Upstream: Review of BENEDETTA: Sisterly Scandal

November 15, 2021

In the 17th century in the city of Pescia, a girl from a well-to-do merchant family was offered by her parents to the Convent of the Theatines to be nun. For the next 18 years, Sister Benedetta would frequently have vivid visions of Jesus Christ talking to her or fighting for her. One day, a peasant girl named Bartolomea was put under her guidance.  When Benedetta later manifested stigmata, she promoted in position, as her relationship with her postulant became more scandalous. Meanwhile, the Black Plague ravaged the rest of Italy. 

During his heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven was notorious for the salaciousness of films such as "Basic Instinct" (1992) and "Showgirls" (1995). This year, at a ripe old age of 83, Verhoeven is back with another sexually-charged feature film which will be added to this infamous list. This new film courts even more controversy because it dared to tackle a story of sapphic sexuality happening within the consecrated confines of a Catholic convent, and this was supposed to be based on a real-life person. 

When it premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d'Or, this film raised a major ruckus because of several provocative scenes which can easily be labelled as sacrilegious or blasphemous. Of course, the sexuality of nuns alone was already taboo topic in itself. Showing two nude nuns engaging in carnal pleasures with each other took this to a whole new level. Showing Bartolomea use a little statue of the Virgin Mary to bring Benedetta to ecstasy simply blasted everything through the roof. 

That short controversial scene of Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene on the lips that doomed Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) was nothing next to what Jesus was doing here in Benedetta's visions. He was a swashbuckling swordsman on horseback chopping off the head of Benedetta's rapist. He was hanging on the cross, and asked Benedetta to remove his loincloth, and then some. These disturbing scenes were very difficult to sit through for Christians, but I suspect may actually be quite humorous for atheists. 

This was an elegantly-shot film by cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie, with an evocative musical score by Anne Dudley. It felt like Pasolini's "The Decameron" (1971) and Annaud's "The Name of the Rose" (1986). As he criticized organized religion, Verhoeven kept us guessing to the end about the authenticity of Benedetta's divinity. The lead actresses Virginie Efira and Daphne Patakia were beautiful and fearless, as veteran actors Charlotte Rampling (as the old Abbess Felicita) and (Lambert Wilson) as the Nuncio gave impactful support.

Netflix: Review of RED NOTICE: Extravagant Egghunt

November 13, 2021

An Egyptian billionaire was willing to pay $300 million to whoever could bring him three golden eggs from Cleopatra's tomb which were now located in three different places. Notorious art thieves Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) and his main competitor the Bishop (Gal Gadot) are both aiming to get all three together. However, FBI special agent and criminal profiler John Hartley was also hot on their heels, as well as Interpol Inspector Das (Rity Arya).   

This had all the ingredients for a great adventure film. The budget seemed to be all out, as the story globetrotted to different locations, with all the fancy stunts with helicopters and vintage cars. It combined the Nazi archeological aspects of the "Indiana Jones" films with the elegant heist plots of the "Oceans" films. The three main stars were definitely A-list, all at the top of their game as headliners of their respective box-office hits. 

These three stars had roles right in their comfort zones. Dwayne Johnson is always the correct choice for the alpha male, swashbuckling action hero. Ryan Reynolds is right at home being the wiseass, wise-cracking funny-man, with pop culture joke in practically every other line. Gal Gadot was practically Diana Prince here, a glamorous, skilled and intelligent Amazon -- only she was working on the wrong side of the law this time around. 

As is expected in most heist films involving competing criminals, there would definitely be dangerous alliances and double-crossing schemes. This one had these aspects in spades, with surprising twists and turns all the way to the very end. The easy chemistry of the three stars together made these twists land properly. There were very funny jokes peppered all throughout, mostly hits than misses (for me, anyway). 

There were plenty of contrivances in the incredible plot, too many strokes of luck for the three main characters to be believable. Their plans just so happen to fall into place too perfectly, you just did not exactly whose plan was working and whose was not. There was a silly cameo where the guest star referred to his previous higher-profile cameo in another TV series. Overall, this was one likable, thoroughly entertaining popcorn film. 6/10. 

Upstream: Review of RABID: Eerie, Entertaining Episodes

November 13, 2021

This new project is director Erik Matti's third film this year after "A Girl and a Guy" and his prestigious Venice Filmfest entry "OTJ: The Missing 8." It is an anthology of four short films with scripts written (or co-written) by Michiko Yamamoto. According to Matti, the stories were inspired by the feelings of madness brought about by the Covid pandemic. 

The excellent technicals for this production deserve mention: cinematography by Neil Derrick Bion, film editing by Mica Roca, production design by Shiel Calde and sound by Lamberto Casas Jr. and Pietro Marco Javier. Unlike the "Shake, Rattle and Roll" films of the past, there were no big name actors in the cast, but these were still entertaining nonetheless.

Kami Lang Ba Pwede Malasin

Mayette (Chesca Diaz) was the mom of a well-to-do family who took in a homeless old woman (Jay Glorioso) offered her food and shelter. As a result of this act of charity, her life and those of her husband Carlo (Jake Macapagal) and daughter Lizzie (Ammera Johara) all turned upside down. Can Lizzie's boyfriend Dexter (Kent Gonzales) help? 

This first episode instantly set the creepy mood for the whole film with its gloomy atmosphere and unsettling story. There is subtle dark comedy that underlies the dialogues and situations, which will resurface in the other episodes. Veteran theater actress Jay Glorioso dominated this episode with her campy portrayal of the Lola. 7/10

Iba Pa Rin ang Karne

Jane (Pam Gonzales) had contracted a condition which caused her behavior to turn into that of a wild animal, so she had to be chained up to be restrained. Her husband Melvin (Vance Larena) patiently took care of her, trying to force feed her with a concoction her vegetables which was supposed to help her get well.

This two-hander episode had the most simple story line among the four, but it had the most complicated set design. There was only one setting in this one, an underground cave which looked like a basement storage facility with various junk. Unlike the other episodes, this one had more sentimental drama, than horror or humor. 5/10

Shit Happens

Slacker young nurse Becky (Ayeesha Cervantes) took on a job as unit nurse in a small hospital while waiting for her visa to arrive. However, Luzviminda (Ube Lola) the comatose patient in Rm 207, had other plans for her. Meanwhile, her fellow nurse Reggie (Ricci Rivero) and her boyfriend Walter (Brace Arquiza) try to get her out of trouble. 

As a true horror comedy, this episode had to be the most over-the-top of the four. It took its time to build up steam at first, but once the main action between Becky and Luzviminda kicked in, the absurdity of the situation was a lot of fun to follow, all the way to that LOL shock ending. I did not know Ube Lola before this but she will be hard to forget. 8/10

HM?

Single mom Princess (Donna Cariaga) was laid off from work during the pandemic. In order to make money to raise her son Nico (Ynigo Delen), she tried selling her home-cooked viands online, but her cooking was not any good. However, when she used a secret ingredient she learned from a pop-up ad, her kare-kare turned into an instant sensation among foodies. 

With her self-deprecating sense of humor, Donna Cariaga was perfectly cast as the problematic woebegone Princess. Child actor Ynigo Delen excelled with an intense performance that certainly made this episode most harrowing. This had the eeriest "Twilight Zone"-feels for me with that stressful build-up to that absolutely terrifying climax. 8/10. 

Netflix: Review of PASSING: Pretense and Prejudice

November 12, 2021

Irene (Tessa Thompson) was a light-skinned black woman who could pass as white, but she married a black man Brian Redfield (Andre Holland). With her blonde hair and even lighter skin, Clare (Ruth Negga) had actually been passing as white for some time, and even married an unsuspecting white man John Bellew (Alexander Skarsgard).

Clare admitted to Irene that she missed being a black woman and envied Irene's family life in Harlem. Meanwhile, Irene was very insecure about Clare's beauty and was even jealous about Clare's rapport with Brian. Irene's psychological breakdown eventually led their friendship to eventually become very strained.  

This film depicted a race issue I had not been aware of till now -- that of light-skinned black folk being able to pass as white in order to avoid the discriminatory practices American society subjected to blacks. The time setting of this film was in the 1920s when the prejudice against African-American folks was still very strong, so this makes Clare's boldness to pretend to be white all the more seem foolhardy, yet remarkably impressive. 

Despite being mixed race, Tessa Thompson still had some decidedly black features, which made her passing white not too convincing. While she was not entirely white-looking as well, Ruth Negga looked very comfortable as Clare. Even if it seems incredulous how a bigoted white man can unknowingly marry and stay married with Clare for a significant time, Negga's confident performance sold the illusion. 

I was surprised to learn after watching the film that writer-director Rebecca Hall is actually also half-black, even if she looked totally white. As an actress, Hall was always cast as a white character as well. Knowing about this interesting intersection of her real life situation and her fictional story makes this film more meaningful to watch. Maybe Hall should have gone further and cast herself as Clare since she could definitely pass as white without much makeup. 

The whole look of the film was very elegant, with the black and white grading seeming to reflect the underlying theme of racial fluidity. The beautiful costumes, hair styling and make-up also contribute to the credibility of the contrasting characters of Thompson and Negga. The pace of the storytelling was deliberately slow and the acting was very restrained, which may try the patience of some viewers. The ending is jarring and certainly unpredictable. 6/10.

Vivamax: Review of MAHJONG NIGHTS: Guileless Gambling

November 12, 2021

After a long break owing to pandemic restrictions, Esther (Mickey Ferriols) invited her very good friends Wylo (Arnell Ignacio), Ason (Liz Alindogan) and Amparo (Jamilla Obispo) to get-together and play their usual rounds of mahjong at her house. Occasionally, Esther's pretty chef daughter Alexa (Angeli Khang), her problematic common-law husband Leo (Jay Manalo) or Amparo's driver Gaspar (Sean de Guzman) would take turns to play. 

Sex, not mahjong, was the priority of the film, and it was all just out there, with no effort for subtlety or artistry. Most of the action in Alexa's bedroom (who never locked her doors) or in Amparo's spacious mini-van. There was even one daring scene literally on the mahjong table. These encounters just happened totally randomly, with no build-up whatsoever to make sense why the hook-up had to happen. This lack of logical motivation would hound the film up to its over-the-top ending.

Ingenue Angeli Khang gave it her all for her feature film debut in a lead role. While her delivery of lines and acting skills were obviously still quite raw, she had no qualms about baring her ample bodily assets and  the camera was really showing everything up close. Bold as she was, her innocent face still looked so vulnerable, certain sensual scenes (especially the gratuitous shower scene and those squeamish molestation scenes) felt very uncomfortable to watch. 

Despite the dad bod, Jay Manalo still exudes lasciviousness as effortlessly as he did back in his heyday. Jamilla Obispo shows that she still had the allure she had when she made her debut in director Law Fajardo's first skin flick "Ex-Deal" (2011). Sean de Guzman does what's expected of him as the lusty stud du jour of 2021. It seems theater actor Tad Tadioan just reprised his role as a strong simpleton in TP's play "Katsuri" for his role here as Big Boy. Mickey Ferriols, Arnel Ignacio and Liz Alindogan barely even mattered in the main story at all. 

With the names of Law Fajardo as director and Byron Bryant as screenwriter, I expected more from this project than this poor final product. Despite the mention of mahjong in the title, the games did not really matter. There was disappointingly nothing much that happened when the games were ongoing. We hardly even see the action of the tiles on the table while the boring characters were humorlessly chatting away about their mundane lives. So much potential for provocative conversation or exciting strategizing here, as it was in "Crazy Rich Asians," but this did not materialize. 1/10.

Review of DUNE (2021 vs. 1984): Spectacular Space Saga about Spice

November 11, 2021

"Dune" was a best-selling, award-winning 1965 science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert. The title was from its setting, the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the precious spice central to its plot.  This was the first book of a saga, followed by "Dune Messiah" (1969), "Children of Dune" (1976), "God Emperor of Dune" (1981), "Heretics of Dune" (1984) and "Chapterhouse: Dune" (1985). After Herbert's death in 1986, his son Bryan Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson continued the book franchise up to the present.

"Dune" had also influenced several games, music, comic books, television series, and of course, films. The complexity of the novel did not make the transition to film easy, evidenced by a number of failed attempts. The first film version was finally completed in 1984 by co-written and directed by David Lynch. It had bad reviews from the critics and performed poorly at the box office, with Lynch even disowning the final cut of the film. This pandemic year of 2021, director Denis Villeneuve decided to release his remake to theaters only. 

Disclosure: I watched the 2021 version first before I got to watch the 1984 version. I did try to watch the 1984 version on videotape decades ago, but I did not get it, so I could not get myself to get to finish it. This time around, because the complex story was much clearer thanks to the 2021 version, I was finally able to watch the 1984 version in toto. Of course, it was unavoidable to compare the colorful, campy 1984 version to the controlled, cerebral 2021 version while I was watching it. 

It was the year 10191. The Emperor of the known universe had assigned Duke Leto of House Atreides of the planet Caladan to administer the important desert planet of Arrakis, in place of the House Harkonnen. Arrakis was the only source of the spice melange, which was very crucial for space travel. However lately, the native people of Arrakis, the blue-eyed Fremen, were beginning to assert their rights, so the first thing the Duke had to do was to reach out to their leader Stilgar in order to establish a peaceful bond with them. 

The central character is Paul, son of Duke Leto and his Bene Gesserit concubine, Lady Jessica. The Bene Gesserit are an exclusive sisterhood of women who developed an ability to compel anyone to obey their will with the use of their special voice. Because he was being trained by his mother in the Bene Gesserit ways, Paul had been having visions of Arrakis, the bloody conflicts they will face, and the Freman girl he will meet. When Paul was settling in in Arrakis, there was an attempt made on his life that disturbed the shaky peace.

Right off the bat, one can readily see that Denis Villeneuve had imbued his vision of "Dune" with gorgeous-looking camera work and spectacular computer-generated effects. The pace of his storytelling was deliberately slow (as he is wont to do), but the momentum did not sag. The multi-dimensional story was surprisingly easy to follow and understand, despite the inherently complicated plot with multiple planets and peoples. The acting was generally subdued across the board, in consonance with the solemn mood of the film. This is not an action film.

Timothee Chalamet (as Paul) and Oscar Isaac (as Duke Leto) both exuded a distinguished noble air with their restrained performances. Rebecca Ferguson looked too young and nervous here to be the powerful Lady Jessica. Jason Momoa looked effortlessly heroic in his fight scenes as the dashing warrior Duncan Idaho. Zendaya was enigmatic as the Fremen girl Chani in Paul's dreams. Stellan Skarsgaard and Dave Bautista were particularly less garish than how the Harkonnens were portrayed before, but not any less sinister.

Beside the elegance of Villeneuve film, the 1984 original film by David Lynch, with its outlandish sets, props,costumes, hairstyles and make-up, all the atrociously over-the-top acting of the cast and clunky special effects. Lynch did emphasize one essential characteristic of that future world as per Herbert, which was the banning of computers and artificial intelligence. It also had a scene which showed how the "brainy" Guild Navigator "folding space" under the influence of melange, which was not shown at all in the sequel. 

Kyle McLachlan made his feature film debut as Paul, with European actors Francesca Annis and Jurgen Prochnow as his parents. Richard Jordan played Duncan Idaho who barely did anything in this version, but we see more of Patrick Stewart as the Artrides's lieutenant Gurney Halleck (played by Josh Brolin in the current version). The revered Max Van Sydow played the Imperial Ecologist Doctor Kynes, a role which was gender- and race-reversed and expanded in the person of actress Sharon Duncan-Brewster. 

We saw so much more of the villainous Harkonnens in the 1984 version, played with caricaturish glee by Kenneth McMillan (as the Baron), Paul Smith (as the crazy Beast Rabban) and a scene-stealing Sting (as Feyd-Rautha, a character not seen in the 2021 version). McMillan's portrayal of the Baron in 1984 was far-more memorable as it was visually disgusting, with the right side of his face full of grotesque blebs and pustules, and his extremely obese body floating around the room like a balloon. 

This new film covered only the story of the first hour and a half of the 1984 original film. This means that whole 45 minutes final act will have to wait for Villeneuve's sequel (if it will come). That is the part where we see more of the Fremens, like Stilgar (Everett McGill in 1984, Javier Bardem in 2021) and Chani (Sean Young in 1984, Zendaya in 2021); as well as meet Paul's precocious younger sister Alia (Alicia Witt in 1984). The sequel should also get to show the giant sandworms in battle action, surely to be executed much better than it was in 1984. 

Dune (2021): 9/10

Dune (1984): 6/10. 

Netflix: Review of LOVE HARD: A Catfishing Conundrum

November 9, 2021

Natalie Bauer was a writer who wrote a successful regular column about her dating misadventures. However, she felt different about this latest guy whom she met in a dating app -- Josh Lin from Lake Placid, New York. They seem to hit it off so well in their regular chats, such that Natalie impulsively decided to fly cross-country to give Josh a big surprise that Christmas. Upon arriving at Josh's house, Natalie also received a big surprise of her own. 

Catfishing means misrepresenting oneself by creating a different persona on social media. This darkly delightful film tackles this phenomenon at various levels. Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) catfished Natalie (Nina Dobrev) by posting photos of his more handsome friend Tag (Darren Barnet) instead of his own. Natalie in turn resorted to telling lies about herself in order to gain Tag's favor, which illustrated that catfishing can also be done in real life, not only online. 

All the lying in this film was only made more tolerable by the likability of the two lead actors. Nina Dobrev played Natalie with typical millennial pretentiousness, yet she was still quite charming so we do not totally dislike her for it. Jimmy O. Yang played Josh with dry wit and self-effacement, making it tough to fault him for deceiving Natalie with fake photos. Whether they actually had romantic chemistry between each other, now that is the harder sell.

The best parts of this Christmas movie are the parts involving Josh's loving parents, Bob (James Saito) and Barb (Rebecca Staab) and grandmother June (Althea Kaye). Their happiness and affection for Josh felt very genuine, such their scenes did feel quite emotional. I liked their great Christmas spirit with the fancy house decorations and their caroling tradition. Harry Shum Jr. went a tad over with his competitive older brother Owen bit. 

Even if this was handled in a light comical way by Costa Rican director Hernan Cortez, the underlying theme of this film about lying in relationships was very disturbing. While watching, we witness how Josh and Natalie's lies just kept on piling up one over the other, affecting them and everyone around them. We all felt how these falsehoods reached that inevitable tipping point when there was already no easy way of extricating themselves out.   6/10. 

Netflix: Review of THE HARDER THEY FALL: Ornery Outlaws

November 9, 2021

10-year old Nat Love witnessed his parents murdered in front of him. A cross was carved into his forehead by their killer. Years later, Nat was a notorious outlaw riding with his partners-in-crime Bill Pickett and Jim Beckwourth. He was trying to reconnect with his ex-lover, Mary Fields, who was running a chain of saloons with her right-hand man Cuffee. In his last caper, Nat stole money that belonged to a rival outlaw boss Rufus Buck, who had just been sprung from captivity by his gang led by Trudy Smith and Cherokee Bill. 

This was an auspicious debut feature for British musician Jeymes Samuel, who goes by the stage name The Bullitt. He goes for Tarantino-esque techniques of stylized violence, marked with a dark sense of humor, set to the beat of hiphop and reggae flavored musical soundtrack, anachronistic to the period being portrayed onscreen. The dry expansive American frontier vistas, the contrasting colors of Redwood City and Marysville, the locomotive on the train tracks, were all captured in eye-catching images by cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare Jr.

While he did creditably well in the central role of Nat Love, I felt Jonathan Majors was constantly being upstaged by his other flashier co-stars in supporting roles who had more powerful screen presences than him. Zazie Beetz positively sizzled as Stagecoach Mary, a bigger leap forward from her breakthrough as Domino in "Deadpool 2" (2018). Danielle Deadwyler stole all her comical scenes as androgynous tough guy Cuffee. Veteran Delroy Lindo exuded respectable dignity as legendary lawman Bass Reeves.

Ironically, the actors portraying the antagonists were the higher profile actors. From "Concrete Cowboy" (2020), we knew Idris Elba was a realistic cowboy. With his piercing light-blue eyes, he commands all his scenes as evil Rufus Buck even with the minimum of dialogue. Regina King, an Academy Award winning actress for "If Beale Street Could Talk" (2018), came off very strong as the ruthlessly intimidating Trudy Smith. LaKeith Stanfield, Oscar nominee for "Judas and the Black Messiah" (2020), was charismatic and actually likable as Cherokee Bill. 

This film is remarkable because it is a true-blue Western which had a principal cast of black actors. Even if the story by director-writer Jeymes Samuel is totally fictional, the names he used for most of the main characters -- Nat Love, Rufus Buck, Cherokee Bill, Stagecoach Mary, Cathay Williams, Bass Reeves -- were all real people who existed in Wild West history. Watching this film will make you want to read up not only about the existence of black cowboys, but also on the real stories of these people behind the names. 7/10. 

HBO GO: Review of THE SUICIDE SQUAD (2021): Shooting Starfish

November 6, 2021

The Suicide Squad is a ragtag group of super-criminals assembled by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) for the US government to take on deadly black-ops missions in exchange for shorter hail time. This time around, the new team of criminals from the Belle Reve prison were sent the island nation of Corto Maltese to infiltrate and destroy a Nazi laboratory called Jotunheim which was conducting mysterious experiments called "Project Starfish," involving an alien creature that can kill and take over mass groups of people.  

The first attempt to introduce this DC Comics group of super-villains in a film in by David Ayer in 2016 (MY REVIEW).  While Margot Robbie stood out as Harley Quinn and Will Smith looked cool as Deadshot, the rest of the squad felt miscast, from Jai Courtenay as Capt. Boomerang to Jared Leto as the Joker. The rated PG-13 treatment of the violent material did not go over well with critics who shot it down early with negative reviews. However, audiences still lapped it up at the box office. It surprisingly even won an Oscar for Hairstyling and Make-up, the first DCEU film to do so. 

This new reboot still had Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, but the rest of the cast is new. The team was led by a reluctant Bloodsport (Idris Elba), and was composed of ruthless killer Peacemaker (John Cena at his most obnoxious best), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) with her ability to make rats obey her will, Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) with his serious mommy-issues, and a man-eating hybrid King Shark (Sylvester Stallone, in a most memorable role). 

Despite being a very violent film, director James Gunn did not shy from using bright colors. Harley Quinn had a exhilarating escape from a building full of goons dressed in a blood-red gown. Polka-Dot Man produced pastel polka dots, but these cute innocuous disks had great destructive power in them. The pink and powder blue giant Starro the Conqueror rampaging through the Corte Maltese town like a giant kaiju Patrick Starr, while shooting out multitude miniatures of itself from its axillae, was quite a sight to behold. 

Gunn, brought in from the rival Marvel company, where he directed "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014) and its sequel (2017), both massive box-office hits, has certainly proven that he can manage films about motley crews of lesser-known super-beings and make them into a cohesive team. This new Suicide Squad film had more graphic scenes of blood-splattering gore, but its tongue-in-cheek humor kept all the team members, ruthless killers as they were, quite likable, even endearing. 8/10.

Vivamax: Review of BARUMBADINGS: Grilling Gay Gangsters

November 5, 2021

Even as young orphan kids from the local DSWD center, Jopay (Lance Obero), Izzy (Janrey Torres) and Rochelle (Carlo Mendoza) always got involved in fights against bullies who teased them about their being cross-dressing gays. One day, they met a fashion designer Mother Joy (Joel Torre) who tried to get them into the glamor of gay beauty pageants instead. The three young ones gave it a try but ultimately decided that pageant life is not for them.

As grown men, the three (now played by Mark Anthony Fernandez, Jeric Raval and Baron Geisler respectively) joined a gang of gay assassins led by Queenpin (John "Sweet" Lapus) who targeted men who treated gays badly. One day, there was a series of murders against prominent gay people being perpetrated by an anti-gay group called the Butchers led by Buchi (Cecil Paz). Seeing Mother Joy on the list of targets, they immediately jumped into action.

The age gaps of three child actors looked too big, so that their transition into the three adult actors was not smooth. Jeric Raval looked too much older to be the middle child Izzy. Mark Anthony Fernandez underplayed Jopay, as Baron Geisler overplayed Rochelle. Joel Torre must have welcomed this flamboyant role as Mother Joy so much, he gave it his award-winning all. John Sweet Lapus chewed his scenes as Queenpin for all their worth. Character actress Cecil Paz gets a meaty role to sink her teeth into as Buchi. 

With a comical title like "Barumbadings," this film may give an initial impression of being a senseless silly comedy about gay men. However, it actually raised a lot of serious questions about gays. Should gay men just remain quiet and accept society's taunts against them, or should they actively fight back against their tormentors? Are gays indeed the balancing force in the world, providing the softness and gentility in the steely cold world these days? 

It would also touch about the trauma a number of gays inflict on women whom they marry to save face and hide their gayness. There was also a significant time talking about how lesbians and how their problems do not get as much public attention than what gays get. Are the gays getting too noisy with their self-interests, or are they still as deprived as they think? Writer-director Darryl Yap provokes more thoughts again on his 10th project this year alone. 5/10. 

Netflix: Review of ARMY OF THIEVES: A Safecracker's Story

November 1, 2021

Nerdy German clerk Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert  had been posting videos about his talent in safe-cracking but no one was watching. Until one day, he received a comment on his latest video inviting him to join a safecracking competition. Upon winning, he was offered to join an elite group of thieves who needed a safecracker on their next target -- to crack three legendary safes (namely the Rhinegold in Paris, the Valkyrie in Prague and the Siegfried in St. Moritz) before they were decommissioned by their new owner.  

We first saw the nervous safecracker played by German actor Matthias Schweighöfer earlier this year in Zack Snyder's "Army of the Dead" about zombies overrunning Las Vegas. His name in the first movie was Ludwig Dieter, and in this prequel we see how poor flustered Sebastian gained his reputation in safecracking and how he made it to the US to join Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) and company. Since we know he will make it out of Europe in the end, there was actually no suspense how this movie will end.

The bulk of this film was how Sebastian settled into the notorious criminal gang (not really an "army" as the title states) that got him. His main contact was the elegant master thief Gwendolyn Starr (Nathalie Emmanuel), with whom Sebastian instantly developed a big crush. However, Gwendolyn seemed to be romantically involved with their jealous alpha-male leader Brad Cage (Stuart Martin). The other members of the team were ace tech expert Korina Dominguez (Ruby O. Fee) and their getaway driver Rolf (Guz Khan). 

The names of the safes were based on the operatic works of classical musician Richard Wagner and his Ring Cycle based on Norse mythology. The Rheingold was about the greedy Neibelung dwarf Alberich who crafted powerful ring out of gold. The Valkyrie was Brunhilde, a valkyrie ordered to kill her half-brother, Sigmund.  Siegfried is about its title character, the son of Sigmund who slayed a dragon and married a former valkyrie. While interesting, these tales were merely soundbytes to fill the dead air while Sebastian was cracking each safe.

To make things a little less predictable than it really was, there was an obsessed Interpol cop Delacroix (Jonathan Cohen) who was hot on their heels. The close calls somehow give the capers a bit of suspense about the fates of other members of the gang, but the safecracking scenes can feel repetitive and too lengthy. Beforehand, we already knew Sebastian will crack all the safes and make it out safely, yet star-director Matthias Schweighöfer was able to tell his story with the essential thrill of the heist somehow still remaining intact. 6/10.