Drama | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: I, Daniel Blake [2016]

2016/12/122016/12/20 Jared Mobarak

“Well I’m pencil by default” I recently had a run-in with a customer service representative who was willing to throw herself under the bus and give me her employee number rather than connect me with someone above her with the authority to help solve my problem. Talk about a broken system. I had no issues with her personally besides tedious repetition and a few lies I needed to catch her in so I could finally force her hand. The fact she’d serve herself up, though, meant there would probably be…

REVIEW: Manchester by the Sea [2016]

2016/12/102016/12/11 Jared Mobarak

“I can’t beat it” It’s hard to imagine a Manchester by the Sea directed by Matt Damon and starring John Krasinski, but that was the original plan. They actually brought the idea to Kenneth Lonergan—Damon acted in one of his friend’s plays on stage and also his sophomore film Margaret. Hollywood is tough, though. Schedules fill up and pieces move around. Damon loved the initial draft Lonergan drew up for them so much that he asked him to take over directing duties while he shifted to the lead (perhaps Krasinski…

REVIEW: Hidden Figures [2016]

2016/12/092017/01/04 Jared Mobarak

“I’m sorry. I’m … not the custodian.” This is the film that math teachers throughout the nation have needed as an answer to each year’s smart aleck questioning, “When are we ever going to use this?” Push away the depressing nature of A Beautiful Mind‘s schizophrenia and The Man Who Knew Infinity‘s tragic end and let a true story of perseverance, intelligence, and hope take their place. Now when that smirking kid throws out his/her query as though he/she was the first to ever ask it, your reply can explain…

REVIEW: Hunter Gatherer [2016]

2016/12/072016/12/07 Jared Mobarak

“I’m talking about the power of positivity” I guess a little positivity goes a long way after three years in prison. One must remain hopeful because the alternative is simply a journey back into despair. So why not call all your old friends for a celebration of freedom? Why not roam over to your beau’s house and enjoy the embrace of love after so much time apart? Why not believe life can go back to the way it was? To think so is a nice dream, one to hold onto…

REVIEW: Jackie [2016]

2016/12/062016/12/20 Jared Mobarak

“When something’s written down—does that make it true?” It’s rather intriguing how we feel we know our presidents. They represent us as a leader of the free world and we in turn love them enough to mourn their passing even when it’s decades after their run in the Oval Office ceased. But what is it that we really know? We only see what they allow. We see the aftermath of important moments—good and bad—but not the decisions themselves. Everything that we know without reading a book comes from what they’ve…

REVIEW: Pickup [2016]

2016/12/06 Jared Mobarak

“I’m waiting for you” Self-destruction is hardly a new concept. It’s simply more accessible now. Before the internet you had to feed your addictive nature in the physical world with monetary compensation rather than moral. Now, however, anything you want is a button push away. Social media and numerous applications meant to connect us in ways we never dreamed aren’t always altruistic and those using them are hardly one hundred percent above board. You can pretend you’re someone you’re not before you even meet someone new. You can construct a…

REVIEW: Loving [2016]

2016/12/022016/12/03 Jared Mobarak

“You need to get you some civil rights” It took one viewing of Nancy Buirski‘s documentary The Loving Story to recruit Jeff Nichols into writing and directing a biopic of Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred Loving’s (Ruth Negga) journey from newlyweds to Supreme Court precedent. But don’t think Loving is a courtroom drama. I’d estimate about ten minutes of its two-hour runtime take place inside a courthouse—fifteen if you count conversations outside its doors. Nichols instead decides to focus on the couple itself by creating a romantic example of a…

REVIEW: Gosford Park [2001]

2016/12/012016/12/02 Jared Mobarak

“I’m the perfect servant: I have no life” Watching Gosford Park again conjured thoughts about it being quintessential Robert Altman, thoughts I couldn’t conjure in 2001 considering it was my first true experience watching one of his films. It proves the perfect evolutionary end to a way of filmmaking he began over twenty years previous with A Wedding‘s sprawling cast, overlapping dialogue, and class strife. Its Agatha Christie-type whodunit conceit lends itself perfectly to his sensibilities and aesthetic, but we can thank Bob Balaban for enthusiastically asking to collaborate for…

REVIEW: Collateral Beauty [2016]

2016/11/302016/12/14 Jared Mobarak

“If only we could be strangers again” There’s a moment in the trailer for Collateral Beauty where Helen Mirren‘s character of “Death” is talking to someone that we cannot quite see but definitely know isn’t Will Smith. This was an intriguing “a-ha” moment for me because the premise of Allan Loeb‘s script—which passed through Alfonso Gomez-Rejon‘s hands when Hugh Jackman was attached before landing in David Frankel‘s lap—states that only Smith’s grieving Howard Inlet can see her. She’s an abstract construct much like “Love” (Keira Knightley) and “Time” (Jacob Latimore),…

REVIEW: Nocturnal Animals [2016]

2016/11/292016/12/09 Jared Mobarak

“Sometimes it’s not good to change things so much” One movie stood out in 2009: fashion designer Tom Ford‘s unlikely directorial debut A Single Man. It had style to spare and amazing performances (Colin Firth‘s Oscar loss was vindicated a year later), but its emotionality was its greatest strength. Ford created this tragic whirlwind and found a glimmer of hope—a way out of the darkness to acknowledge there’s more life yet to live. That was the trait I looked forward to experiencing on a larger scale with his follow-up Nocturnal…

REVIEW: Allied [2016]

2016/11/222016/11/24 Jared Mobarak

“Look for the hummingbird” Sometimes that story you’ve had bouncing around your head needs time to gestate and your career the opportunity to blossom before it can be released upon the world. For Steven Knight it was a bit of both. Already nominated for an Oscar back in 2004 for the brilliant Dirty Pretty Things, the screenwriter soon wrote Eastern Promises before directing the intriguing one-man show Locke. A couple underrated gems (Pawn Sacrifice), some duds (Seventh Son), and a critically acclaimed television series later (“Peaky Blinders”), he finally put…