Film Features | www.jaredmobarak.com

TIFF14 REVIEW: Last Night [2014]

2014/08/302014/09/08 Jared Mobarak

“Like a dirty little badger” Sometimes you have to wonder where an artist’s head was when coming up with the idea for their latest work. I can see Arlen Konopaki and Christian Capozzoli giggling over a couple beers about how funny it would be if two roommates were engaged in a debate about whether one masturbated on the face of the other while he was sleeping the night before. It’s kind of a brilliant conceit when you think about it too because the situation is so absurd that no one…

TIFF14 REVIEW: Entangled [2014]

2014/08/292014/09/08 Jared Mobarak

“Are you sure that’s the place?” Anyone willing to dive down the rabbit hole of quantum entanglement to exist in two places simultaneously is doing so for a reason. You may delude yourself into believing its for science or the simple fact of proving it can be done, but there’s a personal secret hiding beneath any ideas of social application. Why else wouldn’t the experimenter let his girlfriend in on the challenge? Why would he (Aaron Abrams‘ Malcolm) allow her (Christine Horne‘s Erin) to witness the incoherent, institutionalized ramblings of…

TIFF14 REVIEW: Luk’Luk’I: Mother [2014]

2014/08/282014/09/08 Jared Mobarak

“Where have you gone sweet innocence?” I’m lost and it’s not a feeling I want to have when the TIFF Short Cuts Canada programmer calls Wayne Wapeemukwa‘s debut short Luk’Luk’I: Mother “narratively sophisticated”. That’s a description that will either boost your ego when the work speaks to you clearly or demoralize your intellect when you find comprehension is completely absent. Those words are doing the latter for me now as I unsuccessfully try to reconcile the synopsis with what I saw. Just the idea that a “full-time mother and part-time…

TIFF14 REVIEW: Liompa [2014]

2014/08/282014/09/08 Jared Mobarak

“We’ve gained the control and lost the music” Adapted from the 1928 short story by Yuri Olesha, Elizabeth Lazebnik‘s Liompa gives us a glimpse at the differing stages of life. We may only hear from the dying Ponomarev (Aleksey Serebryakov) as he refuses to cope with the fact he’s lost all control over the world around him, but there are also two more characters one could see as stepping stones of evolution still caught in the hold of reality’s grip. Alexander (Stepan Serebryakov)—for example—has just come of the age where…

TIFF14 REVIEW: Mynarski chute mortelle [Mynarski Death Plummet] [2014]

2014/08/272014/09/08 Jared Mobarak

“Save yourself” Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski is a bit of a legend in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba and it would appear his country of Canada as well. The last World War II airman recipient of the Victorian Cross—the British and Commonwealth forces’ most prestigious award for bravery—this hero valiantly attempted to save the life of fellow soldier Pat Brophy before succumbing to the flames of their crashing aircraft. Brophy would survive the ordeal and eventually relay the story of Mynarski’s selflessness, cementing a legacy of numerous honors donning his…

TIFF14 REVIEW: Ma Moulton et Moi [Me and My Moulton] [2014]

2014/08/272014/09/08 Jared Mobarak

“We’ll think about it” An Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short in 2007 with The Danish Poet and nominated in 2000 for My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts, writer/director Torill Kove returns to the medium with Ma Moulton et Moi [Me and My Moulton]. It’s a brightly colored line drawing cartoon about a young girl and her family in Norway during the spring of 1967 that deals with themes of envy, embarrassment, and empathy to make it relatable for children and adults alike. We all go through phases of wanting to…

Toronto International Film Festival 2014 Preview

2014/08/262020/03/26 Jared Mobarak

We may have two consistent film festivals here in town showcasing small releases and restored classics, but you might not realize how close we are to one of the biggest in the world. Most “in the know” will center on five events when thinking about the best of the best film festivals and while Venice, Cannes, and Berlin are an ocean away and Sundance is across the country, The Toronto International Film Festival is less than a two-hour drive via the QEW into Canada. Even better than proximity, though, is…

VIDEO: “Barely Legal Pawn”

2014/08/222014/09/29 Jared Mobarak

“Cable money, though” A partial ad for Audi—in the way that Jerry Seinfeld‘s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” is for Acura (product placement)—and full viral promotion for the 2014 Primetime Emmys, former award-winners Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have some fun spoofing “Pawn Stars”. “Barely Legal Pawn” is a comedic treat for all involved with the “Breaking Bad” co-stars going full white trash and the “Veep” star straight man. Complete with a few barbs volleyed at each other as far as acting diffculity in their respective programs—and at…

FANTASIA14 REVIEW: The One I Love [2014]

2014/08/042014/08/05 Jared Mobarak

“It’ll give you a chance to reset the reset button” My plan is to not share any huge spoilers where The One I Love is concerned, but just saying that pretty much provides one by admitting there are spoilers to be had. So, like I said with another sci-fi gem this year entitled Coherence, don’t read anything at all if you want an unblemished experience. Honestly, that should be the way you enter all art—at least the ones worth watching due to their having substance above empty theatrics spoon-feeding audiences…

Posterized Propaganda August 2014: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ ‘Sin City,’ ‘Starred Up,’ and More

2014/08/012014/11/05 Jared Mobarak

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” is a proverb whose simple existence proves the fact impressionable souls will do so without fail. This monthly column focuses on the film industry’s willingness to capitalize on this truth, releasing one-sheets to serve as not representations of what audiences are to expect, but as propaganda to fill seats. Oftentimes they fail miserably. 2014 soldiers on and the poster selection just gets worse. Luckily the films themselves haven’t been as uninspired. Or maybe they have. After all, this summer is down almost 19%…

VIDEO: Jenny Lewis’ “Just One of the Guys”

2014/07/312014/09/29 Jared Mobarak

Indie-folk/Alt-country, genre hyphenate singer/songwriter Jenny Lewis is back with her third (second if you don’t count her collaboration with The Watson Twins) solo album entitled The Voyager. It follows a successful duo disc with beau Johnathan Rice and last year’s Rilo Kiley effort Rkives. And it’s great. The first video has been released for track “Just One of the Guys”—a song dealing her biological clock and perhaps indifference to joining the maternal club. Directed by Lewis herself, it features Anne Hathaway, Brie Larson, a hilarious Kristen Stewart, and a fourth…