Jared Mobarak

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The Film Stage
For 635 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 65% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 31% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.7 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Jared Mobarak's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Moonlight
Lowest review score: 25 The Dark Below
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 464 out of 635
  2. Mixed: 153 out of 635
  3. Negative: 18 out of 635
635 movie reviews
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    • 53 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    Annabelle Comes Home
    While humor is present (to varying effect) thanks to its teenage protagonists and its roller coaster ride of random encounters does prove more unhinged than The Conjuring‘s streamlined confrontational drama, it still revolves around intimately personal battles independently fought within Judy and Daniela.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Jared Mobarak
    Toy Story 4
    Toy Story 4 was somehow baked to perfection.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 58 Jared Mobarak
    Child's Play
    Child’s Play becomes a matter-of-fact A-to-B progression devoid of wiggle room where obstacles manifest as physical impediments to survival instead of narrative blockades to our understanding of what’s happening.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 58 Jared Mobarak
    The Secret Life of Pets 2
    I do think it’s improved upon the original insofar as relying on narrative cohesion (episodic or not) above random acts of pandemonium. I still believe having three episodes of television to focus on one character at a time is the better way to go, but their convergence upon Snowball and Daisy’s adventure is authentically drawn regardless of convenience.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Jared Mobarak
    The Third Wife
    It’s a mesmerizing look behind a curtain torn away so Mayfair can reveal an authenticity too often masked by historical precedent and conservative acquiescence. Love is created in rebellion, but ultimately stifled by the need for survival.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 75 Jared Mobarak
    Pokémon Detective Pikachu
    The filmmakers do well to avoid creating a dense puzzle that will only alienate youngsters when leaning on the Pokémon for comic and narrative relief can keep things moving.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    Avengers: Endgame
    This insane stable of A-list actors finally got to show their chops. Downey Jr. gives some of his best work during act one with Johansson, Renner, and Evans coming a close second to matching his pain as they try to lick their wounds.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    I Trapped the Devil
    The dread becomes so palpable that the implausibility of a wooden door with three tiny locks somehow containing the Devil actually proves itself scarier as a result.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Jared Mobarak
    Skin
    A just world would place [Bell] in the awards conversation, but ours will probably not give Skin the platform necessary for that to happen.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Jared Mobarak
    Little Woods
    Rather than pass judgment, Little Woods merely allows life to occur in its oft-depressive state of seeming futility. Thompson and James commendably imbue each character with a palpable fear that ensures their actions are beyond reproach.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Jared Mobarak
    Rafiki
    This is a contemporary slice of life drama that provides its central characters the agency with which to choose the existence they desire regardless of what cultural, societal, or familial traditions demand. These women aren’t merely bucking against the religious norms of gendered relationships, but the patriarchy at-large. They are here to be more than wives and mothers.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 58 Jared Mobarak
    Hellboy
    There’s a cake and eat it too attitude wherein this new iteration of Hellboy wants to simultaneously be trashy and dramatic.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    Stockholm
    As a comedy with a good-natured soul doing bad things to earn his surrogate brother freedom, Stockholm is a success.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Jared Mobarak
    The Wind
    Sutherland’s script is working on multiple levels while Tammi’s formal aesthetics reveal an artist in complete control of her vision.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    The Public
    Estevez isn’t afraid to swing for the fences and elicit some tears from empathetic audience members, but he’s also willing to stop himself short of full-on exploitation via senseless violence. That’s what makes The Public a success despite the convenient characters and constant paralleling showing the merit of second chances. Estevez never forgets the humanity he’s striving to spotlight.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Jared Mobarak
    Shazam!
    The final result isn’t a knock-out..., but it’s definitely entertaining. A lot of that success stems from the comedic rapport between Levi and Grazer with the former’s ability to portray Billy’s youthful innocence, frustration, and fear key to the whole’s authenticity.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    MS Slavic 7
    Those uninterested in cinema’s experimental and formal qualities probably won’t find themselves sitting down to be disappointed or bored by its very insular nature anyway. So those seeking it out will be the ones with the desire to embrace its unorthodox narrative style and subtle progressions.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 58 Jared Mobarak
    Finding Steve McQueen
    You probably won’t love Finding Steve McQueen, but that unyielding wholesomeness ensures you won’t be able to hate it either.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    The Kid
    We’re allowed a peek behind the scenes to witness the emotional toll this lifestyle wrought and realize that what we do is sometimes secondary to what we learn.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 91 Jared Mobarak
    Aniara
    Kågerman and Lilja bring Martinson’s poem to cinemas with a stark beauty both in its sci-fi production design and emotionally wrought performances.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Jared Mobarak
    Giant Little Ones
    Writer/director Keith Behrman knows exactly what he’s doing when introducing a variety of people along the sexuality spectrum in his latest film Giant Little Ones. He’s intentionally flooding his canvas so that we have no choice but to accept them all rather than turn our focus onto just one.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Jared Mobarak
    How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
    This trilogy secures our respect as a crowning achievement in animated cinema that should stand the test of time.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    Lords of Chaos
    Lords of Chaos the film ultimately could care less about the music when the psychology of this scene’s progenitors is what intrigues. So those expecting to learn about the genre will be sorely disappointed. This is about aesthetic, notoriety, and paranoia.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 42 Jared Mobarak
    Outlaws
    There’s no subversion of machismo then — just reinforcement.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Jared Mobarak
    Braid
    Peirone reverses the usual trend of providing answers so her audience can open its eyes, inundating us with more and more questions thanks to a full sensory overload of sight and sound instead. Time becomes malleable, danger but a brief interlude forgotten as quickly as it was born. She removes the pathways from one scene to another so we can find ourselves in the same bottomless rabbit hole as her characters.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    Then Came You
    There are some solid supporting performances in small dramatic doses (Koechner, Hochlin, and Walger) and comedic ones too (Jeong, Venskus, and Tituss Burgess do well in mostly thankless roles), but the topline trio is where Then Came You is at its best.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Jared Mobarak
    Piercing
    Pesce is meticulously constructing the perfect murder only to systematically dismantle it for devilish fun. Maybe it’s a spoiler to call Piercing a comedy, but that’s exactly what it is.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Jared Mobarak
    Tito and the Birds
    Just like Issa López did in Mexico with Tigers Are Not Afraid, Brazilians Gabriel Bitar, André Catoto, and Gustavo Steinberg have crafted Tito and the Birds as a powerful metaphor utilizing reality’s horrors to drive home a point too many have resigned themselves into ignoring.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Jared Mobarak
    The Standoff at Sparrow Creek
    The Standoff at Sparrow Creek isn’t about finding hope in a hopeless situation through a broken man willing to be the hero rather than villain. No, it wants to show the monstrousness of complicity and the helplessness of a conflict too far-gone to solve.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 58 Jared Mobarak
    King of Thieves
    Ignorance to technology is a running theme throughout both to earn easy laughs due to the ageist nature of the joke and intrigue as far as which man — if any — is in control. That probably won’t be enough to get some audiences on board what is a pretty straightforward genre film, but it’s enough to provide its own spin. Between that and the sheer joy of seeing these actors comment on their careers through these characters, a good time should be had.
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