August 19, 2022
Pulp writer Jake de Vera (Baron Geisler) and his wife, swimsuit designer Mylene (Chloe Jenna) just moved into a new apartment. Their neighbor was famous novelist Arman Fuentes-Diaz (Ricky Davao) and his daughter Belle (Christine Bermas). Jake and Belle immediately felt a sexual electricity between them. While Jake began writing a novel about their obsessive affair on his laptop, Arman was also banging out a novel about them on his old typewriter.
This film directed by Jeffrey Hidalgo was about two writers. Veteran screenwriter Racquel Villavicencio filled it up with pithy lines about writing as a career. After an argument about women and duck eggs, Arman gave Jake tips about novel writing. When he saw a distraught Mylene, Arman talked about monogamy being the cause of sexual malaise, and advised her to pardon her husband because writers "breathe, eat, drink and sh*t words."
Arman Fuentes-Diaz is easily the most interesting character in this film, and Ricky Davao certainly squeezed the most out of his role, and even brought the best out of his co-stars Geisler, Jenna and Bermas. Jenna was generally so hammy, but with Davao, she was more nuanced and subtle, actually quite good. Compared to her previous films, Bermas was rather stiff here overall, but in her final scene with Davao, she was relaxed and natural.
Baron Geisler also gave it his best shot for his character Jake, especially in the last fifteen minutes, when reality began to dawn on him. He is really at home in playing these obsessive-compulsive guys who could not handle the stress and slowly lose their mind. You just know that if there's a Baron Geisler in a potboiler film like this, he is bound to be the one who will go crazy. Geisler reacting to Davao taunting him and his dead-drunk wife was his best scene.
To add a bit more spice, there was a party scene where we meet Mylene's friends were a mix of sexually-fluid individuals. They were transwoman-lesbian Karl/Greta (Vitex Paguirigan) and her partner Trisha (Quinn Carillo), foursome-seeking Ross (Ivan Padilla) and his permissive partner Ginny (Milana Ikimoto). However, their supposed orgy was dry and unstimulating. This sequence went nowhere and was never referred to again. 6/10.
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