Film Reviews | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: The Monster [2016]

2016/10/202016/11/08 Jared Mobarak

“I wish you listened more” Monster movies are tough because there’s a desire to go full bore into cat and mouse chaos or metaphorical symbolism. Things get muddled when both are attempted at once without the correct balance. I’m not saying picking one or the other always spells success—writer/director Bryan Bertino‘s debut The Strangers ultimately failed at mysterious chaos for me despite some effective scares—but it does often allow a filmmaker the opportunity to focus and reinforce his/her idea with less chance of getting distracted. Bertino’s third film The Monster,…

REVIEW: Sully [2016]

2016/10/192016/10/20 Jared Mobarak

“A delay is better than a disaster” I found myself siding with snarky detractors when Clint Eastwood announced he was tackling a biopic about Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger because it seemed rather anticlimactic. Could you truly find a captivating feature length film in the paltry 208-seconds from engine failure to splash landing? We already know everyone survives and already hail the pilot as the hero he deserves to be known as. So where’s the drama beyond reenactment better suited for a documentary focusing on those who actually experienced the ‘Miracle on…

REVIEW: Blue Jay [2016]

2016/10/182016/10/18 Jared Mobarak

“You leaving room for Jesus?” While we wait the requisite nine years hoping for another installment in Richard Linklater‘s seminal Before saga, Mark Duplass is here to fill the void early with his own intimate, two person reunion of past love and current strife entitled Blue Jay. Many will scoff at this declaration and say there are at best surface comparisons between the works with this one falling short on the emotional gravitas, but I’d disagree. Perhaps it’s the fact that I relate to two former high school sweethearts fatefully…

REVIEW: En man som heter Ove [A Man Called Ove] [2015]

2016/10/172016/10/18 Jared Mobarak

“Sometimes, however, honesty needs a little assistance” Despite being rated PG-13 due to a liberal use of the word “shit,” En man som heter Ove [A Man Called Ove] is still one of the most full-hearted family-friendly dramedies of the year. I’d even say it’s the live action version of Up you’ve waited for since 2009, one where Russell is replaced by a pregnant Persian mother of two for whom the titular by-the-books curmudgeon (played by Rolf Lassgård) can gradually share his wondrous yet oft-tragic past in lieu of a…

REVIEW: L’ultimo bacio [The Last Kiss] [2001]

2016/10/172016/10/17 Jared Mobarak

“With pounds of cellulite and all your insecurities” I really want to love Gabriele Muccino‘s Italian blockbuster of a rom-com L’ultimo bacio [The Last Kiss] because it is funny, charming, complicated, and hopeful. My issue lies in the fact that it’s also awful in its depictions of selfish ego and weak indifference. Maybe this is a product of its European creation. Maybe extramarital affairs are commonplace enough in Italy to be able to laugh them off and accept them as a casualty of war, but I’d be lying if I…

REVIEW: Dog Eat Dog [2016]

2016/10/152016/11/02 Jared Mobarak

“It’s death or victory” After forty odd years as a career criminal in-and-out of jail, Edward Bunker changed his life by writing fictionalized accounts of his experiences for a lucrative career as novelist, screenwriter, and eventually actor. He got Danny Trejo a part on a project he wrote entitled Runaway Train after spending time with him in prison and eventually found himself playing Mr. Blue in Quentin Tarantino‘s debut Reservoir Dogs. It’s been a while since the last movie based on his writing (2000’s Animal Factory) and almost as long…

REVIEW: The Birth of a Nation [2016]

2016/10/132016/10/14 Jared Mobarak

“I pray you sing to the Lord a new song” It’s impossible to watch Nate Parker‘s The Birth of a Nation today without making note of the controversy surrounding him. Emotions have run high and the first-time director has met a backlash of calls for boycott stemming from a 1999 rape case of which he was acquitted. The victim later committed suicide and his public response upon discovering this news didn’t necessarily show remorse like many believed it should. It’s tough to say now whether he was innocent of wrongdoing—look…

REVIEW: Audrie & Daisy [2016]

2016/10/122016/10/13 Jared Mobarak

“u don’t know what it’s like to be a girl” There’s a great moment towards the end of Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk‘s documentary Audrie & Daisy where Sheriff Darren White starts preaching how boys can be victims and girls at fault as easy as the other way around. He’s not wrong and Cohen’s voice is heard agreeing, but the statement doesn’t apply. She quickly steers the issue back on point because the children who committed the crime in question were boys. You can’t skirt one issue by bringing up…

REVIEW: The Accountant [2016]

2016/10/112016/10/12 Jared Mobarak

“You deserve wow” This is one of those cases where a film might have benefited from a smaller budget. Where you wish Warner Bros.’s independent shingle didn’t shutter in 2008. It’s not like $44 million is a huge sum of money—not by Hollywood standards anyway—but if you cut it in half, maybe lose the star power of Ben Affleck, and take things to a grittier, less-polished place, The Accountant could prove the kind of hit studios covet after John Wick took the box office by storm two years back. Bill…

REVIEW: Jack Goes Home [2016]

2016/10/112016/10/12 Jared Mobarak

“Artists write poetry. Assholes just complain.” There’s no question that Thomas Dekker‘s sophomore effort as writer/director is a head-scratcher. What you as a viewer must decide is whether or not to keep scratching. I don’t think anyone outside of Dekker himself can truly unpack the type of psychological chaos occurring within Jack Goes Home and I like that notion. This is an artist using his medium as an outlet to exorcise demons without necessarily factoring in audience expectations. It doesn’t supply easy answers, leaves a ton of loose ends as…

BIFF16 REVIEW: Mercy [2016]

2016/10/102016/10/11 Jared Mobarak

“Why would you let her suffer?” It’s practically impossible to talk about what’s happening in Chris Sparling‘s latest thriller Mercy without spoiling it. The writer/director knows, splitting it into three pieces as a result: the first third completely shrouded in mystery, the next a replay from alternative perspectives, and the last the truth of the pursuers’ identities and the lies their victims have been spinning from the start. The only other Sparling film I’ve seen is his most popular one, Buried (he wrote with Rodrigo Cortés directing), but the similarities…