Month: August 2013 | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: Elysium [2013]

2013/08/10 Jared Mobarak

“The hippo wanted a friend” It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a guy like writer/director Neill Blomkamp would find his sophomore effort lacking in intelligently original storytelling despite an infusion of studio money to help elevate what was already a stellar visual aesthetic. His Academy Award nominated District 9 shocked the world via its biting political message in recreating his home country’s darkest days of Apartheid with amazing alien effects by Image Engine. If anything he was too good his first time out and as a result found his new high…

REVIEW: Upstream Color [2013]

2013/08/09 Jared Mobarak

“How are you supposed to help someone like that?” I think we can now officially declare writer/director Shane Carruth far from a one-hit wonder. As the years ticked by with nothing to glimpse on the silver screen, no one could have been blamed for thinking this former software engineer simply had nothing more to say. His journey to cinema was far from conventional and his critical praise almost too universal to ever be matched. And with a predilection for the obtuse, obscure, and intellectually challenging, no Hollywood studio would ever…

REVIEW: Primer [2004]

2013/08/082013/08/09 Jared Mobarak

“She thinks they’re rats in the attic” Behind the scenes is the tale of a mathematician/former software engineer who created a feature film worthy of winning the Grand Jury and Alfred P. Sloan prizes at the Sundance Film Festival. Onscreen it’s one of the finest debuts in cinematic history with an unparalleled intellect and keen sense of time travel’s ultimate effect on human morality and relationships rather than the science alone. For Shane Carruth, Primer was a way to right the wrongs of a Hollywood too quick to gloss over…

REVIEW: This is Martin Bonner [2013]

2013/08/072013/08/20 Jared Mobarak

“I’ll still probably, most likely, definitely not do it” We’re all human beings. I think this is the message writer/director Chad Hartigan shares in his sophomore effort This is Martin Bonner. We make mistakes, we pay for our crimes, and we live our lives with the hope we can redeem ourselves to make things right. Demons aren’t something evil people have a monopoly on—in fact it’s those with compassionate hearts and strong moral consciences who are probably haunted by them most. We’re dealt second chances often enough to render the…

REVIEW: Planes [2013]

2013/08/062013/08/08 Jared Mobarak

“I fly for truth” What should be an auspicious occasion for DisneyToons Studios earning its first theatrical release since 2005’s Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, the Cars spin-off Planes sadly does little to affirm the decision. Actually, the fact Disney supposedly decided to upgrade its status because of how impressive early scenes looked only makes things appear more like a cash grab to milk the universe for extra box office dollars. A second read-through of Jeffrey M. Howard‘s script—he of home video Tinker Bell fame—shouldn’t have been necessary as it’s pun-heavy dialogue…

REVIEW: We’re the Millers [2013]

2013/08/052013/08/07 Jared Mobarak

“That’s my credo, ‘No Ragrets’” An R-rated comedy shouldn’t possess a PG-rated heart. This is We’re the Millers’ main problem in my mind because while the profanity-laced adventure has a ton of laughs, one can’t help shake the feeling that it’s targeted to a 13-16 age group who won’t be allowed to buy a ticket. Overt sexual innuendo and f-bombs don’t make up for a lack of anything else that would render screenwriting teams Bob Fisher and Steve Faber or Sean Anders and John Morris to need an R for…

REVIEW: The World Before Her [2012]

2013/08/042013/08/08 Jared Mobarak

“Your transformation into tigers begins here” If Nisha Pahuja‘s documentary The World Before Her is correct, India is at a very important crossroads in its history. Half the country is steeped in orthodox Hinduism with a conservative viewpoint on gender roles and life under God while the rest looks towards a future of modernization and equality with the Western world. Two spheres in direct opposition with no middle ground in sight, a war has begun raging between religion and freedom with young women caught on the frontlines. They’re growing up…

REVIEW: Blood [2012]

2013/08/022013/08/07 Jared Mobarak

“You think you’re the only one here with a conscience?” Writer Bill Gallagher took on the daunting task of turning his six-part, 360-minute miniseries “Conviction” into a 90-minute film entitled Blood. It’s a tale about family, mankind’s capacity to do wrong, and the psychology involved in growing up with impossible expectations and the knowledge they’ll never be met. No matter how good Joe (Paul Bettany) and Chrissie Fairburn (Stephen Graham) are as detectives, their legendary father Lenny (Brian Cox) will always overshadow them. He was a man who took the…

REVIEW: Eddie [Eddie: the Sleepwalking Cannibal] [2012]

2013/08/022013/08/08 Jared Mobarak

“Something about that deer you don’t particularly like, son?” The horror genre has become pretty crowded the last few years with way too many remakes and sequels that never live up to the originality of vision or socio-political commentary that made revisiting such properties appealing in the first place. But while studios try to ratchet up the gore to fill the seats by duping audiences into believing blood equals scares, there do exist filmmakers outside the system trying to carve their own path into the genre with inventive premises and…

REVIEW: Fruitvale Station [2013]

2013/08/012014/04/10 Jared Mobarak

“Undefeated! 100-0.” If even half of what first time writer/director Ryan Coogler depicts happened on Oscar Grant III’s (Michael B. Jordan) last day is true, you better not be leaving the theatre without red eyes and dried tears. We love to depict fate and destiny as the things which bring us towards true love and happiness, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes we’re destined for tragedy no matter what we do; sometimes a series of coincidences and events simply occur with no rhyme or reason besides putting us into…

REVIEW: Yellow [2013]

2013/08/012013/08/01 Jared Mobarak

“You have a right to be here” I can’t help but conjure images of the over-the-top, campy horror atmosphere in Dario Argento’s Suspiria when hearing the word ‘giallo’ as it’s probably the only film of the Italian genre I’ve seen. As such, anything I say on the subject is of course nothing but my own opinion and taste trying to reconcile my lack of appreciation for the style with what its fictional aesthetic of crime and mystery entails. The term itself was derived from a series of cheap Italian paperback…

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