Tag: Margarita Levieva

REVIEW: Sleeping with Other People [2015]

Jared Mobarak

“Mousetrap” It has to overcome a pretty shaky start—mostly due to leads Jason Sudeikis (Jake) and Alison Brie (Lainey) playing Columbia undergrads—but Leslye Headlands‘ comedy Sleeping with Other People does prevail as quite the breath of fresh rom/com air. The plot isn’t groundbreaking, reconnecting two people twelve or so years after losing their virginity together for platonic shenanigans masking an underlying romance, but it does it with as much care for their tumultuous psyches as it does the inherent humor. When these two characters get on a roll their rapport…

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REVIEW: The Diary of a Teenage Girl [2015]

Jared Mobarak

“And now the making of a harlot” You don’t realize what might be missing from a film until it’s staring you in the face elsewhere. I love The Perks of Being a Wallflower for its universality, authentic emotions, and resonance, but there was something absent I could only see while watching Marielle Heller‘s adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner‘s graphic novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl. To say it is honesty would be a disservice to Perks because Stephen Chbosky‘s fictional memoir is honest as far as the subject matter and…

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REVIEW: For Ellen [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“She didn’t complain or send the law after me or anything” Looking to reconcile her feelings about being a successful parent, wife, and filmmaker with her child turning two, writer/director So Yong Kim decided to delve into the all too common reality that some only can do so when it is too late. Taking from her own experience growing up fatherless—only having ever seen him once at the age of five—her film For Ellen finds itself attempting to not decipher why someone would leave, but instead show the moment when…

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REVIEW: Adventureland [2009]

Jared Mobarak

“James—am I pronouncing that right? James?” Let’s just say that The Daytrippers has just gone to the top of my must-see list of films. After the fun that was Superbad and now the heartfelt homage to summer jobs during college with Adventureland, Greg Mottola is a force to be reckoned with. His handle on ensemble casts is fantastic, getting some great performances, introducing new faces, and making each actor project authenticity. Superbad was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, lending it more of a raunchiness and absurdity, basing itself…

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