Tag: David Branson Smith

REVIEW: Jungleland [2020]

Jared Mobarak

We don’t have a front door. Director Max Winkler (who co-wrote with Theodore Bressman and David Branson Smith) opens his latest film Jungleland with a great reveal. We meet Stanley (Charlie Hunnam) as he wakes his younger brother Lion (Jack O’Connell) up, staring out the window with a huge grin on his face. He’s talking about the future and how it’s paved with gold. California is in sights, boxing stardom is in reach, and all they have to do is win this fight. So Lion gets out of bed, does…

Read More

REVIEW: Ingrid Goes West [2017]

Jared Mobarak

“What’s your biggest emotional wound?” Many people are going to like Ingrid Goes West because its dark comedy seemingly mocks a culture they’ve wholeheartedly embraced. They’ll laugh because they see the titular lead (Aubrey Plaza‘s Ingrid Thorburn) as an exaggerated version of themselves: glued to social media, but letting it literally control her life. She’s who they could be if they didn’t have the self-control to stop themselves from losing perspective as far as differentiating real life and identity from the fictitious ones cultivated online. So on this shallow, surface…

Read More