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