Vivamax: Review of 69+1: Polyamorous Predicaments

September 3, 2021

Atty. Ivy (Maui Taylor) and hair stylist Patricia (Rose Van Ginkel) have been girlfriends for 7 years. In order to prevent the dreaded "7-year itch," they decided to add spark in their relationship by going polyamorous. They decided to invite a common acquaintance who once had a crush on both of them -- Apolinario "Apol" Trillo (Janno Gibb), 39, noted professional photographer with strabismus, to be their "+1" for their one-year "throuple" experiment.

This is already writer-director Darryl Yap's 7th feature film, his 6th for 2021 alone. Being a Darryl Yap film, it was not anymore surprising that a controversial topic will be tackled, like how his previous films talked about porn stars, mental illness, midlife crisis. His films invariably poked fun about certain physical features, like dark skin or harelip speech. This time around, it was about a three-way relationship between two sexy lesbians and a cross-eyed straight guy. 

His works had always been frank when it came to sex from his very first film "#Jowable", and this latest one is definitely not an exception. It's very title alone is already a sexual reference. Taylor and Van Ginkel had one serious sexy scene in a steamy shower, but otherwise all the raunchy scenes with Gibb are all more on the comic side. The language is specially spicy as the script was peppered with sexual terms and double-entendres from beginning to end.

The production quality of a Darryl Yap film is not exactly its strong suit from the start, and this one felt the most disorderly. There was not really much intelligent content, so he had to resort to prolonged unnecessary dance numbers in the bridal shower, at the JS prom and at the beach wedding, just to pad the running time. In fact, the two girls only proposed to Apol with thirty minutes to go, so you can imagine how much filler there was in the first hour.

Reliable actress Dexter Doria was there as the girls' housekeeper Manang Goods, and Cai Cortez as their best friend Wanda, but their roles were a waste of their acting talent and vibrant screen presence. "69+1" was the shallowest one of all the Darryl Yap films this year. It had very little substance, if any at all. Everything about it felt rushed and slapdash, from the empty unfunny script, messy storytelling, to the lackadaisical acting of the three lead actors. 1/10.