January 2, 2024
Becky Naman (Eugene Domingo) and Badette Imaculada (Pokwang) had been best of friends since their high school days. While Badette was the theater club, Becky was the choir (not a typo, you'll get it when you watch it). They both had a crush on then campus hottie Pepe Feniz (Romnick Sarmenta), which did not go well. Their tormentor back then had been rich and pretty bully, Nirvana Batungbakal (Agot Isidro).
Despite being named most likely to succeed, Becky and Badette were not able to do much with their lives after graduation. They lived on the second floor of a house where there was a gay bar downstairs. At present, they were working as janitresses at an office building, and had to sell Becky's "Fingah-Lickin" fried chicken to the office girls as a side hustle. One day, they received invitations to their high school reunion.
Getting "inspiration" (euphemism for "copying") from Hollywood movies is a very big issue in this year's MMFF. This film took on the most famous film of the three being accused. The whole first half of this film was practically a rehash of "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" (1997). All the main characters were there at their high school reunion with the same conflicts, where a major lie was said in public and perpetuated as truth until it could not.
However, the nature of this lie was where the main difference of this film and its "inspiration" lay. In this day and age, I cannot imagine how a video confession like what Becky and Badette did (without context) could still go viral and have the miraculous effects it had on their lives. This was such a huge leap of suspension of disbelief. If you can't buy this premise, then you may not appreciate the rest of the film, as writer-director Jun Lana expected.
The best aspect of this movie is the chemistry and comic timing of Eugene Domingo and Pokwang. B&B were devoted Vilma Santos fans, so we see clips of her films, like "Relasyon," "Sister Stella L" or most notably "T-Bird at Ako." B&B could weave in entire lines of dialog from Vilma movies into their daily conversations, which was quite a riot. There was even a joke about Vilma's latest film "When I Met You in Tokyo" squeezed in.
Seeing Isidro and Sarmenta going all-out comedy outside their drama comfort zone was a big treat. Peewee O'Hara and Angie Castrence also spring their own surprise as B&B's mothers. It was also fun to see the numerous cameo guest appearances of stars, like Iza Calzado, Karylle, Moira dela Torre, Christian Bables, Janice de Belen, Empoy Marquez, Joross Gamboa, Gladys Reyes, director Sigrid Bernardo and Ice Seguerra. 6/10.
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