Cinesilip 2025: Review of DREAMBOI: Trans Tenacity

October 29, 2025

Diwa (EJ Jallorina) is a transwoman who was a victim of trans hate at her workplace. A senior lawyer of their firm, Atty. Sylvia Quiambao (Meann Espinosa) complains to their HR about Diwa's using the women's restroom. The transphobic security guard (Tads Obach) abuses his authority to the point of humiliating Diwa every time she needs to go. Following a tip, Diwa had to go all the way down to Basement 6 to use the restroom there.

Because of a recent break-up, Diwa spurned the romantic overtures of her photographer workmate Maki (Migs Almendras). Instead, she turned to compact discs containing digital porn audio recordings by an artist named Dreamboi (Tony Labrusca). One night, while she was in the Basement 6 restroom, she overheard sounds of sexual ecstasy from the other cubicle. She realized it was actually her mysterious Dreamboi himself, in the flesh.  

The new Cinesilip Film Festival, featuring 7 new erotic films, all rated R-18, ran from October 22-28, 2025 in four Ayala Malls cinemas -- Trinoma, Market Market, Circuit Makati and Manila Bay. The one with the loudest buzz was "Dreamboi" because the MTRCB rated it X two times, and only after some cuts was it approved for commercial screening with an R-18.  It went on to dominate the festival awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director for Rodina Singh, and the Audience Choice awards. 

It was clearly apparent why "Dreamboi" dominated the technical awards, namely Cinematography by Malay Javier, Editing by Arnex Nicolas, Production Design by Chips Day Abando, and most especially, Sound by Immanuel Verona and John Buquid. From the very first scene and throughout, that loud reverberating bass sound and the percolating musical score (I can't believe that did not win!) can literally shake you to your very core. 

Tony Labrusca's Dreamboi may have been the title character, and his face was the only one in the poster. He and his soft porn scenes -- be they fantasy or reality -- may have taken up a lot of screen time, but really, he was not really the main point of the film. Nevertheless, Labrusca definitely gave his 100% in terms of smoldering looks and macho sexuality here. He projected this sexy attitude at all times, never letting go even if he was only in the background. 

This film highlighted a number of discriminatory practices that transwomen face everyday from narrow-minded conservatives around them. Diwa actually confronted Atty. Sylvia, albeit only in her mind, accusing her of being jealous of transwomen being free of menstruation and pregnancy. The bathroom issue is actually just minor as far as their problems go, as this trans hate can escalate to frank assault (that intense jeepney scene!) and even murder. 

Lead actress EJ Jallorina did very well in her breakthrough role, as Diwa was a challenging character with various subtle nuances. Aside from her, there were also a number of transwomen actresses in the cast, the most prominent being Iyah Mina as their mother hen of their boarding house -- Mama Guada. Her one main scene addressing her wards about their plight as transwomen being killed or erased was the heart and soul of the whole film. 6/10

Netflix: Review of THE DELIVERY RIDER: Autism in Action

October 29, 2025

Santo (Baron Geisler) is an autistic man who worked as a motorcycle delivery man for Ondamove. He kept pretty much to his usual routines, like taking photos of his deliveries once they reach their destination. He lived at home with his childhood friend, now a nurse and single mother Nichelle (Jennica Garcia). Her son Miro (Euwenn Mikaell) already considered Santo as his father, since his real father Bernardo (Joem Bascon) left them to live and work abroad.

This was a potent set-up for a dramatic film about an atypical family. It informed us about what high-functioning autistic people can do and how they could be employed in certain jobs. Honestly, I have yet to meet a delivery rider who obviously was on the spectrum like Santo. But in theory, as long as they knew how to ride a motorcycle, work the GPS and could engage with customers, they should be able to do the job, barring any major breaks in routines.

However, writer Henry King Quitain and director Lester Pimentel (in his feature film directorial debut) went beyond family drama and unexpectedly made a sharp turn to become a violent action film instead.  Santo and Miro inadvertently witnessed a murder during one of his deliveries, so the bad guys led by Roden (Jake Cuenca) went after them. Fortunately, Santo had inherited fighting skills from his late MMA champ father Jowell (Christian Vasquez). 

It was good to see a little more of Jennica Garcia, after her affecting supporting turn in "Sunshine" (2025), but she should be ready for the lead soon enough. Euwenn Mikaell is striking the iron while he is still the hottest male child actor after his major roles in "Firefly" (2023) and "Lolo and the Kid" (2024). Jake Cuenca was basically a one-dimensional crime kingpin here, but they did give him a bit of humanity before the end of the film.

The main highlight of this film was Baron Geisler, who showed off more versatility as a dramatic actor here, following "Doll House" (2022) and "Dearly Beloved" (2024). His action chops were still well-honed from TV series like "Iron Heart" (2022) and "Incognito" (2025). His portrayal of Santo's autism was consistent and empathetic, apparent from his facial tics, hand gestures and speech patterns. Santo's ability to fight off armed goons may be too unrealistic, but this committed performance will garner due acclaim. 5/10

Review of TRON: ARES: Projected Permanence

October 28, 2025

ENCOM and Dillinger Systems are in a race to figure out how to make digital constructs last more than their 29-minute limit before they disintegrate. Current Dillinger CEO Julian (Evan Peters) was pitching a perfect expendable soldier named Ares (Jared Leto) to his investors. Meanwhile, ENCOM CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) was in Julian Flynn's old station in Alaska looking through his floppy discs until she finally find the elusive "Permanence Code."

A story about a digital construct or AI in a humanoid form getting self-aware and going rouge against his programmer is not exactly a new story. In this case, Ares seemed to getting self-aware from his very introduction, showing interest in events happening in real life. When he was sent to hack into the ENCOM grid to search for Flynn's code, Ares gets distracted with memories about Eve Kim, her achievements and her family. 

Like the first "Tron" (1982) and its much-delayed sequel "Tron: Legacy" (2010), the main reason to watch this new film on the big screen are its artfully-futuristic neon-lit special effects. Dillinger was red, for authoritarianism and absolute control. ENRON was blue, for purity, freedom and choice. Those chase scenes around busy city streets were great to watch because of these coded lights and the roaring musical score by the Nine Inch Nails. 

I only knew Greta Lee from Celine Song's super-serene "Past Lives" (2023), so seeing her here in extreme action as Eve rode big motorcycles was quite a thrilling surprise. Evan Peter's Dillinger was quite the one-dimensional villain from the start, but he did have the honor of having Gillian Anderson play his mother Elisabeth (but she was criminally underused). Jodie Turner-Smith's Athena was an Amazon warrior in the Dora Milaje mode. 

Ever since he won his Oscar in 2014, it seemed like Jared Leto never got a positively-reviewed performance at all, as he was bashed for "Suicide Squad," "Justice League," and "Morbius." Not that this role as Ares was anywhere as challenging, but Leto was likable here with his thoughtful and restrained portrayal. The quiet scenes he shared with Jeff Bridges (as Kevin Flynn) bound his new character to the foundation of the franchise. 7/10

Netflix: Review of A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE: Inbound Insanity

October 26, 2025

One morning, an intercontinental ballistic missile of unknown origin was detected to be airborne and bound to hit the continental USA. Based on its trajectory, it was projected to directly hit the city of Chicago in the next 16 minutes. Their first response was to launch two ground-based interceptors at it from Fort Greely, Alaska. When those failed to engage, the alert level was elevated further up and the issue of preemptive retaliatory attacks comes up. 

This story was told in the point of view of three people at various levels of responsibility in such politico-military crisis. First was Capt. Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), the oversight officer for the White House Situation Room. Second was STRATCOM commander Gen. Anthony Brady (Tracy Letts) based in Nebraska. Finally, at the very top of the chain of command was the POTUS (Idris Elba) himself, who needed to give the final decision. 

This film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow (after a 7-year hiatus), from an original screenplay by former NBC News president Noel Oppenheim. Bigelow will always be remembered as the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director. This was for directing the tense Iraq War drama "The Hurt Locker" (2008), which also won Best Picture. Her next film was "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012) about the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden, which was also nominated for Oscars.

With this new film, Bigelow returns to this common theme of international conflict that she excelled in before. This time, the action is confined to US bases and Zoom meetings, as key American officials only had 16 minutes to make key decisions that will affect the whole world. Bigelow built up suspense as she showed these same 16 minutes from three vantage points, revealing more strategic details and personal drama as the story unfolded. 

Therefore, for each of the three chapters of this film, we are left in a cliffhanger as to what the final decision of the POTUS was. This was quite the major build up in the final chapter as Lt Comm Robert Reeves (Jonah Hauer-King) quickly briefed the POTUS (and us) about his three options, all of which will entail a major casualty count. Then after all that suspenseful triple build-up came a ending that will polarize viewers. Was that astute brilliance? or a frustrating cop-out? 8/10 

Mini-Reviews of ROOFMAN and GOOD FORTUNE: Inherent Integrity

October 24, 2025

ROOFMAN

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Writer: Derek Cianfrance, Kirt Gunn

To buy gifts for his daughter, Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) broke into MacDonald's stores through the roof for two years, before he was finally caught and incarcerated. He eventually used his smarts to break out of jail, but still could not see his kids. Meantime, he hid himself in the premises of a Toys R Us store in Charlotte. While bunking there, he noted the plight of single mother employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst) under her strict manager Mitch (Peter Dinklage).

It was amazing to find out that this new film was loosely based on the criminal activity of a real-life convicted robber named Jeffrey Manchester who escaped prison and actually hid out in a toy store. Throughout its 126 minute run time, writer-director Derek Cianfrance brought us from tearful family drama to violent crime action, which can be jarring. All the while, he still kept things light with an overall comedy flavor, given the toy store setting, the holiday motif, and Peter Dinklage playing Grumpy.

Despite the light general mood, playing Jeffrey Manchester was a tough vehicle for Channing Tatum as an actor, both physically and emotionally. Despite the illegal activities he had perpetrated, Tatum's Jeff remained likable enough that we may even hope he can get away with his crimes and live happily ever after with Leigh. Tatum channeled the vibes of Leonardo di Caprio's Frank Abagnale in "Catch Me If You Can" (2002), but with less sophistication. 7/10

GOOD FORTUNE

Director: Aziz Ansari

Writer: Aziz Ansari

Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) was a lowly angel with small wings, only assigned to alert people who text while driving to prevent accidents. One day, he saves the life of Arj (Aziz Ansari) and was drawn to monitor his unlucky life, taking in any odd jobs just to earn a living. Arj was down and out when lost his PA job with wealthy IT guy Jeff (Seth Rogan). Gabriel sincerely wanted to help Arj work find his own worth, so he broke the angel rules and revealed himself.

Frankly, when I first saw Keanu Reeves with tiny angel wings at the back, I thought this would be childishly corny. However, once I got into its groove in the first act, I was surely get hooked in by Reeve's disarming and delightful aw-shucks innocent charm. Even if he sported the same grim John Wick facial hair here, Reeves' performance as Gabriel was truly endearing, especially in those scenes where he was like a little boy being reprimanded by his superior Martha (Sandra Oh). 

Writer-director Aziz Aznari also stars as Arj in an underdog role that we can all identify with, yet this character definitely also had flaws. Arj may have been a victim at first, but turned out to be quite a jerk himself when the tables were turned. Seth Rogan's Jeff could easily had been the typical heartless rich guy here, but we could see that he was also a good man within. Keke Palmer was charming as labor advocate Elena, Arj's inspiration. 7/10

Review of WALONG LIBONG PISO: A Prickly Price to Pay

October 23, 2025

In 2007, Dante Balboa (Paolo Gumabao) was an up-and-coming actor starring in sexy films produced by Seiko Films with titles like "Karelasyon" and "Kasiping."  He had already received an award for his acting for his very first film. He was regularly being interviewed in TV talk shows. He regularly interacted with his fans online on Friendster. One night, while resting in his room after coming home from a guesting in a TV dance show, Dante received a call on his mobile phone from a fan, a lawyer named Rommel (Edward Solon). 

This film was basically a performance of the original play first staged just last August, caught on camera -- only one actor in one room for an hour and a half straight. Before we reached the main point of the story, first, we had to endure Dante's preening for his mirror, taking a cold shower, macho dancing, watching TV, chatting with his manager, or shouting to his mother. Several scenes were gratuitously sexualized, a queasy watch, definitely not for everyone. Anyhow, the nostalgic references to 2007 -- the bar phones, Friendster, The Buzz, etc. -- were fun to watch. 

Paolo Gumabao was the first actor to play Dante in the stage version, so he should already this part like the back of his hand. But since Dr. Balboa decided to shoot his debut feature in a single long continuous shot, Gumabao also had to get his blockings perfect, especially with his daring scenes. Kudos should also go to Edward Solon, the actor playing Atty. Rommel Gonzaga over the phone, as it was his good-natured and engaging voice that drew Dante in and got his trust. Despite the call being interrupted several times, Dante simply got hooked.

This film began with a disclaimer that any similarities between the characters and events of this film in real life are purely coincidental. However, exactly like the "fictional" Dante, Dr. Dante Balboa (2 PhD degrees -- one in Philippine Literature and one for Tourism and Hospitality) was also actually a professor at FEU in 2007 under his real name Elmer Anisco while also starring in sexy films in the aughts, thus earning him the nickname "The Educated Hunk." We see three movie posters of the real Dante Balboa on the walls of this bedroom. 

Because of this association, it would be fair to surmise that this "fictional" experience of Dante could likely be a real-life experience of Dr. Balboa as a young bold actor caught in the glare of the klieg lights, ripe to be victimized by unscrupulous predators. With his script, Balboa was basically criticizing the superficiality and hypocrisy that was rampant in Philippine showbiz, at least during his time at the turn of the millennium. He also took aim at his own foolishness and carelessness in order to give aspiring actors a fair warning about the blinding lure of fame. 4/10

 

 

Review of EVERYONE KNOWS EVERY JUAN: Sibling Squabbles

October 22, 2025

After the death of Mrs. Juaning Sevilla, her youngest daughter Miraquel (Alessandra de Rossi, age 41) took over the care of the old house with her husband Alfred (JM de Guzman). They had two helpers: the oddball maid Anna (Angeli Bayani), and the gardener Jacob (Kevin Miranda) whom Juaning was very fond of. On the day before her first death anniversary, the day of the town fiesta, her other five older adult children came over for a lunch reunion. 

The eldest was Tupe (Edu Manzano, age 70), a celebrity plastic surgeon with a teenage wife and a pet iguana. Second was Josie (Ruby Ruiz, age 64), a housewife who was now in an affair with a lesbian. Third was Rosalinda (Gina Alajar, age 66), who was currently running for town councilor. Fourth was Ramil (Ronnie Lazaro, age 67), a fanatic member of a religious cult. Fifth was Roel (Joel Torre, age 64), a hot-headed musician, the black sheep who left with their father. 

The scenario of estranged family members getting together after a parent's death is not exactly new. However, as conceptualized by lead star Alessandra de Rossi, she decided to direct this film in only one very long continuous take where the camera was in constant motion following the actors as they move from one location to another. This was certainly an ambitious undertaking for a director in only her second feature film after "My Amanda" in 2021.

De Rossi's cast was a formidable list of illustrious, award-winning dramatic actors. Surely, the continuous shot concept pressured them for perfection, as comedy was out of their comfort zone. There were no cuts. There was no room for error, lest they had to reshoot all over. This was solid ensemble work by the lead and supporting actors, along with the silly cameos (like Jaime Fabregas, Empoy Marquez, Jerald Napoles, Kim Molina).

Overall, watching this film was very entertaining, despite its rough spots in the execution of the continuous shot, like shaky camera, awkward focusing, erratic lighting.  Seeing their zany interactions, while struggling to keep a straight face at the funny jokes, was a lot of laugh-out-loud fun. Being a Pinoy family melodrama at its core, Carlo Enciso Catu's delightfully messy script also had bittersweet sibling confrontations for emotional sentimentality. 7/10

Review of BLACK PHONE 2: Vivid Visions of Victims

October 18, 2025

The original film recounts a series of kidnappings and murders of young boys perpetrated by a mysterious masked man dubbed "The Grabber" in North Denver, Colorado in 1978. Finney Blake (Mason Thames) was abducted by The Grabber and locked in a basement room. He had a sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) who manifested psychic abilities in her dreams.  With the help of the spirits of previous victims, Finney was eventually able to kill The Grabber. 

This sequel happens four years after the events of the first film. Finney was fighting back his bullies at school, while drowning out the trauma of his abduction by smoking weed at night. Gwen was having more vivid dreams in her sleep, where dead children were reaching out and asking her to find them. Ernesto (Miguel Mora), brother of Finney's best friend and Grabber victim Robin, asked Gwen for a date to a Duran Duran concert. 

After that emotional set-up, the more scary things happen when Finney, Gwen and Ernie were stranded at the Alpine Lake Camp by a blizzard. There were only four people left behind there -- camp supervisor Armando (Demian Bichir), his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas), employee Kenneth (Graham Abbey) and his Bible-thumping wife Barbara (Maev Beaty). Then the ghost of the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) came into the scene to whip up his mayhem.

This was a reunion of the three child actors -- Thames, McGraw and Mora (who played Robin before) from the first movie -- so it was great to see how they have matured in how they look and how they act over the four years since. There was more focus on McGraw in this sequel because it was Gwen who had vivid visions of the missing dead boys. She was also able to talk on the phone with her late mother Hope (Anna Lore) who used to work at the camp.

Totally changing from a true-crime type horror (with limited touches of the paranormal) into an all-out supernatural ghost-story type of horror (with scenes akin to demonic possession) could disappoint fans. The first film was widely-admired for its reality-based tension-building aspects. Since The Grabber was a ghost from the start, we are aware everything in this sequel was automatically supernatural. The flesh and blood threat of the first film trumped that. 5/10

Netflix: Review of THE TIME THAT REMAINS: Constant Champion

October 16, 2025

One night, 88 year old Filomena "Lilia" Reyes (Bing Pimentel) was shot in the abdomen in her home in Baguio City. The ER nurse Isabelle Pineda (Beauty Gonzales) told Ms. Lilia that it was a 30-ish man with long hair brought her, and assumed he was her son. However, the old woman teasingly told her that he was not her son, but her boyfriend Matias (Carlo Aquino). When they got comfortable with each other, Lilia began to tell Isabelle her life story.

This new film, directed and co-written by Adolfo Alix Jr., was mostly set in Baguio City. Lilia's story spanned decades starting from 1941 when the Japanese invaded and she was moved out of Baguio by her parents, and ended in 2018 when she was shot in her home. There were episodes in between, set in 1954, 1960, 1971, 1975, and 1986, when important stages in the epic love story between young Lilia (Jasmine Curtis-Smith) and Matias. 

There was a subplot about a senior policeman Inspector Rafael Angua, Jr. (Bembol Roco, Jr.), nicknamed "The Collector" in his precinct because he never solved a case. Angua suspected that they was dealing with a long cold case of a serial killer whose spree started since 1970s. This was all fine, except that the casting of 71 year-old Roco creates confusion because a scene showed him to be only a small child in the 1970s. 

Another subplot involved Ami (Cristine Reyes), the owner of the Black Cat Tattoo Studio. Her look was all Goth, in keeping with the eerie medieval castle ambience of her place of business. Old Lilia needed two units of type A-positive blood. Matias knew Ami kept blood in bags in her refrigerator, and lo and behold, two units of this supposedly rare blood type was right there in the very front! How she got them was never explained. 

The acting performances of the lead cast could not be faulted, especially Aquino, Pimentel, and the ever-ravishing Curtis-Smith. Aquino was hampered by the ugly wig he had to wear as Matias. He never changed his thick mullet with bowl-cut bangs hairstyle, ever since he was a native warrior during the Spanish era! Because he did not vary his do to fit the times, he was suspiciously distinct, such that Angua even recognized him from a photograph taken in the 1970s.

The locations Alix chose to shoot in were very scenic and appropriate for the story he was telling, from Lilia's beautiful houses in Baguio, the old mansion with the tall corn fields in Batangas, to the hanging coffins of Sagada. It was too bad that he stuck with time-worn cliches -- shapeshifting into a black cat, sleeping in a coffin, melting in the sun, etc... -- for the creature Matias was to be, coming off as unintentionally funny in the process. 5/10

Review of THE KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (2025): Cold and Camp

October 16, 2025

It was 1983 in an Argentina still under a military junta. Luis Molina (Tonatiuh), a gay man working as a window dresser, was imprisoned for doing indecent acts with a minor. In prison, he was assigned to share the cell of political prisoner Valentin Arregui (Diego Luna). To keep the mood light in their cell, Molina told the story of her favorite movie "Kiss of the Spider Woman" starring his favorite actress Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez) in a dual lead role.

This film written and directed by Bill Condon is an adaptation of the 1992 stage musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by Terrence McNally. That musical was in turn an adaptation of a 1976 novel by Argentine writer Manuel Puig. The novel had already been adapted into a 1985 dramatic film by Hector Babenco, one of the first LGBTQ-themed films nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actor at the Oscars.  William Hurt won as Best Actor.

The two films told basically the same story of the book, with a different spin on the ending. The main difference between the two films was the nature of the movie that Molina was telling Valentin in prison.  In the original movie, it was a wartime love story starring Leni Lamaison (Braga) as the femme fatale girlfriend of a German Nazi officer. Braga also portrayed the titular Spider Woman in a second unrelated story Molina told Valentin on his final night.  

In the new musical version film, the brightly-lit, glossy, and colorful movie scenes looked very different from the actual dark, dank and drab prison scenes. Jennifer Lopez went all out to play the actress Ingrid Luna and her two bombastic characters in the movie -- the alluring magazine publisher Aurora and the legendary village-protector Spider Woman.  Lopez is attracting Oscar buzz again, but this was mostly a song-and-dance performance piece, not much acting.

Another big difference was that the actors playing the cellmates were also playing roles in the Ingrid Luna movie. Tonatiuh played both Molina and Aurora's personal assistant Kendall, while Diego Luna played both Valentin and the dashing photographer Armando. These two actors show off their versatility here in scenes of extremely different nature -- engaging JLo in campy musical numbers, as well as each other in the very serious prison scenes. 7/10

Review of QUEZON: Commonwealth Chameleon

October 13, 2025

This film about Manuel Luis Quezon has been highly-anticipated ever since it was announced as the third film of the "Bayani-verse" trilogy by director Jerrold Tarog. Starting with "Heneral Luna" (2015) and "Goyo" (2018) set during the Philippine Revolution of 1896-98, Tarog's third installment will take a significant time-jump to the 1930s, tackling the story of the rise to power of the charismatic politician who would be elected President of the entire Philippines. 

The present generation of Filipinos have a shallow knowledge about Quezon -- his name, the province and the city named after him, the P20 bill and coin, his advocacy for the Philippine language and the Philippine Commonwealth of which he was the first President. This new biographical film paints a multifaceted portrait of this complex man by detailing the conflicts he had with his contemporary political personalities on the way to the presidency.  

The first conflict was a fictionalized one -- Quezon vs. Joven Hernando. The fictional character of Joven Hernando is the string that connected all three films of the trilogy as he wrote about their lives as a journalist and as their friend. Hernando, now played as a middle age man by Cris Villanueva, had just his newspaper called Alerta closed down, and he believed that none other that Quezon himself caused that to happen. 

The second conflict was between Quezon and Sergio Osmena. While Quezon was the Senate President (following his role in the passage of the Jones Law of 1916 that put the Philippines en route to independence), Osmena, played by in a simpering manner by Romnick Sarmenta, was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Their scenes together had an unexpectedly comic tone as their relationship was compared to a bickering married couple. 

The third conflict was between Quezon and American Governor-General Leonard Wood. Wood is played by Scottish actor Iain Glen, more widely known as Ser Jorah Mormont in the HBO series "Game of Thrones." He was sent to determine if the Philippines was ready for independence. Quezon felt insulted when Wood called him an "unscrupulous chameleon," and tried to discredit the American even if it meant getting retired Emilio Aguinaldo involved. 

The fourth conflict was between Quezon and Aguinaldo (still played with intensity by Mon Confiado), who actually ran against each other in a heated first national presidential election in 1935. As early as back then, underhanded tactics were already being used. Two of this film's most memorable scenes happen in this chapter -- Aguinaldo's campaign parade in Malolos, Bulacan, and the stressful presidential mudslinging face-off in Bagac, Bataan.

Tarog also touched on early Filipino filmmaking with the character of Nadia (Therese Malvar), Hernando's daughter, Quezon's god-daughter. She was an aspiring filmmaker whom Quezon commissioned to create campaign short films for him. Nadia's films were silent and in black and white as she was a fan of Murnau and Lang. Quezon also namedropped Harris and Tait, producers of "Zamboanga" (1927), Americans with top-of-the-line movie equipment then.

Jericho Rosales was an inspired choice to play the charismatic president, who spoke, argued and cursed with oratorical flair and passion. This film was certainly not romanticized nor haigographic.  Rosales played him as domineering, devious, dishonest to achieve his noble goal of independence. In so doing, he inadvertently promoted a toxic political culture that still pervades even almost century hence. Rosales's Quezon was fiercely egotistical up to his ultimate declaration of "I am the Philippines!" before the final fade to black. 

With this final installment, Tarog continues the high technical, production and entertainment value, signature of the whole trilogy. Cinematography, production design, hair and make-up, and musical scoring were all top-notch.  As before, there were lots to learn about the less well-known details about the country's political scene during that time. Don't leave right away after the last scene as Tarog inserts an exciting mid-credits surprise. 9/10