Category: Romance

FILM MARATHON: Movie Musicals #3: Kiss Me Kate [1953]

Jared Mobarak

“You louse!” I’m a sucker for multi-layered films depicting simultaneous stories at once, juxtaposing onstage performances with the backstage antics of the actors involved. Kiss Me Kate, screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley and music by Cole Porter, shows the theatrical opening inter-workings of a stage musical, by the same name, styled on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew—or as I like to call it, 10 Things I Hate About You. But the beauty of George Sidney’s work behind the camera is that he allows every single aspect to be shown,…

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FILM MARATHON: Terrence Malick #4 – The New World [2005]

Jared Mobarak

“At the moment I was to die, she threw herself upon me” There is no way to mistake a Terrence Malick film for anything but. His use of score as a character rather than background, the hitch cuts in scenes as though only a few frames are removed, ultra short vignettes right out of a nature documentary spliced in perfectly, and, my favorite, scenes of people talking where the words are drowned out and made almost inaudible, allowing for the visuals to trump all, are just some of the unforgettable…

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TIFF10 REVIEW: ノルウェイの森 [Norwegian Wood] [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“I don’t go out of my way to make friends” The hugely popular Japanese novel by Haruki Murakami, ノルウェイの森 [Norwegian Wood], has made the leap to the big screen via director Anh Hung Tran, its North American Premiere held at the Toronto International Film Festival. A coming of age tale about a late-teen boy named Toru Watanabe, we are shown the unpredictable world of the 1960s amidst school, protest, love, and loss. What probably resonates much more through the written word, the film adaptation finds itself to be insanely depressing,…

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TIFF10 REVIEW: Never Let Me Go [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“I didn’t want to be the one left alone” It has been eight years since Mark Romanek last gave us a feature film—the decade since One Hour Photo being filled with a spate of music videos and an ill-fated affair with what would become last winter’s Wolfman. He possesses a certain aesthetic, noticeable throughout his work as a style leaning towards darker subject matter, so when I first watched the trailer for Never Let Me Go, I thought it seemed an odd choice. Screening at the Toronto International Film Festival,…

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FILM MARATHON: Terrence Malick #2 – Days of Heaven [1978]

Jared Mobarak

“But if you’ve been bad, God don’t even hear you. He don’t even hear ya talkin’.” Overwhelmed. The tagline got it right: every sense—by the end of Days of Heaven—will be overwhelmed. Terrence Malick’s second feature film is as breathtaking as you’ve heard, mesmerizing you with its sumptuous beauty until the hellish climax burns through your soul with its flames of vengeance. I seriously don’t know which is more gorgeous, the sprawling wheat fields straight from an Andrew Wyeth painting or the stark contrast of fire on the night sky,…

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REVIEW: Going the Distance [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“Dan, take me to Berlin” Acclaimed director—and Buffalo, NY native—Nanette Burstein has finally made her way to the world of fictional film. After helming the documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture about producer Robert Evans, one could say she took a step towards narrative with American Teen, a real-life look into today’s high schools and just how close John Hughes got The Breakfast Club. I remember some talk about staging and scripting reactions to make it all more cinematically interesting, but whether true or not, the film was a…

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REVIEW: Shall We Dance [1937]

Jared Mobarak

“The first time I’m in love, I’m in love with you” They just don’t make movies like this anymore and there definitely isn’t a comparable screen duo working today. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers collaborated on an astounding ten films together; most described jokingly by my friends as having the same plot and being mere vehicles to showcase their dance moves. Astaire and choreography partner Hermes Pan—who would dub Ginger’s taps and teach her the steps after each routine was crafted—infused some spectacular pieces in these movies, many shot with…

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REVIEW: Flipped [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“Something in those dazzling eyes” Not until a few hours before checking out a screening of Rob Reiner’s new film Flipped did I know it was based on an award-winning young adult novel by celebrated author Wendelin Van Draanen. The title has double meaning with both the idea of ‘flipping’ over someone the way young lovers tend to do and the structural format of alternating between the complicated duo at its center, Juli Baker and Bryce Loski. Reiner, never subtle, transitions each segment with a top to bottom flip of…

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REVIEW: Eat Pray Love [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“Learn to believe in love again” The title says it all—Eat Pray Love—a mantra being adopted by women across the globe. I can understand the memoir’s appeal, in a want and desire to achieve an idyllic life and the balance/calm/forgiveness needed to find it, but Elizabeth Gilbert’s tale is a very personal journey. This isn’t some self-help book on scorched earth policy as it pertains to relationships, starting anew and discovering a love for one’s self and the perfect companion only a lifetime of struggle can uncover. It is an…

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FILM MARATHON: Julia Roberts #4 – My Best Friend’s Wedding [1997]

Jared Mobarak

“This is my whole life’s happiness; I need to be ruthless” Okay, for some reason the opening credit sequence to My Best Friend’s Wedding is sort of brilliant. Showing four women dressed for a wedding, they lip-synch the words to “Wishin’ and Hopin’” (with a version surprisingly sung by Ani Difranco) while performing choreography on a solid pink backdrop. It’s equal parts cute, endearing, and over-the-top, much like the film itself. I’ll admit that my first viewing and impression of the movie was a bit harsh. Watching again, over a…

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FILM MARATHON: Julia Roberts #1 – Pretty Woman [1990]

Jared Mobarak

“Well color me happy, there’s a sofa in here for two” And just like that, 1990s America fell in love with a hooker. A hooker named Julia Roberts. She had already arrived to many film-viewing women with a oft-mentioned scene in Steel Magnolias, but it was Pretty Woman that officially vaulted her to A-list status and onto the Oscar-winning trajectory to come. I’ve always avoided watching it due to the fact I’ve never been much of a Roberts fan and because, honestly, I’m a twenty-something male. I don’t wake up…

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