Drama | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: Escape From Tomorrow [2013]

2013/10/172013/10/18 Jared Mobarak

“Dad, why are we following those girls?” If you ever thought about going to Walt Disney World with the intention of shooting a dark psychological horror film on the sly about the multi-billion dollar corporation’s way too pristine façade hiding a seedy underbelly of prostitution, disease, and scientific espionage, I’m sorry but you’re too late. First time writer/director Randy Moore might not be the first person to film underneath Mickey’s nose without permission, but he’s definitely become the most famous for his audacity to twist iconic rides and visuals into…

REVIEW: The Fifth Estate [2013]

2013/10/152014/04/10 Jared Mobarak

“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth” As reporters from The Guardian and The New York Times are shown sifting through hundreds of thousands of leaked documents uploaded to the Wikileaks site by Chelsea Manning (then Bradley) in 2010, the acronym EOF is clearly defined as “Escalation of Force” in a blatant swipe at the US government’s penchant for unnecessary killing in the Middle East. While the term explains what America did wrong, it’s also relevant to the speed at which Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate…

REVIEW: Renoir [2013]

2013/10/142014/04/10 Jared Mobarak

“A girl from out of nowhere sent by a dead woman” A name as prolific as Renoir can’t help conjure a litany of tales worthy of the big screen. None, however, are more intriguing than the discovery of the surname’s most famous owners—Impressionist painter Pierre-August and his film-directing son Jean—sharing the same muse. Despite its title then, Gilles Bourdos‘ Renoir is in many respects actually Andrée Heuschling’s (Christa Theret) story. A young dreamer aspiring to become an American actress, the fifteen year old arrives at their family retreat in Cagnes-sur-Mer…

REVIEW: Yeah, Love [2008]

2013/10/082013/10/08 Jared Mobarak

“Why do I write like a twelve year old?” High school love is complicated enough for “traditional” pairings of boy and girl without the myriad other paths it may take. You only have to listen to lacrosse star Toby (Paul Fabre) talk with friends about jealousy-inducing girlfriend Milo (Paton Ashbrook) to understand the multiple layers of connectivity involved when hormones threaten to turn romance into meaningless sex. There’s little privacy, tons of rumor, and a certain standard of popularity to uphold wherein everyone toes the line between prude and slut…

REVIEW: Paradise [2013]

2013/10/022013/10/11 Jared Mobarak

“Why twitter with Satan when you can friend with God?” My first trip to the Toronto International Film Festival had me arriving at the box office with vouchers and no clue about what to see. Ready for anything, my friend and I took a chance on Juno based solely on our enjoying Thank You for Smoking and our intrigue in Ellen Page’s follow up to her fantastic turn in Hard Candy. It was a great choice: funny, fresh, contemporary, and accompanied by a Q&A with director Jason Reitman and first-time…

REVIEW: Don Jon [2013]

2013/09/272013/09/28 Jared Mobarak

“I lose myself” I will say this: Don Jon is not quite what I expected. While the trailers do a good job showing off the surface objectification first-time writer/director Joseph Gordon-Levitt infuses into the comedy, it doesn’t speak to the film’s heart. Rather than simply a 90-minute romp of Jersey accents and pretty people arguing over whether porn is disgusting or not, this is a journey of discovery wherein Jon (Gordon-Levitt) evolves into a man. Yes, such a statement couldn’t sound more cliché if I tried, but that doesn’t mean…

REVIEW: Eroticide [2013]

2013/09/262013/09/26 Jared Mobarak

“I’m the woman of his dreams. And you? You’re the silver medal.” With a title like Eroticide, it isn’t hard to imagine at least one character dying by the time the credits roll. Who of Matthew Saliba’s sexually warped love triangle will it be, though: the doormat, the predator, or the prey? Love, sex, and self-worth can combine to form any number of psychological cocktails just waiting to explode when the players find themselves lost in an unfamiliar territory like happiness. If you’ve lived your life in a way where…

REVIEW: Rush [2013]

2013/09/232014/04/10 Jared Mobarak

“You fat little inbred beauty” The story of James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) is one we can all relate too. It’s a tale of two extremes: the easygoing partier with ideas of immortality and the calculating taskmaster who knows the odds and understands the consequences. In keeping with the Formula One spirit cinematically, we could even metaphorically pit Rush‘s Hunt against Senna’s Lauda—the Hollywood pretty boy opposite the riveting documentary—to see how your tastes align with personality. I’m a Lauda, always have and always will be.…

TIFF13 REVIEW: Falastine Stereo [Palestine Stereo] [2013]

2013/09/222014/05/19 Jared Mobarak

“We all should sing and dance and live and allow nothing to break us” No matter how much Stereo (Mahmud Abu-Jazi) loves his country, living in the warzone that is occupied Palestine has to prove hollow at some point. A wedding singer with what many say is a sweet voice—hence the nickname—that moment comes via an Israeli bombardment. The aftermath leaves his wife dead, his brother Sami (Salah Hannoun) a deaf mute, and himself ravaged by the guilt of not being there and the understanding that his government’s words are…

REVIEW: Brazil [1985]

2013/09/212013/09/22 Jared Mobarak

“Care for a little necrophilia?” Although Terry Gilliam had already established the highly imaginative filmic style we now associate him with above his Monty Python animations, no one could have imagined the scale of what would become his unequivocal masterpiece, Brazil. There were shades of its escapism in Time Bandits and its bureaucratic satire in short film The Crimson Permanent Assurance, but nothing as grandiose as Sam Lowry’s (Jonathan Pryce) fantastical dreamscape juxtaposed against his Orwellian, nightmarish reality. In fact, Gilliam even sought to title the film 1984 1/2 before…

TIFF13 REVIEW: Faroeste caboclo [Brazilian Western] [2013]

2013/09/202018/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“A real man always pays his debts” Composed by Renato Russo in 1979 and finally released in 1987 on his band Legião Urbana’s album Que País É Este, “Faroeste Caboclo” became a folk song hit in Brazil. It was Russo’s family —Renato died in 1996 due to complications from AIDS—who began the process of finding the right talent to adapt its nine-minute story of João de Santo Cristo for the big screen ten years after his death. A few delays later—including an attempt to stall production due to outside copyright…