August 7, 2026
San Feliciano provincial governor Paul Reyes (Reymund Domingo) thought he was just spending a night alone in their mansion. Unbeknownst to him, an unexpected visitor, his godchild Lily (Maxine Ignacio), inadvertently caught him on video in a compromising situation with his dog Bella (Bini). Lily immediately left and showed the scandalous clip to her incredulous parents, town Mayor Dan (Jojit Lorenzo) and Ofel (Frances Makil-Ignacio).
"A.ni.mal" is the third Cinemalaya film written and directed by Dustin Celestino in the past four years. At first, there was "Duyan ng Magiting" (2023). then "Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan” (2025). Both films garnered critical acclaim and awards for its frankly incisive writing about Philippine politics and the intensely passionate acting by his cast. I personally ranked these two as the top best films of their respective year at Cinemalaya.
While there were brief moments of humor in those two previous films, this new one is Celestino's funniest one ever. This is a biting satire of skillfully-written, darkly-comic and intellectually-stimulating conversations. As before, this film was also largely a series of riveting dialogue, from seemingly innocuous flirting and woke advocacies, steadily building up to highly-charged arguments about interpersonal and political relationships.
Neophyte Maxine Ignacio is the real-life daughter of veteran Frances Makil-Ignacio, one of Celestino's favorite actors. Her Lily was the quintessentially narcissistic nepo baby who wanted all the attention on her. She was cluelessly entitled about her privilege, and Maxine was game to play her character's quirk up, not averse to be the butt of the joke. Her passive-aggressive seduction of Dr. John (Anthony Falcon) at the dog-shelter and in his car was as uncomfortable to watch yet oddly delightful.
Bituin Escalante appears only in the second half of the film as gubernatorial candidate Dr. Grace, but her impact was so powerful. The drama at Grace's political rally with Ofel started from singing the campaign song, and concluded backstage with the vicious bull session right after. Right after came a confrontation scene between Grace and her husband Paul, where she lectured him about how rabbits behaved when in pain. This scene was made more remarkable by the fact that Reymund Domingo was Escalante's husband in real-life. 8/10
