Review of MEGALOPOLIS: Coppola's Cornucopia

September 26, 2024

Architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) was undertaking an ambitious project of recreating the city of New Rome with Megalon, a revolutionary versatile material which he himself invented, and turning it into a sprawling Megalopolis. The incumbent Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) totally hated Cesar for destroying the old city, but his daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) had fallen in love with her father's nemesis. 

More than the story or the stars, there is a significant buzz surrounding "Megalopolis" because of the filmmaker who wrote and directed it -- Francis Ford Coppola. While "The Godfather" (1972) and its sequel (1974) had already elevated Coppola's name on the Hollywood firmament, his filmography also included "The Conversation" (1974), and "Apocalypse Now" (1979). He was active up to the 1990s, but since then, he had nothing of note anymore.

After a hiatus of 13 years, Coppola finally decided to release this passion project of his this year, which started as an idea that had been percolating in his head since 1977. The story had a grand scale of a Roman epic. The characters had names derived from Roman history, like Catiline, a soldier who staged a coup against Cicero in 63 AD, and Hamilton Crassus, Cesar's wealthy uncle, named after Crassus, once "the wealthiest man in Rome."

For the positives, Coppola went all out in the technical aspects -- the lush and brilliant cinematography by Mihai Mălaimare Jr., the opulent and ostentatious production design by Beth Mickle and Bradley Rubin, the costumes by Milena Canonero that had both retro and futuristic vibes, and special visual effects to complete the illusion Coppola was going for. The rich and vibrant aural backdrop was provided by musical scorer Osvaldo Golijov.

For the negatives, Coppola wanted so much to happen such that the whole thing did not flow like a logical narrative. Characters show up, events happened, yet they were dropped just like that. Adam Driver brooded too much to play Cesar, and his chemistry with Julia was flat. Old man Crassus (Jon Voight) and his bride Wow Platinum (Audrey Plaza) were more interesting. Vengeful cousin Clodio gave Shia La Beouf many outrageous moments to play. 6/10. 

Review of THE SUBSTANCE: Bargain for Beauty

September 25, 2024

Award-winning actress turned television fitness guru Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) just turned fifty.  She heard that her slimy boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) wanted to replace her with someone fresher. Desperate, Elisabeth accepted a mysterious offer to buy a chemical called the Substance which can bring out the most perfect version of herself. Right after Elisabeth injected the single-use Activator into her vein, Sue (Margaret Qualley) was born. 

The Substance could really make dreams of youth and beauty come true albeit with a twist. However, it came with very strict rules to make sure that balance was kept between the new self and the old self. The instructions emphasized that there was only one being, even if new self and old self were practically doing things to destroy each other out of selfishness and jealousy, respectively. This made for a gripping internal tug-of-war of taking control. 

This audaciously shocking body-horror film was written and directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, in only her second feature film after her acclaimed debut in 2017 with "Revenge." Fargeat did not shirk from showing exaggeratedly disgusting scenes of graphic gore and grotesque deformity to drive home her satiric points against ageism in show business and the extremes aging stars resort to in order to maintain their beauty and fame.

Demi Moore gave a brave fearless portrayal of fading star Elisabeth, in a role so wild and out of  her comfort zone. Elisabeth was a physically-tough and emotionally-taxing character which can earn Moore an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (and even win, like Elisabeth did).  This role of Sue will most likely be Margaret Qualley's star-making breakthrough. Her sexy Sue was akin to a Frankenstein's monster who got caught up and blinded by her fame. 

Because the script was so well-plotted, it was not difficult to see why Fargeat won the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival where it made its world premiere. Since then, it had also won a number of audience choice awards in the film festivals, despite being dark and disturbing. Audiences appreciated how Fargeat really went all out crazy for this, in the process also paying tribute to horror classics, like "Freaks," "The Shining," and "Carrie."

The version we watched during the commercial run is shorter by about 3 minutes from the original version. This means that a number of scenes had been deleted in order to satisfy the criteria of the MTRCB for R-16. Whatever those supposedly objectionable scenes were, we may never see them anymore and that's a shame.  However, Fargeat's dark message against Hollywood's superficial bias for youth and beauty still hits its target very hard. 8/10

Review of NEVER LET GO: Survival Situations

September 24, 2024

Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) lived in an isolated old cabin in the woods with their protective Momma (Halle Berry). They believed that they were the only survivors of an apocalypse, so they had to keep themselves safe from an unseen being she called the Evil. She made sure that the three of them were always connected to each other with rope. While Samuel steadfastly believed his mother, Nolan began to have doubts.

The isolating situation that trapped Momma and her boys in their house started four years ago. It seems that the filmmakers meant to create a scenario that will resonate with an audience who just emerged from a crippling pandemic with quarantine precautions meant to keep households apart from each other. This film delivered an all-too-familiar atmosphere of suffocating anxiety we all shared recently, given our common experience as a planet. 

The far-reaching influence of a mother on her sons is also given much emphasis in this film. As children, our mother is our very first teacher. Everything our mother said was gospel truth to us as we were growing up. We would never dream about going against our mother's lessons and her wishes. Here, the two boys believed all the stories their mother told and all the rituals their mother taught them to do. At least, until critical thinking eventually sank in.

When I started to watch this movie, it gave me the apocalyptic vibe of "Bird Box" (2018) where a mother was trying her best to keep her children safe from the monsters that threatened to kill them all. It briefly became a horror thriller, as the music turned creepy and a grotesque monster was made show its face. Later, it settled into a tense and stressful psychological thriller, when a character's deteriorating mental health became more and more apparent.   

Halle Berry can really portray these women in harrowing situations very well, and the two child actors who play her sons also step up to an impressive level of acting performance. Director Alexandre Aja allowed the story to twist around itself, but never really revealed the real score in the end, which can be interesting, but also quite frustrating. Anyhow, the scene most viewers remember surely had more people looking away than those with a human victim. 6/10

Vivamax: Mini--Reviews of UHAW, PALUWAGAN, PILYA

September 20, 2023

UHAW

Director: Bobby Bonifacio, Jr. 

Writer: Bobby Bonifacio, Jr. 

Rejoice (Ataska) was a lounge singer in a bar, where she performed her original songs. She was married to tattoo artist Marcus (Itan Rosales), who owned the Gemini Link tattoo parlor. One day, after a steamy session of lovemaking, Marcus suddenly collapsed with a severe headache and fell into a coma. When Rejoice checked his mobile phone, she discovered that Marcus had another woman in his life -- Astrid (Angeli Khang).

Bonifacio was able to craft a serious, well-written Vivamax-style love story of devotion and sacrifice. The star of this feature is Ataska, not only in drama acting, as well as in singing, guitar, and songwriting. Her emotional songs gave the film its beating heart. Fans of Rosales need not worry that his Marcus being comatose practically the whole film. He still had a lot of action going on in flashback scenes.  Despite being top-billed in the poster, Khang generously lent her star power in a significant supporting role. 6/10

PALUWAGAN

Director: Roman Perez Jr. 

Writer: Ronald Perez Jr.

Marites (Shiena Yu) introduced a "paluwagan" system to the women of a remote mountain village. They all invest P20 a day for a week, and one brought home the pot of P1000 on Saturday. For a twist, the woman with P1000 could choose to buy the carnal services of the hunk Hector (Victor Relosa) for 2 nights and a day. This week, it was turn of Julia (Micaella Raz), who was unsatisfied by her husband Itong (Chad Solano).

The plot was quite complex for Vivamax standards, even needing a helicopter wreck in one scene. Director Perez and his DP Albert Banzon was able to bring out the lushness of the green mountain forest setting, with some impressive-looking overhead drone shots.  The atmospheric musical score by Dek Margaja for the sex scenes was very lush as well. On the debit side, the acting of the female ensemble was garish, and Relosa's wig was ugly. 5/10

PILYA

Director: Dustin Celestino

Head Writer: Maya Diaz

Writer: Steve Sanchez, Matt Teves

Lively Dahlia (Dyessa Garcia) and stuck-up Jules (Cess Garcia) were best of friends. When a liberated foreign student Nessa (Dani Yoshida) transferred to their class, she quickly became close with Dahlia, much to Jules's annoyance. Professor Mr. Lopez (Chester Grecia) was the object of schoolgirl fantasies. One day, when Nessa was asked by Mr. Lopez to stay behind to discuss her failing marks, a nasty rumor about them began to spread around the school. 

Cess Garcia did quite well in her recent films "Kapalit" and "Linya," and she does fairly well here as well, but as the mousy Jules, the make-up crew made her look plain and sullen. Chester Grecia gave his best to play a dignified English-speaking professor and somehow pulls it off. The story about how malicious rumors spread was a serious one, but unfortunately, Celestino had a quota of sex scenes to fulfill, and rushed the ending.  5/10

Review of TRANSFORMERS ONE: Foundations of the Franchise

September 18, 2024

The planet of Cybertron used to be led by a magnanimous group of robots called the Primes. One day, they were all killed in a great war with invading aliens called the Quintessons, and an important item called the Matrix of Leadership had gone missing. Since then, it had been a well-loved leader named Sentinel Prime who led the city in the search for the missing Matrix, without which the city's essential energy supply Energon had been very scarce.  

There were bots who did not have a cog which could enable them to transform. They became mine slaves whose main duty was to mine Energon out.  One day, an adventurous miner bot named Orion Pax was able to arrange things so that he and his best friend D-16 would be able to join the big Iacon 500 race. He did this to prove to their city that miner bots like them were capable of so much more than expected, even if they cannot transform. 

The Transformers franchise began from mecha robot toys to an animated TV series and comic books in 1984, and an animated feature film in 1987 (this present one being only the second of such released in cinemas). It also had a live-action feature film series starting from "The Transformers" (2007), and seven more, the latest one being "The Rise of the Beasts" (2023). Admittedly, my knowledge of the Transformers were mainly from these live action films, not the cartoons.

This new animated feature by Paramount Animation and Hasbro Entertainment reintroduced us to the younger, more foolish versions of Optimus Prime and Megatron before they had their iconic names. We also meet future Autobots like Elita One and B-127 (a.k.a. Bumblebee), and Decepticons like Starscream and Shockwave. It told the story how their epic rivalry began, but I personally thought it was a bit simplistic (unless more details will be revealed later). 

The superstar voice talents made this a very entertaining watch -- Chris Hemsworth as Orion Pax, Scarlet Johannson as Elita One, Brian Tyree-Henry as D-16, Keegan-Michael Key as B-127, and Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime. Laurence Fishburne lent his deep voice to the elder Prime Alpha Trion, who held the key to the real story.  The artwork and animation of those complex, frenetic race and fight scenes were sleek, fluid and thrilling. 8/10. 

Mini-Reviews of STRANGE DARLING and SPEAK NO EVIL (2024): Diabolically Disturbing

September 14, 2024

STRANGE DARLING

Director: JT Mollner

Writer: JT Mollner

Between 2018 to 2020, an serial killer who began a killing spree from Denver, Colorado, now in Hood River County, Oregon.  In the midst of that atmosphere of dread, a man (Kyle Gallner) and a woman (Willa Fitzgerald) decide to spend a night of kinky role-play sexy time together at the Blue Angel Hotel. Later, the woman was running away then was driving off in a red car, as the man was chasing after her in his pickup with a rifle in hand. 

Writer-director JT Mollner decided to divide his story into six chapters and then present them back and forth in an unusual order -- 3, 5, 1, 4, 2, 6.  In this way, the viewer sees only one point of view first, before he can piece the full story together only much later. This jarring non-linear style of storytelling created a more riveting viewing experience with a much stronger jolting effect than a simple twist reveal could achieve in a traditional style. 

Mollner's disturbing interplay of sex and violence evoked an indie Tarantino vibe, and may not be an easy watch for mainstream audiences. Lead actors Fitzgerald and Gallner give their all to their physically and emotionally exhausting roles. The only familiar names in the cast for me were Ed Begley Jr. and Barbara Hershey, who played peaceful retired hippies who got involved when their house got in the way of the hot bloody cat and mouse game. 7/10  

SPEAK NO EVIL (2024)

Director: James Watkins

Writer: James Watkins (based on the 2022 Danish film by Christian Tafdrup)

The Daltons -- Ben (Scoot McNairy), his wife Louise (Mackenzie Davis), and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) -- were on vacation in Italy. There, they met the British Feld family -- Dr. Patrick Feld (James McAvoy), his Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their mute son Ant (Dan Hough). As the Daltons were still having a tough time getting settled in London, the Felds invited them over to take a break in their farm out in the countryside. 

This film was a study in contrast about two men who had starkly different personalities. One was a charismatic extrovert (Paddy) and the other was a pushover introvert (Ben). The Daltons were already noting red flags about the Felds even back in Italy, yet they still allowed them to take control. Pretty soon, it was evident that they were trapped in a very bad situation in the Feld farm, but by then, it was not easy to get out of there anymore.

The ending of this Hollywood version chose to totally deviate from the bleak and brutal ending of the original Danish film. What we got in the third act was a typical, audience-pleasing action thriller sequence that sapped the sinister psychological horror of the first film. James McAvoy was a magnetic Paddy, so new viewers will consider this Blumhouse version a very good film. However, those familiar with the first version will find this remake lacking. 

Speak No Evil (2022): 7/10, Speak No Evil (2024): 6/10

 

Vivamax: Mini-Reviews of BUTÁS, F-BUDDIES, THROUPLE

September 9, 2024

BUTAS

Director: Dado C. Lumibao

Writer: Dado C. Lumibao

Mayette (Angela Morena) just moved into the boarding house of Lydia (Mosang), strict aunt of her roommate Kayla (Angelica Hart), the girlfriend of fellow boarder Noel (Albie Casino). Noel loves Kayla but was frustrated about her hangups about sex. Sexually-liberated Mayette seduced Noel when she caught him peeping on her from a hole on the bathroom ceiling.  Meanwhile, Noel's virgin roommate Benjie (JD Aguas) was falling for Mayette. 

From a typical Vivamax plot about sexual shenanigans in a boarding house, the story actually turned serious as it discussed about real love and just sex. Angela Morena is a veteran in portraying girls who get caught in sticky situations. Angelica Hart turns it her best performance so far as Kayla.  Albie Casino is already typecast in rascal sex maniac roles. JD Aguas makes an auspicious debut as a good boy dealing with depravity all around him. 5/10

F-BUDDIES

Director: Sid T. Pascua

Writer: Quinn Carrillo

Photographer Matt (Mon Mendoza) was bored with his three-year relationship with Jas (Denise Esteban), which led him to sleeping around with his models. Jas confided her problems with her platonic male best friend Aiden (Calvin Reyes), who had been suppressing his long-time crush on her. Jas and Aiden's liberated officemate Thea (Candy Veloso) was into sex without relationships, so she eventually hooked up with the two boys. 

Denise Esteban again proves her acting mettle in Vivamax-style drama, as the lovesick Jas who was willing to demean herself with a bad boy, she did not see the good boy in front of her the whole time. Candy Veloso also played her part well, confident with exactly how she wanted to quench her sexual appetite. Mon Mendoza does not need to act as his rascally face says it all. Meanwhile, Calvin Reyes's bored-looking face fit right into the friendzone. 4/10

THROUPLE

Director: Aya Topacio

Writer: Kiko Abrillo

Chef Juancho (Aerol Carmelo) was in a serious loving throuple relationship with Ysay (Audrey Avila) and Hannah (Sahara Bernales). After one of their nights of passion, one of them passed away unexpectedly the next day. One dealt with the tragic situation by sleeping around with various one-night-stands.  The other felt guilty about causing their lover's death and was withdrawn for a long time, until a new lover came along in the person of Dawn (Arah Alonzo).

Again, this was one of those Vivamax films that had a plot that went beyond what the sleazy title would suggest. Before the opening credits, there was a prolonged threesome scene, but right after that, one of them was dead. After throwing us off like that, writer Kiko Abrillo actually turned serious discussing how different people dealt with death of a lover. Avila, Alonzo, and even the usually blank Bernales all turn in creditably good emotional performances.  5/10. 

Review of BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE: Burton's Bio-Exorcist is Back!

September 8, 2024

Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) has parlayed her ability to see and talk to ghosts into a career on television. She was in a romantic relationship with her sleazy exploitative manager Rory (Justin Theroux). One day, her stepmother Delia (Catherine O'Hara), now a notable sculptural artist, told Lydia that her father Charles had perished in a plane crash. They picked up Lydia's teen daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) en route back to Winter River, Connecticut.   

This sequel comes 35 years after Tim Burton's original "Beetlejuice" (1988). That film was about Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), a ghost couple who wanted to drive the annoying new residents -- the Deetz family (Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder) -- out of their former house. Unable to scare them away on their own, they desperately called on "bio-exorcist" Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) to do the job.

It was gratifying to see Keaton and O'Hara again as older versions of their characters, all of them as neurotic and over-the-top as ever. Ryder's mature Lydia was a delicate emotional wreck and pushover, an unexpected development for her character.  The death of Charles Deetz was presented in the form of stop-motion animation not used elsewhere in the film. For the rest of the film, Charles was just a walking, talking "man" whose upper half had been chomped off. Sadly, the Maitlands, the representation of good in the first film, were not even mentioned anymore.

Jenna Ortega was expectedly a good fit as Astrid, which was really reminiscent of her breakthrough role as Wednesday Adams. Let's hope she does not get typecast only in these goth teenager roles. Astrid's love interest was Jeremy Frazier (Arthur Conti in his feature film debut), a charming neighborhood boy with odd and shy parents. Their subplot was quite well-written, as it will also involve the strained relationship of Astrid and her mother.

Three veteran actors also don macabre costumes and make-up for their guest roles. Monica Belluci played Delores, Betelgeuse's vindictive soul-sucking ex-wife whose chopped up body parts had been stapled back together. Willem Dafoe played Wolf Jackson, who used to be a B action movie star in life, now a ghost detective after he died in a filming accident. In a short scene in the first few minutes, Danny De Vito played a grumpy janitor in the afterlife.  

Aside from his signature visuals and special effects updated with today's technology, director Burton also had a lot of fun with the pop music soundtrack. "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees played during an electrical accident. "Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx was sung by Betelgeuse to Astrid while playing his guitar. The "Soul Train" theme was played while passengers for the train to the great beyond were gyrating. For the pièce de résistance, "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris  was played for a wedding, so we actually see the cake with the sweet green icing flowing down. 

Although it seems that you can still thoroughly enjoy this new film even without knowing the first film, I think watching or re-watching it first will enhance the viewing experience. The sequel revisited so many things from the first film, such as the Handbook of the Recently Deceased, the scale model of the whole town in miniature in the attic, the red covered bridge, the Banana Boat Song, the shrunken-head man Bob, the desert with the sand worm, the red wedding gown. Those familiar with them will wax nostalgic. 8/10

Sinag Maynila 2024: Reviews of TALAHIB and BANJO

September 6, 2024

TALAHIB

Writer and Director: Alvin Yapan

Two policemen, Bong (Joem Bascon) and Roman (Jess Mendoza) were investigating a murder scene in the tall grass field of still-undeveloped Springfield Subdivision. Later that night, they went with a group of teenagers led by Joyce (Gillian Vicencio) and Paul (Iyo Canlas), who wanted to do some digging under an acacia tree to find and a coffin that their parents buried there. Not long after, an unseen hand began to pull the kids' legs.  

The way director Alvin Yapan staged his kills, a man with a dark face and sharp teeth (Dax Alejandro) emerged from a field of tall grass to slash the necks of his victims with a machete. However, forensics would rule these deaths as secondary to asphyxiation (something they never explained). The best kill was the first one with Myrna (Sue Prado) and her would-be rapist as victims. However, when the kids were being killed off one by one in the blood-spurting tall grass, you do not know them at all, so you do not really care. 

It was the kids' vigilante parents who killed the killer who terrorized them by burying him alive, whose ghost is now terrorizing their teenagers -- a plot detail taken straight out of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984).  Yapan did insert a social commentary about greedy subdivision developers victimizing poor farmers, to set his story apart. The subplot about Stephen (Kristof Garcia), son of real estate tycoon (Johnny Revilla), fell flat and did not make sense. Among the young actors, it was only Gillian Vicencio who stood out acting-wise. 4/10

BANJO

Writer and Director: Bryan Wong

Banjo Perez (Bryan Wong) was a soldier who was assigned to infiltrate the criminal organization of the notorious Franko as their best assassin. However, his cover was soon blown and they made him kill a masked hostage who turned out to be his own brother Marko (AJ Arobo). His officers tell Banjo that even if his identity was now known, he should not abandon his mission to kill Franko and everyone who stood in his way to reach that target.

The best scenes in this action movie are definitely the fight scenes with bare hands and knives, which Wong himself choreographed. The moves looked dangerous and deadly, and the sound effects editing made the viewers feel the punches hitting hard and the bones cracking and breaking. However, what was supposed to be the main showdown fight between Banjo and the maniacal Franko (Danilo Cutamora) was disappointingly too short. 

Some drama scenes in English lapsing into Bisaya were performed so awkwardly that they became inadvertently entertaining. Banjo's melodramatic highlight was his tearful meeting with sister-in-law Maribel (Aryana Atibula), all the cheesy lines were delivered so over-the-top, sorry but I could not help laughing out loud. Based on the absurd ending with the motorcycle thieves, the humor in these scenes may actually be tongue-in-cheek and intentional. 4/10  

Sinag Maynila 2024: Review of WHAT YOU DID: Split by Stress

September 6, 2024

Arvin Espiritu (Tony Labrusca) just received an email that he had been accepted as an assistant manager at a resort in Palawan. However, they immediately called to cancel the offer because the government announced a lockdown of Metro Manila because of the spreading COVID-19 pandemic. Trapped in his condo unit with no friends to talk to and nothing to do, Arvin soon became restless and very anxious -- until Ace showed up.

This film was written and directed by Joan Lopez-Flores. As we all just went through the COVID-19 pandemic along with the rest of the world, everyone will be able to relate to Arvin's escalating anxieties. However, Arvin experienced traumatic circumstances -- father Ricky (Epy Quizon) dead, mother Nina (Ana Abad Santos) abroad, childhood crush Iris (Maryjoy Apostol) living with someone else -- which made his mental health at higher risk of breaking down. 

Tony Labrusca made a big name for himself when he starred opposite Angel Aquino in the hot and steamy May-December drama "Glorious" (2017). However, in the past five years, his career had a downturn when he was involved in non-showbiz-related controversies which damaged his reputation. This year, with this difficult role he did in "What You Did," Labrusca makes a bid to prove that his showbiz career deserved a second chance.

Labrusca played a dual role in this film -- the reserved introvert Arvin and his gregarious impulsive twin Ace.  In dual roles, an actor is challenged to give each twin his own distinct mannerisms and personality, and this could lead to award consideration when done right. Labrusca gave an earnest subdued portrayal as Arvin, but looked like he had more fun cutting loose and breaking taboos as Ace.  Overall, this was a worthy comeback effort for him.

Aside from Epy Quizon in childhood flashbacks and Ana Abad Santos in Zoom calls, the other supporting actors actually shared scenes with Labrusca. Mercedes Cabral played Arvin's Auntie Liza, who regularly checked up on him. Maryjoy Apostol and Iggi Siasoco played Arvin's childhood friends Iris and Otep. Elle Ramirez played Che, who had a major unrequited crush on Arvin in college. JP Lopez played wacky "Tiktaker" condo maintenance guy Prof. 

Of course, the director and film editor also help make the illusion of one actor playing twins more convincing. Like other psychological thrillers about twins, they want to confuse us whether Arvin and Ace were two separate people, or were they one and same person. However, for the reveal to work, clues should not purposefully trick the viewer. The use of two different shirts at one time is a point of contention, likewise, that gunshot at the climax. 6/10

Sinag Maynila 2024: Review of SALOME: Conversations on Culture

September 6, 2024

Andres (Perry Dizon) was a middle-aged art historian who had been diagnosed to have alcoholic amnesia, rendering him a shadow of his old self. To aid his recovery, he went to stay in the mountain home of his cousin, literary translator Christine (Dolly de Leon). Since her husband Ramon passed away seven years ago, Christine lived in her house alone, with one houseboy Marlon (Tommy Alejandrino) doing the chores. 

When Christine was away, Andres saw a mysterious woman walking around the grounds of the house. He followed her into the forest, and saw her wearing a baro't saya, doing embroidery while seated on the side of a creek. The woman introduced herself as the daughter of a babaylan in the village of Tamontaca during the Spanish occupation, who now went by the Christian name of Salome (Ram Botero). 

This film written and directed by  Gutierrez "Teng" Mangansakan II, was an unusual one. It started off as pretty mundane, even spending a lot of time detailing how Christine made her coffee every morning, or how she tried to fix a stuck printer. However, once Andres encountered Salome, the turn of events became compelling as the mystery of this woman unfolded. As Andres regained his health, so did the film become irresistibly interesting.

Perry Dizon was able to transform his Andres from a weak, mental cripple back to the vibrant, lucid intellectual he once was within the duration of this film. Dolly de Leon, as always, can make even the most humdrum text, be it about Pigafetta's journals or jigsaw puzzles, sound stimulating. Trans artist Ram Botero immediately captivates the audience with her rich deep voice. Her monologue relating Salome's story may be long, but it was riveting. 

Admittedly, this talky, cerebral film may not be for everyone. There was hardly any action going on, and less-attuned viewers may quickly lose interest. However, I, for one, was caught up in its insightful conversations about art, history, and culture and their dwindling significance in the increasingly material world now. They talk about how organized Western religion has suppressed and led indigenous folk beliefs to extinction.  Truly fascinating stuff. 8/10. 

Sinag Maynila 2024: Review of THE GOSPEL OF THE BEAST: Hostile Hothead

 September 5, 2024

Teenager Mateo (Jansen Magpusao) worked in a slaughterhouse for pigs by night, while attending high school by day. A bully at school Gerald (Jofranz Ambubuyog) got Mateo so irked that he challenged him to a swimming match at the river. However, an impulsive act of violence between the boys led to tragedy. Wracked by guilt, Mateo left his house and tagged along with his godfather Berto (Ronnie Lazaro) when he went out of town. 

It turns out that Berto was the leader of a gang of killers-for-hire. Mateo was shocked when he first saw how they killed people and disposed of them by wrapping them up and throwing them into the creek. The other older guys in the gang did not like him much, but Mateo did get along with another young man like him, Gudo (John Renz Javier). One day, Mateo found the gold necklace of his long-missing father among his Uncle Berto's things. 

This latest feature film by Sheron R. Dayoc comes after two critically-acclaimed ones -- "Halaw" (2010) and "Women of the Weeping River" (2016). It had made the rounds of international film festivals since last year, and was the opening film of Cinemalaya 2024. It had already been nominated for five awards in the recent URIAN Awards including for Best Film and Director, winning for Best Editing and Best Supporting Acting for Ronnie Lazaro, whose insidiously sinister performance as Berto was no surprise. . 

Jansen Magpusao makes a big screen comeback after his electric film debut as the title character in "John Denver Trending" (2019). His Mateo was sweet to his two younger siblings, and was fond of pet animals ranging from fish to his dog Naruto.  He may not talk too much, but he was easily provoked to violent reactions.  Magpusao was able to convey Mateo's contradictory personalities, and his unpredictability made the film extremely tense. 

Dayoc enveloped the whole film with blood and violence from the very first scenes at the slaughterhouse. These dead pigs would be replaced by dead humans by the second act, so this is definitely not for the queasy. The cinematography, editing, production design, sound and musical score here made sure that there was no let up of the tension of uncertainty and sense of danger surrounding Mateo's entire baptism of fire. By the end, we don't know what kind of future Fate has in store for this prematurely corrupted young man. 8/10

Sinag Maynila 2024: Review of MAPLE LEAF DREAMS: Conquest of Canada

September 5, 2024

As college students, Molly (Kira Ballinger) and  Macky (LA Santos) met and fell in love at the dinakdakan stall of Manang (Malou Crisologo). Five years later, Macky was already a manager of a restaurant. Molly worked for her rich but lazy cousin Chloe (Jef Gaitan), while her parents (Joey Marquez and Snooky Serna) for her Uncle Vernon (Jong Cuenco). Molly decided that the future for her lay abroad -- in Canada.

In Toronto, Molly and Macky lived in the house of Rosette (Miss International 2013 Bea Rose Santiago), single mom to Benito (Benito Mique). While Molly took up Management at the Maple Crest International School, Macky accepted menial work as a helper in Wilson's Haus of Lechon, a restaurant owned by a Filipino couple. Soon enough, the young couple began to feel the intense pressures of independent living abroad.

The story is very familiar, the difficulties of living and working abroad for Filipino migrant workers. We have already seen stories about how these workers have to settle for blue-collar work beneath their stature in the Philippines, just to get their foot into the work force of their new country. For this film about Canada, much emphasis was given to the usual requirement specifying "Canadian experience," not job experience in the homeland.

Writer-director Benedict Mique also devoted a segment interviewing real Filipino immigrants to Canada to tell their own stories, all of them relating how difficult it was for them at the start.  However, I felt he missed an opportunity to inform about pre-departure details. Topics like visa application (what kind of visas did they get?), marriage (did Molly and Macky get married?), and looking for residence (how did they find Rosette?) were not mentioned at all. 

This film portrayed usual problems in such situations like misplaced "utang na loob," family sacrifices, medical emergencies, unexpected tragedies, racist attacks and workplace temptations. However, the attractive and talented lead stars Kira Balinger (her second lead role this year after "Chances Are You and I") and LA Santos (fresh from his critically-acclaimed portrayal of Maricel Soriano's autistic son in "In His Mother's Eyes") gave emotionally rich performances to elevate the melodramatic material.  7/10

Sinag Maynila 2024: Review of HER LOCKET: Defying Dementia

 September 4, 2024

Atty. Kyle Nicolas (Boo Gabunada) lived with his mother, former movie actress Jewel Ouyang-Nicolas (Rebecca Chuaunsu), who has been suffering from dementia for the past eight years. When their latest caregiver gave up and resigned, Kyle was forced to accept former BPO employee Teresa Firmante (Elora Espano), the first person who answered his ad on Facebook even if she never had any formal training in caregiving. 

When she found an old diamond-encrusted locket containing a photograph of her as a child in braids with her parents, Jewel began to tell Teresa stories about her youth (Nathalie Zoey Villamanca, Sophie Ng) -- how the bitter relationship between her and her brother Magnus (Jian Myco Repolles, Benedict Cua) came to be, how she fell in love with a Filipino boy Dave (Tommy Alejandrino) and defied her parents' objections by marrying him. 

This melodramatic story of Chinoy family could have been the plot of Regal Films' "Mano Po" series. However, the good thing here was that practically all the Chinese roles were played by real Chinoy actors, so the delivery of their complex lines in deep-level Fookienese dialect was very smooth, particularly Chuaunsu and Norman Ong (as Jewel's father Jasper). Too his credit, Boo Gabunada's delivery of his few Fookienese lines also sounded authentic. 

Part of the film involved flashbacks to the 1970s, even if the overall effort was admirable, it was inevitable to have some inaccuracies in the details, like white plastic UP IDs on lanyards. There were some puzzling casting decisions which felt like miscasting, like Chinese-looking Tommy Alejandrino as the supposedly very Pinoy Dave (whose eyes were actually compared to tarsiers), or the decidedly Pinoy-looking Francis Mata as the elderly Magnus.

Rebecca Chuaunsu's performance deserved the two Best Actress awards she won in Morocco and Taiwan filmfests recently. Her portrayal of Jewel's dementia was very realistic and heartbreaking, such that she will make you reflect about your own mother. Sophie Ng's Young Jewel was feisty and empowered ahead of her time. I wish that the writer-director J.E. Tiglao and co-writer Maze Mendoza could have developed a better story arc for Elora Espano's Teresa, whose unconscionable behavior against Jewel did not deserve what she got in the end. 7/10. 

Disney+: Review of KINDS OF KINDNESS: Concepts of Control

September 3, 2024

This latest film by Yorgos Lanthimos is an anthology of three darkly comic short films. Each told its own bizarre stand-alone story about people who have lost control of their lives and were trying to recover it. Basically the same cast of character actors and Emma Stone play the various roles.  However, there was one common male character only known by the initials R.M.F. in all three segments, played by one actor, Yorgos Stefanakos.

#1 "The Death of R.M.F." was about a man Robert Fletcher (Jesse Plemons) whose every move and decision in life, including marrying his wife Sarah (Hong Chau), was done in obedience of orders from his boss Raymond (Willem Dafoe). However, Robert balked when Raymond asked him to crash into the car of a man identified as R.M.F. This defiance caused Robert to be fired which eventually broke his life apart. 

#2 "R.M.F. Is Flying" was about a police officer Daniel (Plemons) whose marine biologist wife Liz (Emma Stone) went missing at sea. One day, Liz was found and rescued by a pilot R.M.F. and was soon reunited with her husband. However, Daniel began to notice strange things about Liz behaving differently from how she was before. This caused Daniel to experience extreme paranoia which cost him his job and sanity. 

#3 "R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich" was about Emily (Stone) and Andrew (Plemons), members of a sex cult led by Omi (Dafoe) and Aka (Chau). They were tasked to look for a certain woman who possessed the ability to bring a dead person like R.M.F. back to life. When Emily was sexually violated, she was considered contaminated and was banished from the cult. Emily went on her own to look for the mystery woman to prove herself worthy. 

This was not exactly an easy watch, all 164 minutes of it. #2 was the shortest at around 46 minutes, while #3 was the longest at around 66 minutes. The subject matters of all three segments were bizarre and disturbing, made more queasy by strange scenes of sex and violence. This was definitely not for everyone, not even those who liked Lanthimos's recent Oscar-winning works "The Favourite" (2018) and "Poor Things" (2023). 

Jesse Plemons gave strong lead performances in #1 and #2, which led to him winning the Best Actor award in the last Cannes Filmfest 2024 where this film had its world premiere. Emma Stone dominated the screen whenever she was on whether her character was lead (in #2 and #3) or supporting (in #1). Willem Dafoe's juiciest role was in #1, while Chau, Margaret Qualley (in a dual role) and Joe Alwyn (as Emily's husband) had most to do in #3. 

This so-called "tryptich fable" was done in signature Lanthimos' arthouse style. While the topic of #1 about someone totally surrendering control to another person was very weird, but this one was the most accessible for me. #2 went into very dark places and had a couple of the film's most appalling scenes, but the ending was unexpectedly sweet. With a sex cult and miraculous twins in its plot, #3 was the most outlandish and absurd.  Ironically, despite the title, I never saw any kindness at all. 5/10

Review of TRAP: Dear and Deadly Daddy

September 2, 2024

Riley (Ariel Donoghue) was a very big fan of pop artist Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan). As a reward for her high grades, Riley's father Cooper (Josh Hartnett) bought tickets for the two of them to watch her idol's big concert in a Philadelphia stadium. During the concert, Riley noted her dad to be behaving strangely. He kept going out of the auditorium repeatedly for various reasons, leaving Riley behind.  

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the stadium, police were setting up to entrap a notorious serial killer codenamed "The Butcher," whom they believe was attending the concert that night based on a tip and a torn receipt. The operation was led by senior criminal profiler Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills), who was constantly briefing her officers on their earphones information about the man they were looking for. 

This is the latest project written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The impact of his 1998 breakthrough hit "The Sixth Sense" was so strong, his name is still a draw at the box office, even if the quality had been pretty much inconsistent, with major clunkers like "The Last Airbender" (2010) and "After Earth" (2013). Even if nothing really matched the impact of "The Sixth Sense," his forte is really the psychological thriller.

Here he explored the dual life of a ruthless sadistic serial killer, who was also a devoted dad to his daughter. The ageless boy-next-door looks and demeanor of Josh Hartnett worked very well for his believable portrayal of Cooper. He can charm his way through his day jobs as family man and firefighter, without giving away that he was actually a psychopathic murderer. Hartnett was positively chilling in that wordless final scene in the van. 

However, Shyamalan had put in so many unbelievable contrivances in the service of his suspense, like Cooper's talent as escape artist (the limousine scene) or the laxity of police in security (the bicycle scene). He seemed to have forgotten that pop concerts have no long intermissions when fans can buy merch and snacks. The nepotistic decision to cast Shyamalan's daughter Saleka as Lady Raven proved a major misstep. While she was a good singer, she obviously could not handle the acting demands of her role.  6/10