Suspense/Thriller | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: It Comes at Night [2017]

2017/06/122017/06/13 Jared Mobarak

“Are you sick?” Distill any post-apocalyptic, sickness-infested world inhabited by survivors to its core and you receive an unfiltered glimpse at humanity’s desperation. Strip away the artifice and redundant plotlines, tear down labels in the vein of hero or leader or savior, and make sure “hope” becomes an archaic concept lost to distant memory even if it hasn’t been that long since everything imploded without warning. These arduously unforgiving circumstances box “life” in the present so that the past seems like a dream and the future a luxurious fantasy nobody…

REVIEW: Alien: Covenant [2017]

2017/05/272017/05/28 Jared Mobarak

“One wrong note eventually ruins the entire symphony” I was in the minority with Prometheus in 2012, declaring its brilliantly nuanced story diving beneath its genre conventions as the best entry in the Alien franchise since the original. It was spirituality-tinged science fiction whereas Ridley Scott‘s 1979 classic was character-based horror with palpable emotion-laden terror. Both were disparate worlds that fit together if not reliant upon each other. Scott found this new success in large part to screenwriter Damon Lindelof and the decision to scale back Alien references so that…

REVIEW: Lost Highway [1997]

2017/05/232018/05/18 Jared Mobarak

“I like to remember things my own way” POSSIBLE SPOILERS Every cinephile has a moment when “the movies” became more than entertainment. Mine was David Lynch‘s Lost Highway. It was my first foray into the auteur’s catalog—a viewing that occurred three or four years after its initial release courtesy of a rented VHS cassette tape. My experience with film as an art form had progressed beyond usual action or comedy reprieves from real life challenges, but no indie drama yet seen had quite the same unparalleled effect in its dementedly…

REVIEW: Yella [2007]

2017/05/102017/05/11 Jared Mobarak

“I want you to love me again” There’s a glimmer of hope in Yella Fichte’s (Nina Hoss) eye when things finally seem to be going in the right direction. She’s earned a new job starting the day after tomorrow, one that should fill her empty bank account and lead her towards prosperity. But before she can enjoy the good news, she must first endure that which she yearns to escape. This comes in the form of Ben (Hinnerk Schönemann), a man putting a chill down her spine with an unpredictable…

REVIEW: The Eyes [2017]

2017/04/262017/04/27 Jared Mobarak

“Catered kidnapping with class” The premise is hardly fresh: six people wake in a room tied to chairs, strangers without a clue as to what’s happening. Think Saw. Think Unknown (the 2006 one). Think numerous films, television shows, and other forms of media that fit the bill. So how does Robbie Bryan‘s The Eyes set itself apart from them to make its use of the scenario fresh? That’s the make it or break it question able to render your experience captivating or excruciating. I personally do lean towards the former,…

REVIEW: Rupture [2017]

2017/04/252017/04/27 Jared Mobarak

“You will feel it soon” It’s taken ten years, but Secretary director Steven Shainberg has finally followed-up Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. The result is Rupture, a body horror-lite tale about a woman held captive as part of an experiment meant to unlock humanity’s hidden potential to evolve beyond our current state. Written by Brian Nelson (the two share story credit), its script seeks to mess with our expectations as it does its prisoner Renee (Noomi Rapace). We’re to cultivate a sense of paranoia with surveillance dominating the…

TFF17 REVIEW: Tilt [2018]

2017/04/212018/04/15 Jared Mobarak

“Can we get away with anything we want?” If only we could go back to the days when mid-life crises happened at fifty-years old and at best meant buying an expensive car (at worst asking for divorce to marry younger). Now this existential breakdown occurs much earlier—let’s say thirty-years old. This is what happens when millennials are born of an era with more time to think about their futures. Rather than needing to buckle down and secure a career straight out of college, your drive for the “best fit” leads…

TFF17 REVIEW: The Endless [2018]

2017/04/202018/04/15 Jared Mobarak

“Please, be quiet” To resolve is to settle, finding the determination to do something rather than simply wait for something to happen to you. A resolution isn’t therefore a firm ending. On the contrary, it serves to provide beginnings. That decision has the potential to set you onto a path towards freedom either from the danger of outside forces or the complacency rendering you immobile within. So to look upon the conclusion of Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson‘s debut feature (as a tandem) isn’t to relinquish hope. The being—their riff…

REVIEW: Unforgettable [2017]

2017/04/192017/04/20 Jared Mobarak

“Time doesn’t exist at your age” There’s a new “erotic thriller” in theaters this week and its called Unforgettable—a title that should keep critics busy figuring out the most unoriginal pun ever to put their colleagues to shame. What’s glorious about this name is the reality that its attempt to inherently force us not to forget it actually births a moniker so boring and non-descript that we must. Casting “October Road” alum Geoff Stults (who I do like as an actor) and “Grey’s Anatomy” alum Katherine Heigl (who I don’t)…

REVIEW: The Fate of the Furious [2017]

2017/04/112017/04/12 Jared Mobarak

“That’s a lot of ice cream and Tay Tay concerts” A new era in The Fast and the Furious lore has begun almost four years after original co-star Paul Walker passed away doing exactly what his character Brian O’Conner did in the films: drive fast. With his role shelved by retirement rather than death, the goodness Brian provided Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his band of miscreants remains in the background as an unseen sense of morality and justice. It lingers to bolster the group’s sense of “family” and togetherness…

REVIEW: Personal Shopper [2016]

2017/03/282018/05/03 Jared Mobarak

“I just need to see it to the end, that’s all” At the heart of Olivier Assayas‘ Personal Shopper is an idea of fear. This isn’t surprising considering it’s a genre ghost story, but its target is. Lead character Maureen Cartwright (Kristen Stewart) isn’t afraid of ghosts, spirits, or the supernatural because she’s a medium like her recently deceased twin brother Lewis. And even though she doesn’t quite believe their abilities prove what he did—the afterlife’s existence—she trusts and respects him enough to make good on the oath they struck…