Kelly McGillis | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: Top Gun [1986]

2022/06/212022/06/21 Jared Mobarak

Your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash. There’s no arguing that Top Gun isn’t a pro-military piece of glossy propaganda. Between Matthew Modine declining the lead role because it would go against his politics to Tom Cruise admitting four years later that a sequel would be in poor taste considering its sanitized view on war to the Navy literally having script approval to change plot points to better suit their recruitment needs, everything about it screams jingoistic idealism. That it would eventually be preserved in the National Film…

REVIEW: The Innkeepers [2011]

2012/02/032014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“Why do you always seem so surprised that I talk to the guests?” It’s rare to see an asthmatic this side of The Goonies, but something about a young, petite blonde puffing her inhaler in a horror flick reliant on making her scared enough to gulp air adds a little flavor. Fearless in her desire to have physical contact with the ghost of Madeline O’Malley, Claire’s courage is hard to maintain when an encounter becomes a possibility. The ailment is therefore writer/director Ti West‘s way to make his disenfranchised lead…

REVIEW: Stake Land [2011]

2011/07/302014/05/24 Jared Mobarak

“And God smote the world asunder” While Hollywood continues to give us vampire flicks that are wrapped up tidily by their conclusion, independent cinema still lives to save us from contrivance and idyllic happy ends. Jim Mickle’s Stake Land is one such venture, combining the styles of 28 Days Later with The Road, his post-apocalyptic world populated by creatures of the night looking for blood. They can’t talk, think, or work together, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous. Whereas most entries to the genre let a simple prick…