Month: January 2018 | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: The Commuter [2018]

2018/01/222020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

One little thing. If the timeline is to be believed, the fourth meet-up between director Jaume Collet-Serra and Liam Neeson entitled The Commuter was the result of the latter rather than the former. Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi‘s story went through the hands of at least two other stewards as well as a rewrite by Ryan Engle before finally going in front of the cameras. So one could hypothesize Collet-Serra was brought in as someone familiar with the genre, tropes, and especially the lead actor to bring things home.…

REVIEW: Strawberry Flavored Plastic [2018]

2018/01/212020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

The unscratchable itch. How do you make a serial killer sympathetic? Easy answer: compromise your own morality. This is the reality that Errol Morgan (Nicholas Urda) and Ellis Archer (Andres Montejo) present themselves upon discovering the subject of their documentary isn’t the reformed ex-con guilty of a crime of passion they thought. No, Noel Rose (Aidan Bristow) is a murderer who’s gone unnoticed for decades with who knows how many victims to his name. He’s also charming, intelligent, and psychologically fascinating—traits that sell him as a feasibly effective subject as…

REVIEW: Ava [2017]

2018/01/192020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

They won’t spoil our summer. Knowing your sight will leave you prematurely is a tough pill to swallow. Being told at age thirteen that the process had sped up to the point where all night vision would be gone by summer’s end is nothing short of devastating. Unfortunately this is the news Ava (Noée Abita) must cope with as vacation begins. It’s a sobering reality she confronts with steely resolve as her mother Maud (Laure Calamy) cries on the car ride home. The hope, however, is that these next few…

REVIEW: Phantom Thread [2017]

2018/01/182020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

You found me. I’m not sure there’s a better director working today than Paul Thomas Anderson. I don’t say this as a long-time fan that calls Magnolia his favorite film of all-time. I say it as someone who’s watched his career expand and evolve in orchestration, aesthetic, tone, and performance. There’s an air about his art that demands revisiting for introspective ruminations and profound revelations. It’s almost as though he creates these works for them to be dissected into their hybridized genres, dramatic gravitas, and historical eccentricities. But just as…

DESIGN: Pani K’s Pierogi

2018/01/182020/04/12 Jared Mobarak

Pani K’s Pierogi is a homemade pierogi enterprise from Alexis Kothamasu. She’s spent five years perfecting her dough recipe and expanding her selections of unique fillings to include the likes of Indian Samosa and Pumpkin Pie. I was enlisted to create a logo/brand that could help her decision to move from hobby to business. Alexis only really had one request as I began the process: incorporate the feel of Polish folk flower motifs. From there I did a few iterations of merging the colorful floral designs with typography and pierogi…

REVIEW: 12 Strong [2018]

2018/01/172020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

There are no right choices here. War films generally come in two varieties: a gray introspective look at its emotional and psychological cost and black and white jingoistic propaganda. The former is generally acclaimed as award worthy while the latter is dumped during winter months so its target audience of NRA-loving Republicans in American flag tees has something to watch during a drama-heavy, liberally slanted awards season. (I jest.) This doesn’t, however, inherently mean one route is “better” despite valid arguments to the contrary. And for those who vehemently disagree,…

REVIEW: Sweet Country [2018]

2018/01/162020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

What chance have we got? Director Warwick Thornton immediately connected to childhood friend and co-writer David Tranter‘s (with Steven McGregor) script because it provided an authentic context for the historical treatment of their indigenous Central Australian tribes. Based on stories passed down by Tranter’s grandfather as well as Wilaberta Jack’s true life 1920s self-defense killing case, Sweet Country presents a complex look back at a time not quite so long ago filled with men who aren’t quite so different than those living today. Racism still abounds and the law remains…

REVIEW: All the Money in the World [2017]

2018/01/152020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

‘Thank you’ is for strangers. It’s impossible to see a disclaimer at the end of an “inspired by” film reiterating with more direct language about how the “truth” has been altered without assuming the majority of what I just saw never really happened. Ridley Scott fades to black on a seething Michelle Williams before two one-sentence captions replace her with epilogue declarations that then are replaced by the caveat of taking everything with a grain of salt. It reeks of lawyer speech as though the studio anticipated backlash from those…

REVIEW: Mom and Dad [2018]

2018/01/142020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

Whatever. I have to imagine every parent at some point wonders where their life could have gone if they didn’t have children. This doesn’t make them bad people—only those who actually act on the urge by abandoning their families without so much as a goodbye fall under that label. It just proves they’re human. It’s merely a manifestation of fatigue and frustration as the late-night parties and carefree, irresponsible attitudes necessary to let loose disappear. Gone are the dreams you can try and fail at knowing you don’t have a…

REVIEW: Proud Mary [2018]

2018/01/122020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

No one leaves. The first trailer for Proud Mary hit the internet in July of 2017. After that came a few badass 70s-style James Bond-like posters with star Taraji P. Henson in shadows, gun drawn. It was hard not to get excited for what appeared to be a stylized assassin flick in the vein of John Wick with a bona fide bankable black woman in the lead, Tina Turner’s emotional adaptation of John Fogarty’s anthem rocking in the background. But then the release date hit with a January bow. Critics…

REVIEW: River of Grass [1995]

2018/01/112020/04/13 Jared Mobarak

Murder is thicker than marriage. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Kelly Reichardt‘s debut feature River of Grass considering I’ve never quite been able to appreciate her films’ glacial pacing. It’s never made me hate anything of hers that I’ve seen, but it definitely had me checking out of Wendy and Lucy too often and deciding that the short story triptych construction of Certain Women perfectly suited her style. So how would her first foray go? Would we see the blueprint for what was to come? Or would it…