the Scandinavian country was disseminating at will. The Vietnam War was putting strain on relationships worldwide, but from an outsider’s perspective it isn’t hard to imagine the extra vitriol many held for our part in the fight. As far as…

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REVIEW: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“Smiley leaves with me” When I first heard about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy I didn’t think it had a chance of living up to my expectations. It possessed an all-star cast, was director Tomas Alfredson‘s English-language follow-up to the brilliant Let the Right One In, and was adapted from an espionage thriller by John le Carré—the novelist of another personal favorite, The Constant Gardener. An unforgettable marketing campaign piqued my interest with stunning character posters composed of number and letter strands color-coded to create each face and the never-ending praise…

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REVIEW: Serenity [2005]

Jared Mobarak

“Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down” Seven years after hitting the theatre cold to watch what appeared to be a unique sci-fi space western, Joss Whedon‘s Serenity proves much more powerful and lush with a couple “Firefly” viewings under my belt. The film that should not have been—Fox unceremoniously canceled the television series despite fan protest post-Season One—stands on its own as a mere shadow of its potential without the contextual details of the titular spaceship and crew living inside so I implore you…

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REVIEW: Albert Nobbs [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“Life without decency is unbearable” I really enjoy films residing in the duplicitous limbo between aristocracy’s flights of fancy and the laborers at their beck and call. Rodrigo García‘s Albert Nobbs is the latest of such endeavors containing a little of its own singular intrigue as the dark secret of a meek little man’s identity rests alongside the petty constraints of social status and unwritten rules of gossip amongst two opposing classes colliding within Morrison’s Hotel’s 19th century Dublin establishment. The impeccable head waiter adored by staff and guests alike,…

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REVIEW: Joyful Noise [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“Tap it and die” For a film about a gospel choir and the push and pull of faith within its singers’ lives, Joyful Noise has a funny way of getting its message of love and hope across. I understand it’s 2012 and we must show a progressive slant on the church in order to reach audiences and not turn a majority away before the theatre lights dim, but some of the stuff happening in this film is borderline offensive as it panders to the lowest common denominator in its clumsy…

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REVIEW: Weekend [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“I had to save you from the Hobbit” In a year with plenty of romantic dramas depicting the chance meeting of strangers and their quest to be together—Like Crazy and One Day amongst others—it’s sad to realize the one that hits hardest probably won’t be seen. The fact Netflix lists it as Gay & Lesbian rather than Romance proves Weekend‘s Glen’s (Chris New) sentiments about our culture’s continual lack of acceptance. He knows that even if a gallery shows his amateur art project of recorded thoughts about his nightly partners’…

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DESIGN: Bank of Holland [spec]

Jared Mobarak

Through Buffalo Spree Publishing, Inc., I was tasked with designing a new corporate identity logo for the Bank of Holland in Holland, NY. Trying to get them away from the antiquated woodcut icon accompanying their all caps text, we hoped to modernize while still retaining a feel of Europe’s Holland. I was given a slew of brainstormed ideas spanning wooden shoes, windmills, and tulips—the last being what I chose to work from. Rather than create the iconic shape of a tulip in profile that we all know, I wanted to…

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REVIEW: Copie conforme [Certified Copy] [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“I’m afraid there’s nothing very simple about being simple” Any lovers of Jesse and Celine need to see Copie conforme [Certified Copy]. Think of Abbas Kiarostami‘s film as an alternate Before Sunset if its two lovers from different countries stayed together, got married, and had a child instead of losing touch like they did after the end of Before Sunrise. Philosophical discussions occur, opinions about the validity of art are shared, and the authenticity of love comes into question. The title also comes into play early and often with the…

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REVIEW: 악마를 보았다 [I Saw the Devil] [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“You already lost” No one seems to know how to do a revenge flick like the South Koreans. You could infer this is caused by the strife they’ve been enduring for so long with their neighbors to the north or maybe they just possess some of the most violent and volatile minds in the world. With 악마를 보았다 [I Saw the Devil], writer Hoon-jung Park and director Jee-woon Kim have crafted a two and a half hour long epic of evil versus evil. Because even though Special Agent Kim Soo-hyeon…

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REVIEW: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“Careful what you fish for” I am and probably always will be a Guy Ritchie apologist. I blamed Madonna for Swept Away and even bought a Region 2 DVD of Revolver in case it never made its way across the Atlantic. So when the director signed on to do a blockbuster studio version of Sherlock Holmes, I wasn’t sure what to think. On one hand it’s success would mean the hoped for sequel to RocknRolla had a better chance of seeing the light of day, but on the other it…

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