Foreign | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: Nocturama [2016]

2017/12/212020/04/17 Jared Mobarak

It was bound to happen. What if a devastating act of violence was committed without purpose? Does it still have meaning? The answer of course is “yes” since such an attack leaves victims whether dead or psychologically scarred. Consequences reverberate well past borders of the town, country, and continent in which they occur because of the inherent fear they conjure. We wonder who will be next, dread the realization it could be us, and let paranoia seep into our very soul. This is why it’s called terrorism. It disrupts the…

REVIEW: この世界の片隅に [Kono sekai no katasumi ni] [In This Corner of the World] [2016]

2017/12/202020/04/17 Jared Mobarak

Was I always daydreaming? It’s starts as a cutely surreal slice of life in 1930s Japan as Suzu (Non) and her flights of fancy take the spotlight. The young girl loves to draw and daydream—the latter often leaving her with time lost in a place unknown. At one point she even finds herself with a strange boy in the basket of a monster, her quick thinking to put the latter to sleep allowing for hers and the former’s escape. You wouldn’t be faulted for scratching your head as you also…

REVIEW: Aus dem Nichts [In The Fade] [2017]

2017/12/132020/04/18 Jared Mobarak

Don’t ever say that about my husband. Writer/director Fatih Akin makes sure we get a sense of the potentially volatile world he’s created (with co-writer Hark Bohm) from the first frame of Aus dem Nichts [In the Fade]. It starts with a handheld video recording of a wedding wherein the groom (Numan Acar‘s Nuri Sekerci) is receiving applause and hugs from friends and family—or so it seems. As he continues to move forward his surroundings take shape. Suddenly we see jail cell bars as the walkway culminates onto a room…

REVIEW: Schlafkrankheit [Sleeping Sickness] [2011]

2017/12/062020/04/18 Jared Mobarak

My fate is in your hands. Is colonialism dead? It’s a question for which you would instantly answer “No” and yet still wonder if perhaps such a binary response is too simplistic. You would have to define colonialism and whether or not actual, recognized control of a land is the same as a more insidious relationship wherein you’re the puppet master of a “free” nation. Think missionary work or medical aid. Think money flowing in to improve conditions and introduce new ways of living yet unseen on its own. Let’s…

REVIEW: Thelma [2017]

2017/11/282020/04/18 Jared Mobarak

Jesus Satan. The moment you leave home for college is the moment your parents say, “Have fun, but don’t lose who you are in the process.” It’s a worthwhile sentiment that we often take for granted as an implicit notion that we are who we will remain despite embarking on a journey full of unknown responsibilities, freedoms, and dangers. How can we truly know our identity when we’ve yet to cultivate one on our own? How much of that “who you are” is actually “who we want you to be”…

REVIEW: This is Congo [2018]

2017/11/132020/04/22 Jared Mobarak

The one who should keep you safe is the one who can kill you. Documentarian Daniel McCabe wastes no time getting to the point of his film This is Congo with the words of DRC National Army Colonel Mamadou Ndala. This smiling dreamer of peace and unity speaks about his home like a philosopher as far as its riches (nature, minerals, and beauty) providing its people pure joy from God despite the contrasting prevalence of misery brought by the greed of men seeking to wrest it away for selfish gain…

REVIEW: Die göttliche Ordnung [The Divine Order] [2017]

2017/11/122020/04/22 Jared Mobarak

But here at home time stood still. The opening transition from credits to film of Petra Biondina Volpe‘s Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award-winning Die göttliche Ordnung [The Divine Order] is absolute perfection. With Jo Jo Benson and Peggy Scott-Adams’ “Soulshake” playing atop images from America spanning women’s liberation, civil rights, Woodstock, and more, we begin to see the impact of political revolutions changing the very fabric of first world societies. And then with a record scratch we’re transported to a rural village in Switzerland at the exact same time: the…

REVIEW: Das merkwürdige Kätzchen [The Strange Little Cat] [2014]

2017/11/012020/04/22 Jared Mobarak

And onions are my cats. We’ve all felt paralyzed at one time or another, fearing existence and responsibility as opposed to external forces and death. Life becomes our burden, the rote machinations to remain an upstanding member of society and the myriad social imperatives endured to be seen as a person worth ignoring—someone who neither demands attention from being abnormal or overly exceptional. To simply be can prove exhausting because the act of stasis comes with more minutiae than you may think is necessary. Our minds race to decide whether…

REVIEW: Visages, villages [Faces Places] [2017]

2017/10/252020/04/22 Jared Mobarak

To meet new faces and photograph them so they don’t fall down the holes in my memory. To look at some of the work of “unidentified” artist JR—giant black and white images pasted onto surfaces with a literal or figurative contextual relationship—is to see the type of community-based, socially conscious messaging Agnès Varda built a career documenting. It’s no surprise to therefore hear JR explain how meaningful Varda’s Mur murs was to him as a budding artist searching for his unique voice and style. I can think of no two…

REVIEW: Il conformista [The Conformist] [1970]

2017/10/182020/04/25 Jared Mobarak

Slaughter and melancholy. At one point towards the end of Bernardo Bertolucci‘s Il conformist [The Conformist], Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) turns to Manganiello (Gastone Moschin) and relays a brief synopsis of a dream. He talks about how he was a blind man who needed an operation that only his former professor (Enzo Tarascio‘s Quadri) could perform. The procedure is a success and ultimately he’s left with the doctor’s wife (Dominique Sanda‘s Anna) in his arms. This scene is perhaps two minutes long and yet proves to be the key to…

REVIEW: Dnevnik masinovodje [Train Driver’s Diary] [2016]

2017/10/062017/10/09 Jared Mobarak

“I wish you a quick first accident” Whether a result of suicide, drunken stupidity, or sheer dumb luck, train drivers the world over kill people. You’d like to believe it’s a rarity, but the truth is most likely the opposite. What then is life like for those who’ve chosen this profession? They’re constantly on alert, blaring their horns and hitting the brakes in the hopes they can stop in time. But even the best have blood on their hands. Even the most cautious must deal with the nightmares of accidents…