Film Reviews | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me [1992]

2017/03/252018/05/29 Jared Mobarak

“And the angels wouldn’t help you cause they’ve all gone away” Without European money, American auteur David Lynch wouldn’t have many features to his name. His style isn’t necessarily conducive to our general population’s tastes, its surrealistic and highly sexualized depictions of the darkness underlying American society’s false façade of harmony a hard sell. So it was surprising he’d have a primetime television show at all, let alone one that sparked as much excitement as “Twin Peaks” during its Season One heyday. But there it was: a goofier and more…

REVIEW: Dèmoni [Demons] [1985]

2017/03/242019/01/20 Jared Mobarak

“I’ll hold your hand if it’s scary” The concept behind Lamberto Bava‘s Dèmoni [Demons] is pretty great. It’s a reinvention of the rise of demons trope for an age of pop culture devotees within the 1980s era of its making. Rather than deal with cemeteries or rituals, Dardano Sacchetti‘s story (the script is credited to him, Bava, Dario Argento, and Franco Ferrini) uses the cinematic medium itself as the vehicle used to facilitate its terror. To watch a movie at a theater is to engage in a communal act. And…

REVIEW: Life [2017]

2017/03/232017/03/24 Jared Mobarak

“Its curiosity outweighs its fear” Calling Daniel Espinosa‘s Life an Alien retread is the easy thing to do. Both are tensely claustrophobic science fiction films with a violent extraterrestrial that’s loose and in search of the crew. But it’s also a very reductive comparison considering they are nothing alike beside genre conventions. The missions are different. The time period is different. And the creature’s motivation is as dissimilar as can be. Life also can’t help but stand apart on its own for one reason: it could actually happen tomorrow. We…

REVIEW: Shoot Me Nicely [2017]

2017/03/232017/03/23 Jared Mobarak

“Was it really that small?” A good cause and effect tale is hard to come by within an era of more is more popcorn fluff filled with contrivances nobody can feasibly ignore. But that’s exactly what Elias Plagianos delivers with short film Shoot Me Nicely. This is not to say there aren’t any coincidences involved to help propel the narrative forward, just that these moments arrive in a way where lead character Sean Wheeler (John Behlmann) has a choice. The coincidence doesn’t seal his fate one way or the other,…

REVIEW: CHIPS [2017]

2017/03/222017/03/23 Jared Mobarak

“Shoulda cuddled, bro” I’ve never watched an episode of “CHiPs” so I don’t care whether or not the original Jon Baker (Larry Wilcox) and Francis Poncherello (Erik Estrada) pulled their guns during six seasons of television as some on social media have enjoyed touting they didn’t since the trailer hit. I will, however, admit I’m glad writer/director Dax Shepard didn’t feel beholden to such a streak of pacifism because I don’t see how it would have been entertaining for 90-plus minutes. And if his CHIPS remake is anything, it is…

REVIEW: Julieta [2016]

2017/03/212017/03/22 Jared Mobarak

“Remember, you don’t like goodbyes” It began as many things: an adaptation of Nobel Prize winning Canadian writer Alice Munro‘s three connected short stories from her book Runaway (“Chance,” “Soon,” and “Silence”), Pedro Almodóvar‘s English-language debut with its venue switching from Vancouver to New York, and a starring vehicle for Meryl Streep. But Julieta eventually became none of them. It’s still credited as an adaptation, yet Almodóvar would be the first to say that he took pains to make it his own not only in content but context with the…

REVIEW: The Void [2017]

2017/03/212017/04/06 Jared Mobarak

“You’d be surprised at the things you find when you go looking” I was recently comparing directorial culture today with that of the 80s and 90s, referencing how new technology has allowed a disintegration of the old school “pay your dues” mentality. Forty years ago you had artists working their way up under the tutelage of established directors through the more niche technical departments. See James Cameron (matte painter on Escape from New York) and Joe Johnston (visual effects on Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark) as examples.…

REVIEW: Geride Kalanlar [Leftovers] [2017]

2017/03/20 Jared Mobarak

“Let’s hope it’s not her” We each possess a blind spot, one seeking to shield the horrors of life we know exist regardless. It manifests a sense of optimism in that we are safe because we live morally or that those we trust are inherently good. The opposite—to live in constant paranoia believing tragedy is inevitable—is not living at all. That’s how you imprison yourself, wall off your emotions, and ensure no one will get close enough to hurt you or deserve mourning. But we need physical contact and emotional…

REVIEW: 路边野餐 [Lù biān yě Cān] [Kaili Blues] [2016]

2017/03/17 Jared Mobarak

“You took a photo and stole my soul” While the calling card for Gan Bi‘s feature debut 路边野餐 [Lù biān yě Cān] [Kaili Blues] is its magnificent 41-minute long take, that scene is but a movie within a movie. Its brilliance is in the way it takes his main character Chen Sheng (played by the writer/director’s uncle Yongzhong Chen) and us away from the tragic reality of death, disappointment, and frustration. For the first thirty minutes (before the title card even arrives), we’re simply getting to know this ex-con doctor…

REVIEW: Psychic Murder [2017]

2017/03/16 Jared Mobarak

“Yes. I realize I look … like the Hamburger Helper.” The idea of a “deal with the devil” tale is to show how—if at all—the victim caught with his/her soul on the line can escape. The fun is in the torture of this latest riff on Faust by his malicious benefactor and the payoff the inevitable bittersweet end. But what if it didn’t have to go that way? What if the victim that always proves to be a good person who made a regretful mistake out of hubris is exactly…

REVIEW: April Flowers [2017]

2017/03/152017/03/16 Jared Mobarak

“I’m not afraid of love if that’s what you mean” When writer/director Christopher Tedrick scholarly describes his film April Flowers as being based on the idea that the 21st century is an “Era of Choice”—a term coined by Temple Associate Professor Edward C. Rosenthal in an MIT-published paper—romance isn’t necessary the first thing that springs to mind. And yet romance is quite possibly the most relevant and universal example to use for this idea of infinite opportunities causing crippling stress and fear. Just think about it. We live in an…