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REVIEW: পথের পাঁচালী [Pather Panchali] [Song of the Little Road] [1955]

2015/06/182015/10/23 Jared Mobarak

“Go ask him for money” The story behind Satyajit Ray‘s debut film পথের পাঁচালী [Pather Panchali] [Song of the Little Road] is one you cannot separate from the work itself. It’s an underdog tale full of hardship and financial woe—incidents that dragged production along for three years before finally bringing India to the world in its neorealism style (after all, Ray helped scout Calcutta locations for Jean Renoir‘s The River and loved Vittorio De Sica‘s Bicycle Thieves). Money plays a huge part in both stories, especially the film’s plot based…

REVIEW: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou [2004]

2014/10/162014/10/17 Jared Mobarak

“Esteban was eaten!” It’s ambitious, hilarious, visually complex, and kind of … boring. I hoped that last adjective was merely the distant memory of a twenty-two year old expecting more out of Wes Anderson‘s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou when first released in theaters due to his infinite love for The Royal Tenenbaums two years previous. I thought perhaps that its failure—a relative term since it being my least favorite of the auteur’s films doesn’t mean it’s not still a three-star entry within a brilliantly quirky oeuvre—was courtesy of…

REVIEW: The Royal Tenenbaums [2001]

2014/10/112014/10/12 Jared Mobarak

“How interesting. How bizarre!” Nothing Wes Anderson does will ever match the brilliance of his third film, The Royal Tenenbaums. A lot of this has to do with when I first saw it back in the winter of 2002, but I say it objectively too. I was still in college, still in the midst of my cinematic education after an adolescence full of mainstream Hollywood, and just starting to realize the potential of my local independent theaters’ reach. I don’t remember why I even went to see it considering I…

REVIEW: Boyhood [2014]

2014/07/232014/08/06 Jared Mobarak

“Life don’t give you bumpers” It’s almost impossible not to consider Richard Linklater‘s Boyhood one of the year’s best films on the surface. I don’t think any version of reality has the Academy neglecting to vote it onto the Oscar ballot because it’s a cinematic feat unlike few others. To fathom the number of moving parts a twelve-year shoot entails with two non-actor leads—one the director’s daughter no less—is mind blowing. To witness the result’s success critically and commercially is seeing a cherry on top for an artwork that matured…

REVIEW: ゴジラ [Gojira] [Godzilla] [1954]

2014/05/112014/05/11 Jared Mobarak

“I’m telling you the sea just exploded” Only nine years after the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the atomic bomb, the first science fiction kaiju film was born. Manifested as a hybrid Tyrannosaurus Rex, Iguanodon, and Stegosaurus, the creature ゴジラ [Gojira] [Godzilla] took shape in the mind of special effects designer Eiji Tsuburaya. A giant beast released from the sea’s depth due to hydrogen bomb tests destroying its natural habitat, its ability to survive on land and water shaped its name from the words gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira).…

REVIEW: Rushmore [1998]

2014/05/032014/05/04 Jared Mobarak

“I saved Latin. What did you ever do?” Writer/director Wes Anderson‘s style was officially born on his sophomore effort Rushmore. That’s not to say his debut was devoid of the trademarks we associate him with today, it was simply set in a world possessed by more authentic rules. He’s since made a career out of skewed storybooks of selfish characters wandering a landscape they misguidedly feel power over as they take their missteps in stride with over-the-top reactions steeped in a heightened state of the absurd. His stories take upper…

REVIEW: Bottle Rocket [1996]

2014/03/29 Jared Mobarak

“You know there’s nothing to steal from my mom and Craig” Released two years after writer/director Wes Anderson brought its eponymous short film to Sundance, Bottle Rocket improves upon its predecessor’s shortcomings, makes good on its potential, and provides a prototype for the more commercial successes that would follow. A character-driven piece full of deflection and red herrings to confuse the audience into a state of unwitting ignorance just like that of the wannabe criminals at its center, the plot really becomes secondary to the relationships built along the way.…

REVIEW: Brazil [1985]

2013/09/212013/09/22 Jared Mobarak

“Care for a little necrophilia?” Although Terry Gilliam had already established the highly imaginative filmic style we now associate him with above his Monty Python animations, no one could have imagined the scale of what would become his unequivocal masterpiece, Brazil. There were shades of its escapism in Time Bandits and its bureaucratic satire in short film The Crimson Permanent Assurance, but nothing as grandiose as Sam Lowry’s (Jonathan Pryce) fantastical dreamscape juxtaposed against his Orwellian, nightmarish reality. In fact, Gilliam even sought to title the film 1984 1/2 before…

REVIEW: Weekend [2011]

2012/01/092014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“I had to save you from the Hobbit” In a year with plenty of romantic dramas depicting the chance meeting of strangers and their quest to be together—Like Crazy and One Day amongst others—it’s sad to realize the one that hits hardest probably won’t be seen. The fact Netflix lists it as Gay & Lesbian rather than Romance proves Weekend‘s Glen’s (Chris New) sentiments about our culture’s continual lack of acceptance. He knows that even if a gallery shows his amateur art project of recorded thoughts about his nightly partners’…

REVIEW: Copie conforme [Certified Copy] [2010]

2012/01/082014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“I’m afraid there’s nothing very simple about being simple” Any lovers of Jesse and Celine need to see Copie conforme [Certified Copy]. Think of Abbas Kiarostami‘s film as an alternate Before Sunset if its two lovers from different countries stayed together, got married, and had a child instead of losing touch like they did after the end of Before Sunrise. Philosophical discussions occur, opinions about the validity of art are shared, and the authenticity of love comes into question. The title also comes into play early and often with the…

TIFF11 REVIEW: Le Havre [2011]

2011/09/092014/05/24 Jared Mobarak

“Money moves in the shadows” According to André Wilms—the star of Le Havre—during his hilarious stream of consciousness Q&A at a screening for the Toronto International Film Festival, director Aki Kaurismäki decided it was time to make a comedy/fairy tale. The Finn had created so many “desperate” films that a change was needed. And what better setting than France to bring it to life, a country who’s film history is held dear and apparently seen as dead by the director, (sentiments Wilms agreed with only half-jokingly). You’ll notice subtle nods…