Trainspotting | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: T2 Trainspotting [2017]

2017/04/062017/04/07 Jared Mobarak

“Friends is just another class of victim” Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) “chose life” twenty years ago—or what he believed was the best chance at having one at the time. This on-again/off-again heroin junkie had just stolen the sixteen thousand pounds he and three friends (Jonny Lee Miller‘s Simon, Ewen Bremner‘s Spud, and Robert Carlyle‘s Begbie) made in a drug deal somehow gone right. His justification: one of the others would do the same he if didn’t first. Unfortunately for Mark, however, that money only got him a reprieve from the…

REVIEW: Trainspotting [1996]

2017/03/29 Jared Mobarak

“Choose rotting away at the end of it all” There’s an undeniable energy to Danny Boyle‘s Trainspotting, a rush of excitement set to a pulse-pounding rock soundtrack that almost seems the antithesis of what it’s like to fall down into a heroin-fueled dreamy stupor. Even as the characters from Irvine Welsh‘s infamous novel stick themselves with a needle and sink into the floor, Boyle keeps the pedal depressed beyond capacity with inventive visuals and breakneck speed narration. But as you get into the film and move forward with the sometimes…

REVIEW: TV Junkie [2013]

2013/08/122013/08/13 Jared Mobarak

“How can something be so euphoric and good and be so terrible?” The story of former “Inside Edition” senior correspondent Rick Kirkman is one of addiction and its debilitating impact on every aspect of life. While such a sentiment may seem anything but unique in a world where reality TV willfully puts addicts on the small screen so a hubristic American public can laugh at their misfortunes from afar instead of putting a mirror on themselves to understand where their own lives have gone astray, Michael Cain and Matt Radecki’s…

Posterized Propaganda March 2012: Gimmicks and Blurs

2012/02/292014/04/11 Jared Mobarak

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” is a proverb whose simple existence proves the fact impressionable souls will do so without fail. This monthly column focuses on the film industry’s willingness to capitalize on this truth, releasing one-sheets to serve as not representations of what audiences are to expect, but as propaganda to fill seats. Oftentimes they fail miserably. We’ve come to March and still no posters to really write home about. The season of blockbuster tent poles and their litany of character posters begins, proving once more that…

REVIEW: 28 Days Later [2002]

2007/05/122017/03/29 Jared Mobarak

“That was longer than a heartbeat” In anticipation for the sequel 28 Weeks Later, I decided to revisit the superb zombie entry 28 Days Later from director Danny Boyle. I remember back to when I first started hearing the buzz about this film and how surprised I was that it came from the guy who brought us Trainspotting and A Life Less Ordinary. However, because this was the guy who made those films, I decided to give it a try despite not being the biggest fan of zombie flicks or…

REVIEW: A Life Less Ordinary [1997]

2006/10/292017/03/29 Jared Mobarak

“I thought we agreed there’d be no cliches” I had always heard good things about this film, but never had the chance to check it out despite being a fan of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. A Life Less Ordinary has a lot of aspects that Boyle later used in his child fairy-tale Millions from inventive camera tricks to a melding of fantasy sequences with reality. The main thing taken from this viewing however is the tragedy that Ewan McGregor and Boyle may never work together again. Ewan…

Top 15 Films of 1996

1997/01/032020/03/31 Jared Mobarak

(short and sweet and to the point; culled from watching 44 releases. constantly updated as i catch up to those i missed. click poster for review if applicable) #15: Jerry Maguire directed by Cameron Crowe #14: The Birdcage directed by Mike Nichols #13: Primal Fear directed by Gregory Hoblit #12: Sling Blade directed byBilly Bob Thornton #11: Shine directed by Scott Hicks. #10: Basquiat directed by Julian Schnabel. #09: Bottle Rocket directed by Wes Anderson #08: From Dusk Till Dawn directed by Robert Rodriguez #07: Trainspotting directed by Danny Boyle…