Jared Mobarak
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jaredmobarak.com
Jared Mobarak
@jaredmobarak.com
Graphic Designer • Rotten Tomatoes-Approved Critic: @thefilmstage.com & heyhaveyouseen.com • Art Director: cultivatecinema.com (RIP) • Member: @ofcs.bsky.social & @gwnyfilmcritics.com • Curates @cinematicfbombs.com

Buffalo, NY • jaredmobarak.com • 🇱🇧
Pinned
Still working through my watchlist, but confident it will take a lot to knock any out of this line-up.

I go long on only seeing two on the big screen (the industry's choice, not mine) and brief on each film.

My Top Ten of 2024 at @thefilmstage.bsky.social:

thefilmstage.com/jared-mobara...
Jared Mobarak’s Top 10 Films of 2024
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists. Besides my annual trip to the Toronto Internatio...
thefilmstage.com
I don't need to watch DEAD MAN'S WIRE for FYC consideration because I saw it at TIFF. However, the screener might be nice to see it in the correct proportions since I viewed it from the front row of the theater.

Or maybe the distortions in my head should remain my only impression of it.
November 27, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Reposted by Jared Mobarak
Tamara Kotevska’s The Tale of Silyan, opening Friday at @ifccenter.bsky.social, is a harrowing, sadly resonant story about survival during an era of increasing wealth disparity.

Read @jaredmobarak.com's review:
The Tale of Silyan Review: An Inspiring Story of Perseverance
Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2025 TIFF coverage. The Tale of Silyan opens in theaters on November 28. Described as the heart-warming tale of a farmer who saves and befrien...
thefilmstage.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:09 AM
The #AFMI100 next 20 are out at Cinemayaat. I had the pleasure of writing the blurb for #73 - Annemarie Jacir's WHEN I SAW YOU from 2012.

cinemayaat.com/when-i-saw-y...

I interviewed Jacir back then for @thefilmstage.com too: thefilmstage.com/interview-wh...

Her latest, PALESTINE 36, is out soon.
When I Saw You
لما شفتك When I Saw You (2012) When I Saw You (2012) Directed by: Annemarie Jacir What do you tell an eleven-year-old Palestinian who just wants to go home? To be patient? To
cinemayaat.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Jared Mobarak
i do not need to seek out movies to celebrate udo, i just need to watch the kind of movies i like and udo will appear in them. his presence is etched into the world forever
November 24, 2025 at 1:39 AM
So good.
The most underrated Denzel film. #NowWatching Fallen (1998) #horrorsky #HolyHorror
November 24, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Reposted by Jared Mobarak
Udo took a chance on my rinky-dink festival in Vancouver back in 2000 - he went on TV interviews with me, carried 35mm film prints up stairs, went to get me coffee and even live-dubbed Giancarlo Giannini's voice when BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA showed up without subs. RIP Udo, you were a star 🌟
November 24, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Caught up with del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN tonight. Is Mia Goth contractually obligated to play two roles every film now? It’s also another example of Letterboxd adding bespoke animation when logging a review.

boxd.it/bO9z65
A ★★★★ review of Frankenstein (2025)
"What is pain if not evidence of intelligence?" It's funny that so many people think Guillermo del Toro made Jacob Elordi's Wretch "too sympathetic" as though he changed what Mary Shelley wrote rather...
boxd.it
November 23, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Truly shocking to have that many Jeffs in ROOFMAN and not one Geoffrey the Giraffe joke. The restraint Derek Cianfrance showed is impressive.

boxd.it/bNMfjd
A ★★★½ review of Roofman (2025)
"The answer is forty-five." If only this film had come out in 2016, maybe the free exposure would have kept Toys "R" Us stores open in the US. I give Derek Cianfrance all the credit in the world for n...
boxd.it
November 22, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Hopefully the “FINAL” means this series can go back to strong storytelling without all the gymnastics to pretend like anyone cared whether the Rabbit’s Foot was anything but a one-off MacGuffin twenty years ago.

boxd.it/bNFoYF
A ★★★ review of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)
"Are you sure it's really me?" One might think my initial reaction to the first twenty minutes of this film being a thirty-year exposition dump would be regret for having just rewatched the fourteen-p...
boxd.it
November 22, 2025 at 5:06 PM
New @cartoonsaloon.bsky.social short from Giovanna Ferrari is still available for free until tomorrow (11/22) at 6pm EST. Like all of their output, it's very good.

Watch: watch.animationshowcase.com/landing/691c...

My thoughts: jaredmobarak.com/2025/11/21/e...
November 22, 2025 at 4:35 AM
I’ve seen so many takes about this and none have been the probable truth:

He’s setting him up. Talk about how aligned we are so that when I refuse to help him I can just blame him for failing since I’m on the record saying I really wanted it to work out.

Also, his NYC friends like their money.
the son he always wanted
November 21, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Jared Mobarak
Socialism is what they called public power.

Socialism is what they called social security.

Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.

Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.

—Harry Truman, 1952
November 21, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Latest newsletter w/ thoughts on:

• Cutting Through Rocks (lim)
• Elio (D+)
• Every Contact Leaves a Trace (IDFA)
• Dead to Rights (AWFF)
• F1 (VOD)
• In Your Dreams (N)
• Köln 75 (North Park)
• Materialists (Max)
• The Smashing Machine (VOD)

www.heyhaveyouseen.com/week-ending-...

#heyhaveyouseen
Week Ending 11/21/25
Letterboxd-buster
www.heyhaveyouseen.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:36 PM
From the press kit of THE DEEP END:

Directed by Scott McGehee & David Siegel, starring Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic, Jonathan Tucker, Peter Donat, Josh Lucas, and Raymond J. Barry.

#filmsky
November 21, 2025 at 2:09 AM
This is very Brendan Shanahan asking Terry Pegula if he’s looking for a VP of Hockey Operations and Terry, the Sabres oilman owner with zero hockey acumen, tells him they already have one: Terry Pegula. #buffalosabres
“According to multiple sources, Scott Stone, exec in charge of production from 101 Studios — which produces ‘Tulsa King’ — has become the de facto showrunner”

Could just be garden variety mismanagement (esp with Taylor Sheridan’s focus elsewhere) but studios would prob love to get rid of this role
November 20, 2025 at 12:58 PM
It’s Mubi (or maybe The Auteurs, if this feature went back before the name change, I can’t remember) before Mubi eventually just became another streamer.
Letterboxd Video Store. Coming early December 2025. 👀

More info: boxd.it/2OU
November 19, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Caught up with THE SMASHING MACHINE. Definitely some stylistic/pacing issues, but Dwayne Johnson is extremely good in this.

boxd.it/bLqfT9
A ★★★ review of The Smashing Machine (2025)
"A day without pain is like a day without sunshine." The Mark Kerr on-screen in Benny Safdie's The Smashing Machine is a fascinating, soulful, lovable character who proves why he deserves a biopic bey...
boxd.it
November 19, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Reposted by Jared Mobarak
cinemayaat.com/clash/

This is a pretty awesome list (so far). I got to write about Mohammed Diab’s “Clash” (2016)!
November 18, 2025 at 10:33 PM
The Arab Film and Media Institute’s #AMFI100 countdown has officially begun. Films 100 - 81 are now live via the newly launched Cinemayaat Magazine.

cinemayaat.com/the-greatest...

@arabfilm.bsky.social #greatestarabfilms
The Greatest Arab Films of All Time
In 2025, the Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) asked hundreds of professional critics, academics, curators, and select filmmakers from over 20 countries to vote for the Greatest Arab Films of All T...
cinemayaat.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Besides some contested censors (SCARFACE and A FACE IN THE CROWD) and a translation (WAGES OF FEAR), it's generally believed ULYSSES is the first English use of the f-word in a film. It released a couple months before DON'T LOOK BACK and both were three years before MASH.

cinematicfbombs.com/index/
Film: Ulysses (1967) [NR]
Studio: Continental Distributing
Character: Molly
Actor: Barbara Jefford
Director: Joseph Strick
Screenwriters: Joseph Strick and Fred Haines
Timestamp: 1:46:03

cinematicfbombs.com/2025/07/03/1...
November 18, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Jared Mobarak
NYT: A wise and deeply moving letter to the editor from a retired history teacher Liz Zucker.

“Ignorance is not bliss. It’s just ignorance.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/o...
November 17, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by Jared Mobarak
My latest newsletter is out with thoughts on:

• Belén (Prime)
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Disney+)
• Frankenstein [1931]
• I'm Not Everything I Want to Be (lim)
• Kokuhô (lim)
• Rebuilding (lim)
• The Things You Kill (lim)

www.heyhaveyouseen.com/week-ending-...

#heyhaveyouseen
Week Ending 11/14/25
What came before
www.heyhaveyouseen.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Agreed. We truly do not need another TROY.
I spend a not inconsiderable amount of time trying to imagine how Nolan is going to handle the monsters and the gods in THE ODYSSEY and how weird it's going to be if he tries to sidestep all of that to "ground" it. I can't imagine what that film's going to look like.
November 17, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Another 2025 animated title is crossed off the list with IN YOUR DREAMS.

boxd.it/bK421Z
A ★★★ review of In Your Dreams (2025)
"It would probably be irresponsible of me to push this." You never know when the Sandman will flip the jukebox record over from The Chordettes to Metallica, so prepare yourself to tackle that genre sh...
boxd.it
November 17, 2025 at 1:04 AM
It’s pretty generic and a whole lotta corny, but F1 is also pretty fun.

boxd.it/bITGND
A ★★★½ review of F1 (2025)
"You just googled these names, didn’t you?" We've all seen young upstart Lightning McQueen get accidentally dumped into Radiator Springs to finally learn the lessons of life and racing from grizzled v...
boxd.it
November 15, 2025 at 7:15 PM