Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 30, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“What do you want from me?” In great Lost Highway-era David Lynch fashion, visual artist turned filmmaker Akiz‘s Der Nachtmahr switches from linear reality to seamlessly disorienting crosscuts between life and dream. It occurs when soon-to-be eighteen year old Tina (Carolyn Genzkow) passes out drunk while peeing in the woods outside a secret rave full […]
Category drama, film features, film festival, film reviews, foreign, suspense/thriller, toronto international film festival · Tags Akiz, Arnd Klawitter, Carolyn Genzkow, David Lynch, Der Nachtmahr, Fight Club, German, Julika Jenkins, Kristen Bell, Lost Highway, Lucia Luciano, Lynn Femme, Philip Pullman, Sina Tkotsch, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Wilson Gonzalez Ochsenknecht, Yeasayer
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 29, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“Mousetrap” It has to overcome a pretty shaky start—mostly due to leads Jason Sudeikis (Jake) and Alison Brie (Lainey) playing Columbia undergrads—but Leslye Headlands‘ comedy Sleeping with Other People does prevail as quite the breath of fresh rom/com air. The plot isn’t groundbreaking, reconnecting two people twelve or so years after losing their virginity together […]
Category comedy, film reviews, romance · Tags Adam Brody, Adam Scott, Alison Brie, Amanda Peet, Jason Mantzoukas, Jason Sudeikis, Leslye Headlands, Marc Blucas, Margarita Levieva, Sleeping with Other People
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 29, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“You’re never going to see me again” The premise behind Sean Meehan‘s latest short is fascinating with its titular business Total Performance providing a service that supplies actors who spar with customers seeking a dress rehearsal for whatever difficult conversation they’ve yet to work themselves up to starting. We meet a distraught husband in need […]
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 27, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“For now everything is ugly” Many deflect from it, but a writer/director’s intent can change the viewer’s outlook on his/her film. Danielle Arbid‘s fictional coming-of-age drama about a college-aged immigrant from Lebanon to France (Manal Issa‘s Lina) is one containing many new acquaintances able to help her find the freedom she covets but never found […]
Category drama, film features, film festival, film reviews, foreign, romance, toronto international film festival · Tags Bastien Bouillon, Clara Ponsot, Damien Chapelle, Danielle Arbid, Dominique Blanc, French, India Hair, Manal Issa, Parisienne, Paul Hamy, Peur de rien, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Vincent Lacoste
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 25, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“It feels like everything is stuck in a loop” Downtown Beirut is Waves ’98‘s lead character Omar’s (Elie Bassila)—a virtual, teenage stand-in for writer/director Ely Dagher—”white whale”. It’s a world he has yet to experience close-up, relegated to peering over and through concrete buildings from his safe suburban rooftop at a city split in two […]
Category animation, biography, film features, film festival, film reviews, foreign, shorts, toronto international film festival · Tags Arabic, Elie Bassila, Ely Dagher, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Waves '98
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 24, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“He will come if he wants to” After the huge success of Pather Panchali, it would have been strange for Satyajit Ray not to continue Apu’s saga into Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay‘s second novel অপরাজিত [Aparajito] [The Unvanquished]. The only reason I could see him stopping was the fact that the boy’s coming-of-age contains as much tragedy […]
Category drama, film reviews, foreign · Tags Aparajito, Apu Trilogy, Bengali, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Criterion Collection, Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Pather Panchali, Pinaki Sengupta, Satyajit Ray, Smaran Ghosal, The Unvanquished
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 23, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“You shouldn’t use the word ‘despair’” It’s crazy to think that Cléo de 5 à 7 [Cleo from 5 to 7] was just the second feature length fictional narrative French auteur Agnès Varda ever made. The maturity in minimal storytelling, singular visual style, and existential metaphor surrounding death’s value that spans classes are stunning to […]
Category comedy, drama, film reviews, foreign, z.slideshow · Tags Agnès Varda, Anna Karina, Antoine Bourseiller, Cléo de 5 à 7, Cleo from 5 to 7, Corinne Marchand, Criterion Collection, Dominique Davray, French, Jean-Luc Godard, José Luis de Vilallonga, Renée Duchateau
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 23, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“I’m drowning in it now” Young Aida (Sokhna Diallo) is forced to process a lot on the day her father (Eriq Ebouaney‘s Alioune) returns to Paris from Senegal after two months away. First is the joyous laughter of mom (Maïmouna Gueye‘s Mariam) and her friends burning an herbal aphrodisiac up her dress. Next is the […]
Category drama, film features, film festival, film reviews, foreign, shorts, toronto international film festival · Tags Azize Diabaté Abdoulaye, Eriq Ebouaney, French, Maïmouna Doucouré, Maïmouna Gueye, Maman(s), Mareme N'Diaye, Mother(s), Sokhna Diallo, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 22, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“Swerve” It’s no secret that M. Night Shyamalan needed a winner after a string of box office and commercial failures. Firmly in the minority saying The Village and Lady in the Water are his two best—the former is one of my all-time favorites—my idea of his failings doesn’t necessarily coincide with the movie-going public, but […]
Category comedy, film reviews, horror · Tags Deanna Dunagan, Ed Oxenbould, Joaquin Phoenix, Kathryn Hahn, Lady in the Water, M. Night Shyamalan, Olivia DeJonge, Peter McRobbie, Signs, The Village, The Visit
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 22, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“Your brother’s plane arrives at 5 PM” Writer/director Patrice Laliberté‘s short film Viaduc [Overpass] relies heavily on our suppositions as the viewer. And it does so to perfection. To us Mathieu (Téo Vachon Sincennes) has done nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt. Not only do we meet him sneaking out to illegally spray […]
Category drama, film features, film festival, film reviews, foreign, shorts, toronto international film festival · Tags French, Overpass, Patrice Laliberté, Sandrine Bisson, Stéphane Jacques, Téo Vachon Sincennes, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Viaduc
Posted by Jared Mobarak on September 19, 2015 · Leave a Comment
“Welcome to the land of the free” A tense thriller of survival set against a desolate landscape of quiet austerity until the deafening sound of our heroes’ pursuer returns after a brief respite allowing these strangers the time to emotively talk about their lives—no, it’s not Gravity. Filmmaker Jonás Cuarón certainly has a type, though, […]
Category drama, film features, film festival, film reviews, foreign, suspense/thriller, toronto international film festival · Tags Alfonso Cuarón, Alondra Hidalgo, Desierto, Diego Cataño, Gael García Bernal, Gravity, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jonás Cuarón, Marco Pérez, Mateo Garcia, Oscar Flores, Spanish, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival
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