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REVIEW: P’tit Quinquin [Li’l Quinquin] [2014]

2016/01/012016/01/02 Jared Mobarak

“The dung flies are afraid of moo cows” Comparisons to “Twin Peaks” are easy when it comes to Bruno Dumont’s miniseries P’tit Quinquin [Li’l Quinquin] because there’s definitely an evil running wild within his small French town (or big if it’s up to the kindly, Asperger’s-lite slaughterhouse hired-hand). Unlike David Lynch’s “Bob” who inhabits residents to take physical form and wreak havoc, however, the evil that bumbling County Sheriff Van der Weyden (Bernard Pruvost) speaks of here is a metaphysical “answer” where an actual arrest is impossible to find. It…

REVIEW: Fame High [2013]

2013/06/142013/07/14 Jared Mobarak

“Engage us” A real life version of Fame on the west coast, Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s coming-of-age documentary Fame High shows us the pressures of pursuing an arts education and career at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Shot over a period of sixteen months, the film follows four students as they battle expectations, desires, talent, hard work, and all the other teenage stuff us normal kids went through too. LACHSA has a 95% rate for college enrollment and prepares its students for the fierce competition inherent to…

Teaching us what it is to be human … Babel’s Russell Banks

2012/10/182020/03/26 Jared Mobarak

As novelist Russell Banks admitted during the first lecture of the 2012-2013 Just Buffalo Literary Center‘s Babel season, he is the series’ first participant with a clear “American accent”. I’m not sure if that fact made my brain marginalize his inclusion because he wasn’t some international luminary from an exotic corner of the world or not, but his very brief time at the podium left me wanting. I love the work picked as his showcase piece—well, the movie based on it anyway for which I gave a perfect score—as well…

REVIEW: Sparkle [2012]

2012/08/152014/04/11 Jared Mobarak

“You snuck out of the house for less” I can’t wait for the Director’s Cut. No, not Criterion’s much ballyhooed 216-minute edit of Michael Cimino‘s Heaven’s Gate. I’m talking about Salim Akil‘s Sparkle. I need to try and piece together the gaps leading towards its imploded Motown trio’s back-up singer earning a sold out first ever solo show with full orchestra and gospel choir after barely receiving two minutes of unsolicited time from the record executive who already dropped her once. I don’t care if her voice is like listening…

BNFF12 REVIEW: 10Terrorists! [2012]

2012/04/042014/05/14 Jared Mobarak

“What’s the difference between a terrorist and a person?” It’s not a matter of if we’ll ever get to the point where reality television tackles a subject like terrorism for entertainment, but when. Preempting that unfortunate day, writer/director Dee McLachlan gives us the very funny and timely game show entitled “Who Wants to be a Terrorist” as the premise to her satiric look at salacious media and the warped minds it reaches, 10Terrorists! Mocking the likes of “American Idol”, “The Amazing Race”, “The Apprentice”, and “Iron Chef” amongst others, the…