Tag: Gaby Hoffmann

REVIEW: C’mon C’mon [2021]

Jared Mobarak

Lots of blah blah blah. The cross-generational dramedies about the relationships between children and adults continues for Mike Mills with his latest C’mon C’mon about a professionally busy and personally listless documentarian who fatefully reconnects with his estranged sister at a moment when she desperately needs him. Why are they estranged? We get glimpses of Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) and Viv (Gaby Hoffmann) screaming at each other, the ways in which they cope with their mother’s death driving a wedge between. But there’s also allusions to the misguided advice he gave…

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REVIEW: Wild [2014]

Jared Mobarak

“Cold mush dreams” The cinematic adaptation of Cheryl Strayed‘s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail seems to be getting pigeonholed hard as being solely a tale of female empowerment. It most definitely is, but I’m not sure critics should necessarily call it a day with such a generic categorization. There’s a deeper draw to the author’s solo, one thousand mile journey along the Pacific Crest that hits at a human level way beyond gender. Was Into the Wild only thought of as a tale of…

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REVIEW: Obvious Child [2014]

Jared Mobarak

“Let’s do it on Valentine’s Day” It seems like a slight on the film since it’s a comedy, but I sincerely applaud Obvious Child for taking the subject of abortion seriously. Or maybe I should say naturally because while I never felt preached at from either side of the issue, I did laugh hard and often. There’s no flippant joke showing a protestor outside the clinic a la Juno or any espousing of a political agenda like the end of The Visitor turning immigration compassion into system vilification—it simply lets…

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