Craig Gillespie | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: Cruella [2021]

2021/05/222021/05/26 Jared Mobarak

There’s lots more bad things coming. I promise. First thing’s first when making a prequel to Dodie Smith‘s One Hundred and One Dalmatians that focuses villain Cruella de Vil as its antihero: ensure that audiences know she doesn’t hate dogs. Better yet, screenwriters Dana Fox and Tony McNamara go one further by making Estella (Emma Stone‘s proto-Cruella’s schizophrenic “good” persona) a lover of dogs. She saves one from the streets (Buddy) and adopts it as her best friend. She subsequently enlists another dog’s services (Wink) upon teaming up with the…

REVIEW: I, Tonya [2017]

2017/12/102020/04/18 Jared Mobarak

I mean those bitches didn’t know what hit ’em. You don’t get more American than 1994, a year when O.J. Simpson was arrested in conjunction with the brutal murder of his ex-wife and her friend just five months after Nancy Kerrigan made a stunning recovery to win silver at the Winter Olympics despite having her knee clubbed barely thirty days earlier. The twenty-four hour news cycle was in its infancy to the point that one could say this year cemented it as the tragedy-driven entertainment enterprise it has become today.…

REVIEW: Million Dollar Arm [2014]

2014/05/072014/05/14 Jared Mobarak

“That better have been filtered water” The seventh and final season of “Mad Men” has begun yet star Jon Hamm is only now getting his first leading man role in a feature film. So why does what should be an auspicious event considering his obvious talent seem less than noteworthy? As good at comedy as drama, no one can deny he owns chauvinistic smarm on TV or has the chops to play a business-first sports agent who exclusively dates models while scheming to earn his next buck. The problem lies…

REVIEW: Lars and the Real Girl [2007]

2008/04/232011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“Are you sure? It’s not growing back” I was very worried about how I would take Lars and the Real Girl. Despite an Oscar nominated script, a cast of some of my favorites, and a quirky enough plot to pique my interest, I still had many people in whom I trust their judgment telling me that it was horrible. That right there tells you how different each and everyone of us are and how tastes are fickle and unique. I really liked this film more than I ever could have…