Week Ending 11/1/24
The reworked jaredmobarak.com is now live. Considering the original site had around 5000 posts and this one is up to 250—there’s a long way to go to fulfill my plan of getting all my old links active again.
I pretty much started with some Top Tens and built out from there. Example: if I wanted my Top 100 Films of the Decade 2010-2019 list to be viewable, I had to make sure all 100 reviews on it were too. Then I figured my past two Top Ten Films of the Year posts (2023 remains incomplete as I haven’t rewatched SKIN DEEP yet to write a capsule, since it’s a 2024 release where guild voting is concerned) were crucial, so that meant also including all 25 reviews from each—most of which were only ever published here and thus in need of porting.
I brought over my reworked Top Ten Posters pieces from The Film Stage (I still never finished updating 2014 and older to the new format). I got all my Year in Music mixes up with their respective Spotify links. I started playing with the portfolio section via those album covers, a couple logos, and my final two Cultivate Cinema Circle posters to get a layout I liked. And formatted my last eight interviews.
Hopefully this will be the final move. Fingers crossed Wordpress can be reliable and cost-effective where the last two external hosts weren’t (although, to be fair, they both did start that way). I’m still not that confident I get everything done, but hoping to do so is better than definitely paying way too much money to maintain the old site.
And, in the midst of all that, I did finally catch Amazon’s six-episode Faceoff: Inside the NHL series. I liked it a lot. The 23/24 season was definitely a doozy to kick things off with and the two-part finale portraying Edmonton’s comeback and Florida’s victory was great.
I will say this, though: as someone who pretty much watched every minute of last year’s playoffs, it was more recap than insight. Still good. Still in-depth. Just mostly stuff I already knew and saw while it was happening.
What I Watched:
CELLAR DOOR
(limited release & VOD)
When IVF fails and John (Scott Speedman) and Sera (Jordana Brewster) are left to grieve in the home they made for the child of their dreams, the decision to leave is instant. Yes, their lives and careers are based in the city, but something about the country calls to them for a fresh start … if only they could find the perfect home within their modest price range.
Enter Emmett (Laurence Fishburne). Introduced by their realtor as a “matchmaker” where it comes to pairing families with the real estate, he promises he can steer them in the right direction over dinner at his beautifully restored mansion. What they couldn’t have expected, however, is that the direction he’d point was down. He wants to give them this house—one that’s well outside their budget, but perfectly attuned to their sensibility—for free. If they agree to never open the cellar door.
A simple premise with expansive possibilities as written by Sam Scott and Lori Evans Taylor, director Vaughn Stein presents the setting of CELLAR DOOR as a mirror reflecting the secrets John and Sera hide within themselves. Think of the door as both representative of their own dark truths as well as a distraction away from them. Because if John can obsess about what might be in the basement, he can forget about the fact that everyone else is obsessing about what’s going on inside his soul.
The suspense is thus two-fold. Will John risk their happily ever after to reveal what Emmett has sealed away, against his wife’s wishes? Will Sera discover that this new compulsion of his isn’t the first time he was willing to risk their love for personal satisfaction? Because the specter of his co-worker Alyssa (Addison Timlin) looms large. We’re told she and John dated “a long time ago,” but the tension between them and the feeling of close proximity being akin to a threat makes us think otherwise.
Therein lies the theme that the struggle to keep a closed door closed pales in comparison to both the need to close one and the potential nightmare hidden away. Is it all a test? Maybe. There’s the notion of self-control. The fear of the unknown. And the fact that it’s none of John and Sera’s business. Except that it probably should be. Because it’s not that far a distance between allowing your bliss to be built upon the bodies of innocents killed by a stranger killer and doing so upon those murdered by your own hands.
So, don’t necessarily get caught up in what you think is happening at the expense of what could be happening. It’s easy to paint John as the villain considering we already know his morality is skewed and his desires destructive. To watch him flirt with taking an axe to the door is to feel the guilt in his own heart, but also to realize he’s not so lost that he’s ignorant to his potential complicity in covering up a crime. Sera might not have done anything horrible herself, but being able to turn a blind eye without hesitation carries its own gray areas.
I would have liked the film to delve into that psychological duality more, but I can’t deny the way it exploits it to enhance the theatrics isn’t effective. I’m simply always wary of a script that screeches to a halt to explain its climactic reveal via alternative perspectives of what we thought we already knew. Sometimes it exposes the filmmakers as one-dimensional manipulators turning the table at the eleventh hour to trick audiences and other times the table turn itself is a means towards letting the audience dig deeper within themselves.
CELLAR DOOR definitely straddles that line, but I do believe it ultimately finds its landing spot with the latter.
- 6/10
NO OTHER LAND
(Currently on a one-week awards qualifying run in NYC)
Even though the filmmaking collective of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor make sure to date the steady progression of footage that makes up their documentary NO OTHER LAND, the reminder that everything we see happened before October 7th, 2023 still proves jarring—especially for those who’ve had their heads in the sand to the decades-long Apartheid oppression that has been inflicted upon Palestinians by Israeli settlers. While Benjamin Netanyahu loves to hide behind that date for international support today, the Israeli government’s systematic destruction of Arab human rights in the region was always at their initiative. To assert control. To murder innocents. To steal land.
What’s happened to and continues to happen in Masafer Yatta of the West Bank proves as much. This is occupied territory. Palestinian territory encroached on by Israeli settlers. A community of villages that existed on maps pre-World War II until Israel erased them in a bid to pretend their settlements were legally acquired because they were “abandoned.” The residents fought in an Israeli court for twenty years to stop the expulsions and razing of homes, schools, and infrastructure only to finally be told in 2022 that the invaders had the right to declare all existing property null and void. Everything the people of Masafer Yatta owned and operated was deemed illegal overnight.
The purpose of this film is therefore to show the world how Israelis have always stolen land without any threat of courtroom retribution. By refusing to grant Palestinians rights while also acting as their custodians, they enforce their laws upon Palestinian regions. If their judges and juries deem it legal to bulldoze a populated Arab village to use as a training ground for tanks, what oppositional recourse exists? None. Not when the soldiers chaperoning those bulldozers can “legally” and retroactively transform those who are being displaced into “illegal” squatters. An incestuous justice system rubber stamps a hostile takeover and the western world accepts it without reservation. “If Israel says it’s true, it must be.”
It’s difficult then to separate the emotional rage at what Basel, Yuval, Hamdan, and Rachel capture from the filmmaking itself. I’d argue you shouldn’t because the content is too important to risk devaluing it for whatever technical issue you might have with the delivery device. People surely will, though. People will also spout the lies that Israel has the right to fill a water well with cement because Palestinians didn’t receive a permit regardless of the timeline, the inability to receive said permit, or the secret documents revealing how this entire plan to “create military training areas” was a purposeful means to displace and demoralize the Arabs who’ve lived there for generations.
I do think already knowing about the Palestinian plight will help, though, considering the film is very specifically about Masafer Yatta and how what’s happening there is one example of what’s happening throughout the region (see THE VIEWING BOOTH, THE PRESENT, FARHA, and INCH’ALLAH). You get a little bit of the disparity in rights between them and Israelis through Basel and Yuvel’s friendship (the former lives here but cannot leave or protect his home while the latter is granted the freedom to come and go as he pleases), but it goes so much further than having two different license plates for pre-approved travel. Hopefully those who haven’t been watching pro-Palestinian content for the past two decades will seek more out as a result of NO OTHER LAND. Everyone must start somewhere and this is an appropriately incendiary introduction.
Either way, it’s impossible not to become invested in what occurs on-screen (unless you’re so far down the indoctrination rabbit hole that there’s no hope for you anyway). Not just via the current atrocities like the fate of Harun and the demolition of an elementary school, but the protests that Basel’s parents have been leading and documenting here for years. It’s not a coincidence that he grew up to study law and become a journalist on the front lines of his community’s fight for justice. Nor is it surprising that this never-ending struggle wears on him. He’s known nothing else. So, while it’s nice that Yuval is here to shed light, you can’t begrudge Basel’s frustrations that his new friend can escape it each night.
Because if Israel wants to silence Yuvel, they defame him through the media. If they want to silence Basel, they flatten his home, arrest him if that doesn’t work, and eventually open fire. It’s yet another example of the unfair disparity that goes along with the license plates, checkpoints, etc. And it’s why having them share credit here goes a long way towards legitimizing the truth for those who would otherwise scream “propaganda” had Basel been operating alone. Will it be enough to sway minds when dead babies and burning patients haven’t yet? The thing about injustice is that those with the means to expose it must do so regardless of whether anyone is currently paying attention. Like Basel says, “You need patience.”
- 9/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This week saw THE RING TWO (2005) and TRAP (2024) added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com).
Naomi Watts dropping an f-bomb in THE RING TWO.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 11/1/24 -
ABSOLUTION at Dipson Capitol; Regal Transit
AMARAN at Regal Elmwood
BAGHEERA at Regal Elmwood
BLOODY BEGGAR at Regal Elmwood
BROTHER at Regal Elmwood
DIRECTOR’S CUT at Regal Galleria
GODZILLA MINUS ONE (Re-release) at North Park Theatre (late show); AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
“The real lesson isn't about making a little money look good, though. The lesson is that you don't need a lot of money to be good.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
HERE at Dipson Amherst, McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
HITPIG at Dipson Flix & Capitol; Regal Transit & Quaker
LOST ON A MOUNTAIN IN MAINE at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
LUCKY BASKHAR at Regal Elmwood & Transit
SINGHAM AGAIN at AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood & Galleria
Streaming from 11/1/24 -
IT’S ALL OVER: THE KISS THAT CHANGED SPANISH FOOTBALL – Netflix on 11/1
JANET PLANET – Max on 11/1
LET GO – Netflix on 11/1
MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS – Disney+ on 11/1
ENDURANCE – Disney+ on 11/2
THE J-HORROR VIRUS – Shudder on 11/4
MEET ME NEXT CHRISTMAS – Netflix on 11/6
PEDRO PÁRAMO – Netflix on 11/6
10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN – Netflix on 11/7
MY OLD ASS – Prime on 11/7
“The film is therefore very life-affirming. Because languishing in the past is just as bad as fearing the future. The only surefire way to avoid both is to enthusiastically embrace the present.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
AMITYVILLE: WHERE THE ECHO LIVES (10/29)
CITIZEN WEINER (10/29)
THE CRITIC (10/29)
JOKER FOLIE À DEUX (10/29)
PIECE BY PIECE (10/29)
INVERTED (10/30)
72 HOURS (11/1)
ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES (11/1)
AFTERMATH (11/1)
THE APPRENTICE (11/1)
CELLAR DOOR (11/1)
Thoughts are above.
THE GUTTER (11/1)
I LIKE MOVIES (11/1)
“Yes, the period specific nature of working in a video store circa 2002 is on point, but [Levack's] film isn't about fandom or obsession. It's about the masks we wear to hide the pain we feel.” – Full thoughts at jaredmobarak.com.
THE LINE (11/1)
A MISTAKE (11/1)
OUR DAD DANIELLE (11/1)
THE SUBSTANCE (11/1)
WHITE BIRD (11/1)