>
Jared Mobarak
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
The Bikeriders (2023) |
There's an honesty to that evolution that only a filmmaker like Nichols can capture. He's breathing life into Lyon's photos by giving three-dimensional form to the smiling characters captured within. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Aug 09, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Instigators (2024) |
No one will be saying it's good, but THE INSTIGATORS is fun if you think what it delivers is fun. Would I watch it again? Probably not. But I don't regret watching it the first time. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Aug 09, 2024
|
|
|
|
Kneecap (2024) |
Yes, the history of KNEECAP is entertaining, but it's also important in the context of its power—intentional or not—to give voice to the voiceless. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Aug 09, 2024
|
|
|
|
Black Eyed Susan (2024) |
McCrae is pushing boundaries with BLACK EYED SUSAN. He's forcing us to confront the limitations of our humanity through the unlimited potential of invention. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2024
|
|
|
|
Párvulos (2024) |
PÁRVULOS gets extremely dark as a result. The descent to all-out carnage is unrelenting as the body count increases and the tone turns from hopeful delusion to bittersweet grief. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Bookworm (2024) |
Thankfully, both Wood and Fisher refuse to let the script's wild swings get in the way of their charming and endearing performances. The two have a wonderful rapport in their role reversal. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Dead Dead Full Dead (2024) |
DEAD DEAD FULL DEAD is a lark that doesn't try to be more. We're in it less to find the murderer's identity than we are to see what wild event will occur next. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Infinite Summer (2024) |
While INFINITE SUMMER might be the best looking Llansó film of the three I've seen, it's also the most confounding at face value. But that's also part of the appeal. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Aug 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Hell Hole (2024) |
[Arguing] to keep the specimen alive inside an unwilling host perfectly parallels the ongoing abortion issue. It's a fantastic layer of subtext that gives what is ultimately a low-budget creature feature a lot more merit beyond cheap thrills. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jul 30, 2024
|
|
|
|
The G (2023) |
The way the story progresses has enough stakes and twists to keep our intrigue through its familiar genre movements. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jul 28, 2024
|
|
|
|
Starve Acre (2023) |
Smith and Clark are so good because they understand this necessity [wherein their characters act not] because they believe in [what's happening] or want it. But because it's what allows everything to make sense. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 26, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Fall Guy (2024) |
So, if you enjoy Leitch's work (namely BULLET TRAIN and the quippy HOBBS AND SHAW), you should have a good time here. I probably enjoyed the former more, but THE FALL GUY is probably the most accomplished of the trio. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 26, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Dead Thing (2024) |
It's an effective thriller that lets its themes exist beneath the surface so that those uninterested in delving deeper can simply enjoy the ghost story turned quasi-slasher on its own merits. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 26, 2024
|
|
|
|
Carnage for Christmas (2024) |
A lean, melodramatic tale of returning home to discover the people who thought they were better than you are the losers you always knew they were. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jul 23, 2024
|
|
|
|
Meanwhile on Earth (2024) |
Meanwhile on Earth is, in many ways, very similar to Clapin's previous work I Lost My Body. Elsa is the dismembered hand trying to reclaim the past when it's the future that she should be focusing on. - The Film Stage
Read More
| Posted Jul 23, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Watchers (2024) |
Strip everything away and this is a solid if generic thriller that delivers the goods on a purely formal level. Add back some of the flavor and you see where Ishana can go if given the time and room to grow. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
|
|
|
|
Oddity (2024) |
How McCarthy exposes his truths is more effective than the plausibility and narrative soundness of them, but I'd rather that than the other way around. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 19, 2024
|
|
|
|
Dandelion (2024) |
Layne is fantastic. This is a journey of self-discovery and artistic craft as Dandelion's sound, power, and compositions grow with each step forward. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
|
|
Intermedium (2023) |
INTERMEDIUM is exactly what you think it will be with its indie roots and hokey plot progressions as well as proof that those things don’t preclude a film from possessing an ample amount of heart. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
|
|
Sisi & I (2023) |
A fantastic character study that does well to spend time on the masks these women wear as well as the lives trapped beneath. Helped by a surprisingly anachronistic soundtrack of pop songs that invigorates the subject matter from stuffy to timeless. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
|
|
I Saw the TV Glow (2024) |
Schoenbrun uses I SAW THE TV GLOW's supernatural horror underpinnings centered on a teenager trapped inside an invisible prison built to keep him from discovering the truth as a way to deliver her devastating coming-out tale to a mainstream audience. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 05, 2024
|
|
|
|
Challengers (2024) |
Whether it's that he's by far the best actor of the trio or Kuritzkes was just able to write one of his characters light-years better than the others, O'Connor's transformation into a trickster spoiler provides the suspense and allure necessary to invest. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 05, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Devil's Bath (2024) |
Nothing is strictly horror per se, but the psychological and emotional toll definitely creates an air of anxious uncertainty. A good portion of that is also conjured through Plaschg's performance. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 05, 2024
|
|
|
|
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) |
They brought the character into the 2020s, supplied him a worthy verbal combatant in Paige's scene-stealing Jane, and crafted a sufficiently tense crime to foil. That's honestly all we needed. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 05, 2024
|
|
|
|
Mother, Couch (2023) |
[Larsson] wants us to fill in the blanks. How does this story relate to our life? Its power demands our participation. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 05, 2024
|
|
|
|
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) |
It's not as memorable as FURY ROAD, but it's a welcome expansion upon its lore nonetheless. FURIOSA's greatest success is making me want to watch FURY ROAD again. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 05, 2024
|
|
|
|
Civil War (2024) |
I'd compare its genre and tone to the PURGE series before I would a war movie. There's some great suspense and a perpetual sense of looming terror. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jul 05, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Secret Art of Human Flight (2023) |
Mendoza does a nice job making the film look better than its budget constraints and Orenshein's script gets to the heart of love and loss in both its goofy and sad moments. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 28, 2024
|
|
|
|
June Zero (2022) |
It's therefore tough to watch this well-crafted film without also engaging with the context that it is being released while Israel itself commits war crimes and genocide against Palestinians. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 28, 2024
|
|
|
|
Family Portrait (2023) |
That so much of what's said and done is hollow makes the notion that it will still be grieved after it's gone more potent. In the end, these horrible days that feel more like work than vacation will be missed. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 28, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Vourdalak (2023) |
While the somber tone mixed with dark humor is great and the ending proves sufficiently bittersweet and damning, that slurping of bloody cotton is still what sticks with me most. What a horrific sense memory to be burned onto my brain. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 28, 2024
|
|
|
|
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint (2023) |
This is a very funny film. One that's probably at its funniest when staging a death scene. It's equal parts melancholic in its tale of rekindled love and absurdly fantastical in its bureaucratically pragmatic idea of the afterlife. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 28, 2024
|
|
|
|
Love Lies Bleeding (2024) |
Glass does well to color things with a nightmarish sheen, but there's also a really fun strain of black humor throughout—mostly on behalf of Lou constantly being put out and made to solve crazy problems for other people. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
|
|
Hummingbirds (2023) |
Maybe the camera's presence therefore inherently infers upon their "performances," but neither the candor nor the fun is ever compromised. And it looks great too. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
|
|
Thelma (2024) |
Margolin and Squibb's spin on well-worn genre tropes proves so wholesome that they were able to get away with a PG-13 rating despite three f-bombs. You cannot keep this granny down. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
|
|
The First Omen (2024) |
[The film] deals in duality. The twists and turns are hardly shocking, but the film doesn't ever pretend they should be. They're less for our benefit than that of the characters. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
|
|
Federer: Twelve Final Days (2024) |
It doesn't lean into the idolatry aspect to make it about celebrity or the tennis itself to make it about the sport. TWELVE FINAL DAYS is just a final press tour. [It's] solely for the fans. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
|
|
Ghostlight (2024) |
The line Dan walks is thin and you can feel that O'Sullivan wrote his trajectory through the character's voice to discover which side he'll fall at the same time he does. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 14, 2024
|
|
|
|
Hit Man (2023) |
While it's not the missed-salvation-of-cinema piece that so much hyperbole on the internet wants to exclaim, HIT MAN is great. Powell is a star. Arjona is a superstar. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 14, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Grab (2022) |
Cowperthwaite and Halverson lay it all out. It's now on us to force our politicians to adjust … if voters still have the ability to do such things anymore. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 14, 2024
|
|
|
|
Reverse the Curse (2023) |
REVERSE THE CURSE proves two very different films jammed together with seemingly no interest in softening the jarring shift halfway through. Thankfully, both halves are enjoyable. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 14, 2024
|
|
|
|
This Closeness (2023) |
There's a lot to like in this journey of two horrible people reminding a third that, despite his insecurities making him believe he's destined for loneliness, at least he isn't as desperate to trick himself into thinking the opposite as them. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted Jun 07, 2024
|
|
|
|
Ezra (2023) |
EZRA isn't made as much to educate people on autism as it is to entertain audiences with more wins than losses. So, while what occurs on-screen is authentic, it can also seem too easy. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted May 31, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Young Wife (2023) |
It's an exhilarating experience that presents the tug-of-war we all must endure to maintain a level of self within the communal "us" that's born from the relationships we cultivate. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted May 31, 2024
|
|
|
|
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle (2024) |
It's not as visually inventive as THE FIRST SLAM DUNK, but it's entertaining in its "volleyball as fighter" aesthetic. I liked the numerous flashbacks triggered by on-court events and thought the overzealous positivity via end-to-end compliments was cute. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted May 31, 2024
|
|
|
|
In a Violent Nature (2024) |
I simply wish it didn't feel so clinical due to our inability to invest in anything but the violence. Without an emotional connection, it becomes little more than an effects reel. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted May 31, 2024
|
|
|
|
Dune: Part Two (2024) |
That lull of a bridge episode pushing us forward with action scenes and betrayal so that the lines can be drawn in the sand for future drama (this is pretty much an over-long epilogue leading towards MESSIAH). - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted May 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Lisa Frankenstein (2024) |
The pacing isn't quite right and the whole drags in more than one section, but I really enjoyed the main cast and what they're doing within that often janky structure. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted May 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Babes (2024) |
A lot of [its] success is due to Buteau delivering an authentic and natural performance that’s as funny as it is resonant. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted May 24, 2024
|
|
|
|
Aisha (2022) |
Every choice in front of her is broached and the futility of fighting is constantly weighed against the necessity to survive. It seems circuitous because it is. What matters is whether its merry-go-round consumes Aisha's spirit or makes her stronger. - Hey, Have You Seen ...?
Read More
| Posted May 17, 2024
|