Tag: Matt Smith

REVIEW: The Forgiven [2022]

Jared Mobarak

Everything must be faced. It always fascinates me when a film synopsis blatantly lies. Every site I visit that provides a quick run through the premise of John Michael McDonagh‘s The Forgiven (adapted from Lawrence Osborne‘s novel) calls the catalyst for events a “random accident.” That’s what David Henninger (Ralph Fiennes) would like people to think. It may even be partially what happened. We know differently, however. We saw David drinking the entire day before heading out into the desert with his wife Jo (Jessica Chastain) to attend a party…

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REVIEW: Last Night in Soho [2021]

Jared Mobarak

What’s the most? Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) sees dead people. Or, maybe, she’s crazy. No. She definitely sees dead people. Director Edgar Wright and co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns aren’t interested in making Last Night in Soho a commentary on mental illness when they can merely use mental illness as a plot device (Eloise’s mother committed suicide a decade previously after her own journey to London proved too much to bear). That sounds snarkier than it is. Yes, they could have handled the topic better, but I say it simply because it’s true.…

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REVIEW: Lost River [2015]

Jared Mobarak

“Here in my deep purple dream” You cannot watch Ryan Gosling‘s directorial debut Lost River without recalling the divisive surrealism of Only God Forgives. He’s the first to admit how much of an influence Nicolas Winding Refn was, pitting the Dane’s heightened realities against the emotive authenticity of another favorite collaborator in Derek Cianfrance. Gosling places himself somewhere in the middle of their two disparate sensibilities and while I get what he’s saying, the apple falls much closer to Refn’s tree. Unsurprisingly booed out of Cannes as it earned the…

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