Month: May 2017 | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King [2003]

2017/05/142017/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“Some things are certain” It’s crazy how perception can be shifted over the years if your mind focuses on one specific attribute of something. I thought The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was the weakest of the trilogy after seeing it in theaters (and still do), but not by a lot. A big part of this was the fatigue of watching so many endings after a three-hour epic culmination of two previous films and two years of my life since finishing Fellowship of the Ring. And…

REVIEW: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [2002]

2017/05/132017/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall” The second part of a trilogy is oftentimes the worst. It exists in a no man’s land without beginning or end, a bridge we must wait for and wait further to continue that cannot survive on its own. So it’s therefore a rarity when this chapter possesses the ability to tell its story in a way that allows for its own success while also augmenting the larger whole. J.R.R. Tolkien understood this when he wrote The Lord of the Rings. Even though…

REVIEW: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring [2001]

2017/05/122017/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“Keep your nose out of trouble and no trouble will come to you” Published in 1955, The Lord of the Rings would soon prove to be J.R.R. Tolkien‘s masterwork. It took him twelve years to complete, a project that began as a sequel to The Hobbit before morphing into its own adventure steeped in dark mythology as contained by The Silmarillion—a book he had hoped to publish alongside its account of the One Ring’s return from Gollum’s possession in the Misty Mountain and Bilbo Baggins’ pocket in the Shire. The…

INTERVIEW: Matt Tyrnauer, director of Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

2017/05/122020/03/21 Jared Mobarak

Debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016, Matt Tyrnauer‘s Citizen Jane: Battle for the City has received rave reviews across the country as it opened in limited release April 21st, 2017. Centering on Jane Jacobs—a journalist, author, and activist—the film showcases the problems inherent to how urban planners in the mid-twentieth century worked. One of the key proponents of this movement to teardown what he deemed “slums” for new, mammoth housing projects of concrete erasing the very communities they sought to “save” was New York’s Robert Moses. His…

REVIEW: Yella [2007]

2017/05/102017/05/11 Jared Mobarak

“I want you to love me again” There’s a glimmer of hope in Yella Fichte’s (Nina Hoss) eye when things finally seem to be going in the right direction. She’s earned a new job starting the day after tomorrow, one that should fill her empty bank account and lead her towards prosperity. But before she can enjoy the good news, she must first endure that which she yearns to escape. This comes in the form of Ben (Hinnerk Schönemann), a man putting a chill down her spine with an unpredictable…

REVIEW: Citizen Jane: Battle for the City [2017]

2017/05/092017/05/11 Jared Mobarak

“If you can understand a city, then that city is dead” The 1960s were a hotbed of activism by necessity. You had civil rights battles for racial and gender equality, protests standing in opposition of new wars coming down the pipeline after just finishing one that risked destroying everything, and America’s growing wealth disparity reaching an apex yet to be solved even today. You had an expanding populace surviving domestically in cities that were falling apart and in desperate need of resuscitation. Suddenly the “first world” hit a decision point…

REVIEW: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword [2017]

2017/05/082017/05/11 Jared Mobarak

“We all look away” The magic has once again been returned to the lore of Excalibur in a way that brings it closer to World of Warcraft mysticism than Sword in the Stone trickery—for better or worse depending on your interests. I for one actually liked Antoine Fuqua‘s King Arthur from 2004, its decision to do away with the spells not wholly destructive to the very fabric of the myth like removing the Gods was to the debacle that is Troy (rather than an expertly placed hit, its ankle shot…

REVIEW: La tortue rouge [The Red Turtle] [2016]

2017/05/072017/05/07 Jared Mobarak

Spoilers included There can be no denying the fact that Michael Dudok de Wit‘s La tortue rouge [The Red Turtle] is a gorgeous work of art. From the textured background paintings of rock, sand, and stars to the enchanting score by Laurent Perez Del Mar to the carefully measured fable of one man seeing life where only death once resided, the film isn’t something you can quickly forget. But I still can’t quite ignore this lagging notion that the story is too much. The way in which we’re shown fantasy…

REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 [2017]

2017/05/042017/11/02 Jared Mobarak

“It’s not ripe” The world of Guardians of the Galaxy proved a necessary shot of comic and action adrenaline for the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2014. It gave a breather from the Tony Stark crew, allowed the voice of an outsider in James Gunn to permeate the Hollywood machine, and introduced a level of sky’s-the-limit promise and potential as far as aliens, planets, and scope (Thanos isn’t Earth’s random enemy, we’re just standing in his way of much bigger goals beyond our comprehension). Its success came via its characters,…

REVIEW: Contemporary Color [2017]

2017/05/022017/05/03 Jared Mobarak

“Stage this way” You have to give David Byrne credit. He stumbled upon the idea of color guards, looked into the excitement and spectacle of their “sport of the arts,” and sought to open their world to the rest of us ignorant to their craft outside of football halftime shows. So he called upon modern music luminaries (Lucius, Nico Muhly + Ira Glass, Nelly Furtado, Devonté Hynes, St. Vincent, How to Dress Well, Money Mark + Ad Rock, Zola Jesus, tUnE-y-ArDs, and himself) to compose wholly original pieces that would…

REVIEW: A Quiet Passion [2017]

2017/05/012017/05/03 Jared Mobarak

“Give me something pressed from truth” I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who never heard the name Emily Dickinson, although I’m probably not alone insofar as being ignorant to her work. For someone as prolific as the Amherst, Massachusetts-born poet with approximately 1,800 poems to her name, I’m sure I’ve heard at least a few over the years. Like many revered artists ahead of their time, however, only a dozen were published before she died of Bright’s disease at age fifty-five. It would therefore be easy to fashion…