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REVIEW: Tammy [2014]

2014/06/302014/07/01 Jared Mobarak

“You wanna go ride a cow?” I like Melissa McCarthy and her trademarked hard-edged, scumbag persona in films. She’s often the best part of things that don’t work—Identity Thief—and those that do—Bridesmaids. So I’d love to blame someone else for how tired and frankly unfunny her latest Tammy is despite knowing I can’t. She co-wrote the road trip comedy with her husband Ben Falcone while he also directed. Maybe there was some interference courtesy of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell lending their shingle to the production, but I’d be surprised…

A Glimpse at the Imagination of Buffalo Arts Studio

2014/06/302020/03/26 Jared Mobarak

Buffalo is full of hidden gems that the layperson may not know exist. A cultural hotbed for the arts, it’s almost excusable that you could let some slip through the cracks when you’re engaged with partaking in what all the rest have to offer. One of these lesser-known entities that deserve your attention is the not-for-profit organization Buffalo Arts Studio. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of them—or do feel bad enough to educate yourself on what they provide to the community and yourself as an arts lover seeking…

NYAFF14 REVIEW: 失魂 [Shi hun] [Soul] [2013]

2014/06/272014/07/08 Jared Mobarak

“I watch the wind and, dreamlike, vanish” Described in equal measure as a slasher horror and psychological meditation on the soul—whether from demonic possession, reincarnation, or both—Taiwan’s entry for the 86th Academy Awards ultimately proves difficult to categorize at all. Mong-Hong Chung‘s 失魂[Shi hun] [Soul] may in fact be better labeled as a drama about familial love and fidelity despite destroying those same two things in the process of their preservation. There’s an unsettling spirituality at play that teeters between supernatural and schizophrenia with a weirdly rigid attitude towards life,…

REVIEW: Tore tanzt [Nothing Bad Can Happen] [2013]

2014/06/242014/06/27 Jared Mobarak

“Sometimes you have to defend yourself” I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the words “Inspired by true events” only appear onscreen at the end of Tore tanzt [Nothing Bad Can Happen]. The move might be specific to its American release since events as atrocious as those depicted are hardly the type to remain unknown in its home country of Germany before cameras rolled, but boy does reading it pack a punch here. Katrin Gebbe‘s debut is a tough pill to swallow on its own—a story so dedicated to its…

INTERVIEW: Michael Gelen, designer/owner of Inkwell Studios

2014/06/242020/03/25 Jared Mobarak

Michael Gelen is a Buffalo-based artist whose work you have probably seen in and around the city. Been to ICTC? He draws the covers. Enjoy the beer selection of New Buffalo Brewing? He’s the one designing the labels. The mind behind Inkwell Studios, Gelen’s expertise runs the gamut from logos to posters to children’s books and medical illustration. He’s been at it since 1989, working with clients of all sizes locally and across the nation while also providing budding artists a role model to aspire towards—I remember him visiting my…

REVIEW: Obvious Child [2014]

2014/06/232014/06/27 Jared Mobarak

“Let’s do it on Valentine’s Day” It seems like a slight on the film since it’s a comedy, but I sincerely applaud Obvious Child for taking the subject of abortion seriously. Or maybe I should say naturally because while I never felt preached at from either side of the issue, I did laugh hard and often. There’s no flippant joke showing a protestor outside the clinic a la Juno or any espousing of a political agenda like the end of The Visitor turning immigration compassion into system vilification—it simply lets…

REVIEW: The Fault in Our Stars [2014]

2014/06/20 Jared Mobarak

“Pain demands to be felt” We all die. Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Oblivion: they’re all destinations that connote life has ceased to be. This is the constant; what you do during the interim is not. So whether you’re healthy, sick, sad, or happy, you have the power to make the best of any situation. You do. Not your parents, friends, loves, idols. You. Nothing teaches this lesson in literature better than the kind of cancer tome John Green hoped to put his own unique spin on with The Fault in Our…

REVIEW: Very Good Girls [2014]

2014/06/192016/02/28 Jared Mobarak

“You didn’t want to stay and see what your special prize would be?” Writer/director Naomi Foner wants to tell us about the messiness of life through two eighteen-year old girls during their final summer before college. You’d assume they’d be the ideal candidates to do so too once they simultaneously make a pact to lose their virginity and meet the guy of both their dreams, but Very Good Girls refuses to let the ramifications of that stand on their own. Instead Foner adds parental infidelity, untimely death, sexual harassment, and…

REVIEW: Jersey Boys [2014]

2014/06/172014/06/19 Jared Mobarak

“Aren’t you supposed to be home by eleven?” The end credits of Clint Eastwood‘s Jersey Boys steal the show. A bombastic number lasting a couple minutes has the entire cast singing “December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)” with genuine excitement through a staged New Jersey street and it gives us exactly what the previous two plus hours couldn’t. Let’s be honest, “Jersey Boys” the stage musical isn’t that great when you take away The Four Seasons‘ songs and its brilliant use of a sparse set at the end of Act…

REVIEW: 설국열차 [Snowpiercer] [2013]

2014/06/162019/12/29 Jared Mobarak

“Is it time?” When talk surrounding the US release of Kar Wai Wong‘s The Grandmaster erupted in controversy about a truncated cut from the Weinsteins, cinephiles across the nation couldn’t help but let depression set in. Even so, no one could have been surprised by the decision because Harvey Scissorhands likes to streamline story for action whenever he can to trick American audiences into seeing a foreign film they wouldn’t otherwise care about. So when the same rumors started swirling around Bong Joon-ho‘s Snowpiercer, you had to fear for the…

REVIEW: How to Train Your Dragon 2 [2014]

2014/06/142014/09/16 Jared Mobarak

“What you’re searching for is in here” With ten children’s books already published—and two more planned—Cressida Cowell has given Dreamworks animation a ton of material to adapt whether adhered to religiously or not. Their success on How to Train Your Dragon caught many off guard while earning a place in the hearts of children and adults alike on the way to two Oscar nominations and a television series spin-off. The announcement of a sequel was therefore inevitable, the idea to craft it into a trilogy unsurprising as well besides the…