Tag: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

REVIEW: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night [2014]

Jared Mobarak

“Are you a good boy or not?” The comparisons are so spot-on that I knew critics before me had made the same parallels before even looking. Ana Lily Amirpour‘s debut feature A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is Jim Jarmusch cool with Quentin Tarantino swagger—an Iranian Vampire Western calling to mind Dead Man and Ghost Dog remixed through a Pulp Fiction lens. It’s a wonder no one had done it before with the way in which her titular creature of the night glides across Bad City in her pitch-black…

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REVIEW: The Limits of Control [2009]

Jared Mobarak

“Two espressos in separate cups” What do you get when you pair a minimalist such as Jim Jarmusch with a genius cinematographer in Christopher Doyle? The answer is a stunning work of art, starkly beautiful in its compositions and intelligently obtuse in its storytelling. Much like the director’s other films for which I’ve had the pleasure of seeing, The Limits of Control is about one man’s spiritual journey. Sometimes his movies have a more straightforward focus in plot, (Ghost Dog or Broken Flowers), but other instances are more metaphysical and…

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REVIEW: The Last King of Scotland [2006]

Jared Mobarak

“Do you have monkeys in Scotland?” What happens when a precocious young doctor gets a feeling of claustrophobia at home and decides to travel the world to bring help while having fun in the process? Kevin Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland tries to show us the answers in the midst of Idi Amin’s rise to power in Uganda. While not a biopic, the film is also not a narrative fiction of any real weight. Instead this is a tale of a monster through the eyes of someone whose innocence…

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REVIEW: Casino Royale [2006]

Jared Mobarak

“Shaken or stirred?” I am not a very big action movie fan. Explosions, violence, and sex don’t make a good movie unless there is some semblance of a story involved. Therefore, I’ve never really had an interest in watching the twenty or so James Bond films. Hearing about the gadgets and the suave hitman persona told me it wouldn’t be too intellectually fulfilling and if I didn’t want to be challenged at the movies I’d see a comedy not a film pretending to be sophisticated. My fears were made true…

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Top 20 Films of 1999

Jared Mobarak

(short and sweet and to the point; culled from watching 71 releases. constantly updated as i catch up to those i missed. click poster for review if applicable) #20: Any Given Sunday directed by Oliver Stone #19: The Iron Giant directed by Brad Bird #18: Election directed by Alexander Payne #17: Being John Malkovich directed by Spike Jonze . #16: Stigmata directed by Rupert Wainwright #15: Toy Story 2 directed by John Lasseter . #14: Three Kings directed by David O. Russell #13: eXistenZ directed by David Cronenberg #12: The…

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