Month: August 2018

REVIEW: Munchausen [2013]

Jared Mobarak

You can almost hear the musical score when thinking about old silent films from the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. They have that peppy melody to really shine a light on the optimism of what could be before some sort of hardship or tragedy arrives with a somber tone to lead our emotions along a roller coaster of hijinks and reflection. But we never mind that slow, deep transition of sound because it’s always followed by a miraculous recovery, joyous occasion, or happily ever after. We get through…

Read More

REVIEW: Beau [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“Well I’m horrified too” Just before he’s about to leave his apartment for a flight to visit his mother, Beau (Billy Mayo) realizes he’s forgotten his dental floss. What should be a quick jaunt upstairs to the bathroom becomes the biggest mistake of his life upon returning to see his keys—which he left in the lock—are gone. He has no choice but to cancel his plans and stay home. He can’t leave his possessions unguarded, but he can’t risk letting down his defenses in case whoever took his keys returns…

Read More

REVIEW: TDF Really Works [2011]

Jared Mobarak

Roast duck? Good luck! Sometimes there really isn’t anything below the surface of gross-out comedy like TDF Really Works. Just because it’s the brainchild of the writer/director behind the equally disturbing yet conversely thought-provoking short The Strange Thing About the Johnsons doesn’t mean you have to try harder to find one either. And whether Ari Aster had a reason to create what amounts to a NSFW infomercial gag besides the easy laugh it earns, that’s how it will be remembered. Credit his restraint in using initials for the title, though.…

Read More

REVIEW: The Ranger [2018]

Jared Mobarak

Coming here was a really bad idea. With punk rock blasting from the stage of a hole-in-the-wall venue that’s probably not actually open to the public considering an eventual police raid shutting it all down, Chelsea (Chloe Levine) is introduced looking the part if not quite one hundred percent committed to this zero consequence, wild lifestyle those around her have embraced as their core identity. Her friends consider themselves a family who do everything together whether getting wasted, stealing drugs at knifepoint, or stabbing cops to get away. They protect…

Read More

REVIEW: Elizabeth Harvest [2018]

Jared Mobarak

It just happened Brightly lit as though a fantasy beyond Elizabeth’s (Abbey Lee) wildest dreams, we meet her and new husband Henry (Ciarán Hinds) as they drive towards the rest of their lives. She basks in the luck she believes she possesses to find a man of his intelligence and wealth even if she’s quizzical to his having chosen to marry someone as “simple” as she by comparison. But regardless of these nagging insecurities, Elizabeth does seem legitimately happy. The age difference between them is a non-starter and the smiles…

Read More

REVIEW: What Still Remains [2018]

Jared Mobarak

People need to stick together. There are two kinds of people still watching “The Walking Dead”: those who love the gore quotient and believe zombies are the true enemy of the people and those who understand that the undead are merely a catalyst to expose the evil that has always lived within. I’m of the latter group because the drama is always more real when it builds between two very different people trying to survive via diametrically opposed ways than when it’s just the living bashing the skulls of unfeeling…

Read More

REVIEW: Eighth Grade [2018]

Jared Mobarak

Gucci! The transition between middle and high school is weird and frightening for everyone—those who disagree are lying. It’s crazy how different those two worlds prove since elementary and middle are really quite similar. Some crave this shift, desperate for a new beginning. Others dread it because they know the pecking order restarts once multiple schools converge. But then there are also those like Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher) who don’t know what to expect because change is scary and the status quo insufferably depressing. So she decides to get a…

Read More

REVIEW: Blindspotting [2018]

Jared Mobarak

To stare is to see. Are we more than what others believe us to be? This question is unanswerable since perception is king and powerful enough to transform your identity. After all, how many times can you be blamed for something you didn’t or won’t do before you break and think you might as well? If you’re to be judged as that which others presume you to be, why not earn their ire? Why not lean into the stereotype or slander or racism? Being better and proving people wrong is…

Read More