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REVIEW: Dr. Feelgood: Dealer or Healer? [2016]

2016/12/292016/12/29 Jared Mobarak

“Choose the best face that describes how you feel” I’ve been lucky to have never used painkillers whether as a result of high pain tolerance or simply not having experienced enough to deem it necessary. I know people who have, though, and it is a Godsend at times whether opium-based or not. So I couldn’t blindly say Oxycontin and Dilaudid should be outlawed. Morphine has always seemed so commonplace that any prescription drug compared to it has brought along a stigma of “good” rather than “bad” for me despite heroin…

REVIEW: 13th [2016]

2016/12/28 Jared Mobarak

“… blacks get hurt worse than whites.”– Lee Atwater While 13th—Ava DuVernay‘s documentary about the criminal justice system and mass incarceration being used to extend slavery via a loophole in the Thirteenth Amendment—is far from perfect, it is crucial to commence a conversation and relevant in a way John Oliver simply cannot equal thanks to the color of his skin. If you’ve watch “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” during its run on HBO you’ve learned a cursory amount of what DuVernay’s extensive list of talking head educators, politicians, and…

REVIEW: O.J.: Made in America [2016]

2016/12/032016/12/07 Jared Mobarak

“I’m not black. I’m O.J.” I was enjoying the summer between 6th and 7th grade when O.J. Simpson and A.C. Cowlings infamously drove a white Ford Bronco down a California interstate. Despite being only a year removed from the Buffalo Bills’ four straight Super Bowl loses, my lack of local football knowledge here in the Queen City made “Juice” just another name. I quickly learned he was one of the greats and proved it right where Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas attempted to bring home glory decades later. If I…

REVIEW: Before the Flood [2016]

2016/11/292016/11/30 Jared Mobarak

“It kind of looks like Mordor” You have to give Leonardo DiCaprio credit because he’s taken his title of UN Messenger of Peace with focus on climate change to heart. He spent three years traveling the world (when not shooting The Revenant in a contextually relevant location experiencing a warm enough winter to necessitate a switch) to visit nations at the root of the problem and those on the frontlines already watching their homes disappear. He’s spoken to scientists, learned how we’ve known about the issue since the 1950s when…

REVIEW: Cameraperson [2016]

2016/11/152018/05/03 Jared Mobarak

“You’re making me cry even though I don’t understand the language” The camera doesn’t lie. It captures private moments, immortalizes public, and adds ten pounds (so maybe it does). It shows a world we can never see: at once untouched perfection and fabricated by the operator’s gaze. And as those among us age and forget, the camera proves a tool of permanence. Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson‘s mother battles Alzheimer’s—losing time, place, and self—while she endures journalistic accounts of terror most wish to leave behind. Just because what Johnson filmed during a…

REVIEW: I Am Not Your Negro [2017]

2016/11/122017/02/03 Jared Mobarak

“My countrymen were my enemy” Author James Baldwin‘s powerful rhetoric can be perfectly summed up by his statement on “The Dick Cavett Show” concerning Patrick Henry’s 1775 quotation, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” He explains how a world oppressed can utter that line with conviction and be applauded whether they’re American, Irish, Jewish, or Polish, but as soon as a black person does he/she is treated like the devil. He/she becomes an enemy of the state, a villain, and a “thug.” It’s therefore not the black community’s responsibility…

REVIEW: The Lure [2016]

2016/11/112016/11/14 Jared Mobarak

“There’s something magic about a hidden treasure” You can’t take it with you. It’s a saying we’ve all heard that leads some to donate charitably, others to invest in real estate, and more to siphon offshore for tax-free inheritances. For Forrest Fenn—an eccentric Air Force veteran and history buff that amassed his fortune selling artifacts and fine art in his gallery—it meant assuring his legacy. Diagnosed in 1988 with terminal cancer, he filled a ten by ten “treasure chest” with gold and jewels estimated around three million dollars. Fenn ultimately…

REVIEW: The Ivory Game [2016]

2016/11/022016/11/03 Jared Mobarak

“You have to be prepared to shoot back” If you went to a Regal Cinema during the month prelude to The Legend of Tarzan‘s release you will know the insane statistics depicting the sharp decline of living elephants throughout the world. Alexander Skarsgård told us about the problem—although I’d be surprised if you weren’t cognizant of the issue, if not the prevalence, beforehand—and the pitch to donate money for their conservation was in full force. Well Netflix has taken the next step to ensure an even wider range of people…

REVIEW: Kate Plays Christine [2016]

2016/10/282016/10/28 Jared Mobarak

“Blood and guts television” **SPOILERS Throughout** I didn’t completely hate Kate Plays Christine. Let me say that first off. I actually commend its attempt to ask serious questions about a serious subject such as depression and the affect its disease can have on an actor seeking to portray it onscreen. Look at Heath Ledger and the numerous accounts stating that his headspace playing The Joker in The Dark Knight pushed him over the edge into self-medication. Sometimes you can go too far with your craft and unearth demons you may…

REVIEW: Audrie & Daisy [2016]

2016/10/122016/10/13 Jared Mobarak

“u don’t know what it’s like to be a girl” There’s a great moment towards the end of Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk‘s documentary Audrie & Daisy where Sheriff Darren White starts preaching how boys can be victims and girls at fault as easy as the other way around. He’s not wrong and Cohen’s voice is heard agreeing, but the statement doesn’t apply. She quickly steers the issue back on point because the children who committed the crime in question were boys. You can’t skirt one issue by bringing up…

BIFF16 REVIEW: Off the Rails [2016]

2016/10/092016/10/10 Jared Mobarak

“I’m volunteering my time” It starts as a lark: Darius McCollum led away in handcuffs with smile ear-to-ear. We think this is a guy having fun pretending to be a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employee. He knows what he’s doing, never hurts a soul, and gets people where they’re going on time whether by subway train or bus. But this isn’t the truth of the matter as director Adam Irving soon reveals in his debut Off the Rails. Darius has become less folk hero to the state than career criminal…