Suspense/Thriller | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: Fall [2022]

2022/08/072022/08/10 Jared Mobarak

If you’re scared of dying, don’t be afraid to live. It’s been a year since Dan Connor (Mason Gooding) fell to his death while rock climbing with his wife Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and her best friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner). The latter was free-climbing and mocking the other two for being slow as they detached and reattached their ropes with every maneuver to create a semblance of safety. Rather than be ironic that Dan is the one who dies, however, the choice is purely driven by narrative and suspense. Whereas…

REVIEW: 비상선언 [Bisang seoneon] [Emergency Declaration] [2022]

2022/08/062022/08/09 Jared Mobarak

We’ve become his guinea pigs. As described at the start of Jae-rim Han disaster film in the sky, everything is supposed to stop the moment a pilot initiates a Bisang seoneon [Emergency Declaration]. It alone lets everyone involved know that the plane is in real danger of crashing. Other aircraft are instantly diverted into circling patterns, the nearest runaway is cleared for landing, and it becomes all-hands-on-deck to ensure the safety of passengers and crew on-board. And the general populace condones those measures because they don’t know when they might…

FANTASIA22 REVIEW: さがす [Sagasu] [Missing] [2022]

2022/07/292022/09/13 Jared Mobarak

They deserve to be delivered. Santoshi Harada (Jirô Satô) has a plan. It concerns a three-million-yen reward for helping to capture the infamous serial killer known as “No-Name” (Hiroya Shimizu). Santoshi says he saw him on the train to work. The man who’s been all over the news is inexplicably here in town right now and he’s pretty sure he knows where he can find him. Except, of course, that Santoshi is in no shape to “find” anyone. He’s been clinically depressed and unable to hold a full-time job since…

FANTASIA22 REVIEW: The Artifice Girl [2023]

2022/07/232022/11/26 Jared Mobarak

Forever and always with pride. Amidst all the high concept computer programming speak and moral/ethical implications surrounding the creation of artificial life, the smartest line of dialogue in Franklin Ritch‘s The Artifice Girl is when Gareth (Ritch) admits, “I honestly don’t know how I did it.” Not only does it absolve the filmmaker of having to make something up to justify the complex progression of his sci-fi premise, but it also speaks to the reality that technological innovation often occurs accidentally. We can’t therefore know what we don’t know or…

FANTASIA22 REVIEW: Glorious [2022]

2022/07/212022/07/22 Jared Mobarak

You might actually be a bathroom talker. The universe has a favor to ask. Well, it’s the universe’s would-be destroyer who’s asking on its behalf. After an eternity hidden in the ether watching the life that sprang from a wound inflicted by his brothers and sisters evolve, this ancient titan (J.K. Simmons‘ Ghat) realizes his role as his father’s (the creator of existence) reset button isn’t something he looks forward to fulfilling. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have much of a say in the matter. If Dad escapes his prison and finds…

FANTASIA22 REVIEW: 범죄도시2 [The Roundup] [2022]

2022/07/162022/07/26 Jared Mobarak

And no balsamic vinegar. Set four years after the events from The Outlaws (known as Crime City in Korea), new director Sang-yong Lee and screenwriter Min-Seong Kim bring Detective Ma Seok-do (Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee) back to the big screen with The Roundup (or 범죄도시2 [Crime City 2]). A standalone film with a couple characters returning via tongue-in-cheek reveals, you really don’t need to know anything beyond what we learn at the start. While Jeon Il-man (Gwi-hwa Choi) is the police captain, he knows it’s better to get out…

REVIEW: Gone in the Night [2022]

2022/07/142022/07/14 Jared Mobarak

I will let you know when I’ve had enough adventure. Director Eli Horowitz (of “Homecoming” fame) speaks about his projects always starting with “something simple, even superficial.” If there’s a better descriptor for using a cabin in the woods as your springboard towards genre fare, I don’t know it. That’s not to say his and co-writer Matthew Derby‘s Gone in the Night (formerly The Cow) is superficial itself or that it uses said trope in a superficial way. In many regards the cabin being a cabin is unnecessary beyond its…

REVIEW: She Will [2022]

2022/07/092022/07/13 Jared Mobarak

We had a special bond. While initially thought to be vanity, Veronica Ghent’s (Alice Krige) cold cruelty towards her nurse Desi (Kota Eberhardt) and stubborn defiance regarding her recovery from a double mastectomy is ultimately revealed as survival. She’s an aging film star who’s worked since age thirteen during an era ruled by egomaniacal and abusive men. She’s endured what it means to be a successful woman in the public eye, so she’s ready for when the tabloids write about her surgery and looks while questioning her star viability. Recovery…

REVIEW: Watcher [2022]

2022/06/022022/06/02 Jared Mobarak

You’re suspiciously quiet. Despite being half said in jest as a means of disarming Julia’s (Maika Monroe) fear, Irina’s (Madalina Anea) words are no less chilling. Her response to the former’s belief that someone is following her is to admit how never learning the truth may prove better than knowing. Better to “live with the uncertainty” than “find yourself bleeding out with ‘I told you so.’ caught on your lips.” That is the unfortunate reality illustrated by writer/director Chloe Okuno‘s feature debut Watcher (adapted from Zack Ford‘s original script and…

REVIEW: Torn Hearts [2022]

2022/05/182022/05/19 Jared Mobarak

You weren’t welcome to begin with, dear. Keeping things in the family isn’t always easy—just as the Gallagher Brothers. Blood doesn’t mean anything once fame and fortune enter the fray because outside interests will begin to whisper and divide until the world discovers two halves aren’t quite as good as the whole. That’s not saying Noel’s High Flying Birds or Liam’s Beady Eye are bad. They’ve both created some good music post-break-up, but neither reached the heights Oasis had. The former’s music and latter’s voice built something that could only…

REVIEW: The Aviary [2022]

2022/04/222022/04/27 Jared Mobarak

What’s in the way of your joy today? Freedom is an escape from society’s invisible cages. So, Seth (Chris Messina) teaches his followers at The Aviary to emancipate themselves from those walls. He serves as their quasi-psychoanalyst conducting what he’s coined “barrier therapy” (or BT) to allow them to open themselves up to what it is they truly want outside of the norms civilization feeds them. And they love him for it. They embrace his teachings and enjoy his hugs while walking lockstep into the New Mexican desert to inhabit…