Fantasia International Film Festival | www.jaredmobarak.com

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Sorido Eopsi [Voice of Silence] [2020]

2021/08/152021/08/18 Jared Mobarak

Today’s honest sweat is tomorrow’s happiness. Chang-bok (Yoo Jae-Myung) and Tae-in (Yoo Ah-in) sell eggs out the back of the former’s truck in the country. It’s honest work, but hardly pays the bills. So rather than go home when they change their clothes afterwards, they drive to an old, abandoned warehouse instead. Now donning ponchos, they spread plastic sheets on the floor below what’s soon to be revealed as the only thing it can be hanging above: the body of a tied-up man, beaten and confused. If they’re being honest,…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Sukutte goran [Love, Life and Goldfish] [2021]

2021/08/142021/08/15 Jared Mobarak

It was uplifting to some extent. There are two types of people in this world. Those who find a ninety-minute romantic comedy musical with a ninety-second song serving as an intermission break twee and those who find it charming. Middle ground doesn’t exist in this equation and director Yukinori Makabe rightfully refuses to pretend otherwise. His film Sukutte goran [Love, Life and Goldfish] (adapted by Atsumi Tsuchi from Noriko Otani‘s manga of the same name) wears its idiosyncratic feel-good sentimentality on its sleeve to provide the dreamlike environment Makoto Kashiba…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Hotel Poseidon [2021]

2021/08/132021/08/15 Jared Mobarak

A way towards tomorrow. I’m not sure what I just saw. Was it surreal comedy in a setting that exudes sympathy puke aura? Was it a nightmarish horror sending us down a chaotic rabbit hole of insecurities, hopes, and inferiority? Perhaps a little of both? Either way, Stefan Lernous‘ Hotel Poseidon throws any semblance of a narrative out the window with an opening scene that does nothing but rotate around the lobby of this derelict establishment to supply an ingenious title-card explaining the film’s true star: its locale. The lights…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: The Righteous [2021]

2021/08/132022/05/03 Jared Mobarak

Be careful what you wish for. But be certain what you pray for. When Frederic Mason (Henry Czerny) is asked whether God or the Devil scares him more, his response is swift. No matter how much damage Satan may inflict, only God can supply salvation and take it away to leave you knowing what you lost. It’s the shame from acknowledging your pain is the result of your own actions rather than a fallen angel that hurts most. And Frederic won’t allow himself to risk it again. He did once…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Bull [2021]

2021/08/122022/01/27 Jared Mobarak

Things to do, my friend. It’s been ten years since Bull’s (Neil Maskell) son Aiden was taken from him by his ex-wife (Lois Brabin-Platt‘s Gemma) and father-in-law (David Hayman‘s Norm). Ten years that have apparently progressed with little to no worries for everyone involved but him. Norm still runs the local crew of heavies putting the screws to businesses they need to help move their merchandise and said crew have all started families of their own without a thought of what occurred. That Bull’s return is unexpected shouldn’t be surprising…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Indemnity [2021]

2021/08/102021/08/12 Jared Mobarak

It’s not weak to ask for help. Theo Abrams (Jarrid Geduld) jumps into action with CPR upon waking to find his wife’s (Nicole Fortuin‘s Angela) dead body by his side. He then immediately clams up when a knock at the front door is accompanied by the declaration “Police!” mere minutes later. He doesn’t remember hearing anyone enter their room that night nor recalls a violent struggle. Add the fact that he just lost his job due to an inability to overcome the PTSD he’s been battling since blaming himself for…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: The Last Thing Mary Saw [2022]

2021/08/092022/01/12 Jared Mobarak

God creates enemies in order to perform His good. The line between God and Satan is almost non-existent when you really think about it considering they are two sides of the same coin. The former might be worse in the long run too since He not only created the latter, but also sits by while His followers use the Devil as their excuse to commit heinous crimes. God-fearing men and women have spent millennia declaring Satan’s influence as the reason they must cleanse the world of evil without ever having…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: King Knight [2022]

2021/08/072022/01/21 Jared Mobarak

We’ve all got poo in our butts. Thorn (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Willow (Angela Sarafyan) are the perfect High Priest and Priestess of their suburban California coven. They are madly in love with each other and the lifestyle they’ve embraced as outcasts from the mainstream monotheistic monolith to which the rest of the world adheres. Their disciples believe in their leadership so fully that they’ll appear on their doorstep at night in search of answers to their most private struggles. This makeshift family has served them well and they’d do…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: What Josiah Saw [2022]

2021/08/072022/07/12 Jared Mobarak

Never seen a boy so lost. Josiah Graham (Robert Patrick) doesn’t believe in God. To look at him and witness his actions is enough to know this truth, but his words have never been afraid to ensure those sentiments prove undeniable anyway. So he smirks when his youngest son dares to say grace before their latest meal. He starts telling a fantastical story about a dancing leprechaun that he saw outside his window that morning. Tommy (Scott Haze) laughs—both because it’s a humorous anecdote told in humorous fashion and because…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Tin Can [2022]

2021/08/022022/07/12 Jared Mobarak

We’re in a tomb. Despite being neither a household name nor one I could immediately place, seeing writer/director Seth A. Smith attached to a film while sifting through the schedule at the Fantasia International Film Festival forced me to pause. A quick search later revealed him to be the filmmaker behind 2017’s The Crescent—an under-rated gem that enthralled me via narrative and visuals alike. It didn’t therefore matter what his latest, Tin Can, was about because I felt confident it would prove memorable whether I ended up enjoying it or…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Yakuza Princess [2021]

2021/07/312021/08/19 Jared Mobarak

There are no harmless old men. We enter twenty years into the past at a birthday party in Japan. This wealthy family spared no expense for the celebration, but no amount of money can stop what’s coming. Swords are drawn, guns are fired, and soon enough everyone is dead save a little girl taken from her mother’s lifeless arms. The assumption is that the victors have stolen her to nurture as their own before the inevitable discovery of her real heritage and her subsequent desire for revenge. Learning the opposite…