In ‘Lonely Glory’, Keitaro Sakon explores the inner turmoil of a twenty-something woman named Haruka, in her ambitious pursuit of success. Princess Kinoc reviews this film from this year’s Japanese Film Festival In the eyes of Haruka and everyone else, she is very good at her job. She knows it.
Tag: Drama
Acting Brilliance Meets Dark Comedy in ‘A Very Good Girl’, a spoiler-filled review
John Tawasil writes about Petersen Vargas’ latest Star Cinema film starring Kathryn Bernardo and Dolly de Leon. We have warned you about the spoilers this review may contain. NOTE: I am going to spoil most of A Very Good Girl in this review, so if you haven’t seen it yet,
Toto
Persistence is the main takeaway in John Paul Su’s Toto, which means you’re expected to forgive its inevitable Wizard Of Oz reference. Attuned to its hero’s spirits, the film is relentless at satirizing the notion of the American Dream, by way and form of its jocularly naive Filipino with an
Turo-Turo
Why do bad things happen to good people? This might be the central thesis of Turo-Turo, a tale of a persevering father and his struggle to uplift the standard of living of his family of five drenched in the familiar facade of urban poverty. A number of important themes are
Ari: My Life with a King
Geography and culture are largely intertwined. This is the thesis being put forward by Ari: My Life with a King, directed by Carlo Enciso Catu and written by Robby Tantingco. The film’s first shot is of Mt. Pinatubo, now quiet and majestic but had once wreaked havoc and forever transformed
Dahling Nick
The extraordinary brilliance of Dahling Nick is fully realized in its interviews with figures in Nick Joaquin’s life such as: National Artists for Literature Bienvinido Lumbera and F. Sionil Jose; Nick’s niece Charo Joaquin Villegas, his ultimate companion, Elena Roco; and even Communist Party of the Philippines founder, Jose Ma.
Manang Biring
Manang Biring takes off her robe, uninhibited by the darkness of her home (which apparently has not had electricity for a long time) and caresses her right breast, cleaning a wound that has made its way to the lower part of her bosom. The actress, Erlinda Villalobos, plays out this scene with exuberance
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is having its Philippine premiere at this year’s QCIFF. See screening schedules here. This review is taken from the author’s blog dated April 5th. Critics have invoked a shortlist of forebears to Ana Lily Amirpour’s ovni: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). The general consensus
Beasts of No Nation
Sun, why are you shining in this world? I am wanting to catch you in my hands, to squeeze you until you cannot shine no more. That way, everything is always dark, and nobody’s ever having to see all the terrible things that are happening here. ~ These lines are
Etiquette for Mistresses
In an alternate world, one conceived by Chito S. Roño out of Julie Yap Daza’s bestseller, Kris Aquino rules a kind of an exclusive clique. I realize this doesn’t sound surprising at all—this is just Kris being Kris—but the world in which her prude restaurateur Georgina exists is less ideal
Apasol
Peace. Tranquility. Contentment. Heartbreak. A muddle of all these fashions the unparalleled feeling that engulfs someone, observing the relentless receding tide, the fiery blends of red, oranges and yellow, and the underlying heartbeat of farewells and promises. This is how Ryanne Murcia’s Apasol breathes the salty air of leave-takings, love and uncertainties.
Kyel
There are no clocks in hell according to Frank Ferguson Jr.’s unnamed druggie, who we only know through his (possibly drug-induced) fits of rage and breakdowns. The dark room where this scrawny persona holes in doesn’t have clocks, either; but if need be the space looks just the part. We find
Wawa
If you come in to Angelie Mae Macalanda’s short film Wawa, expect anything but the myth of Bernardo Carpio enduring two mountains apart or the enkantada who entrances unsuspecting male tourists. The heart of the film, while it dwells in darkness, is something far more familiar to us—perhaps all too vividly—than folklore. Its
Coming Home
Established on an enthralling trustworthy backdrop of Mao-era communism where exhibiting of industrial, banking and commercial nationalization is perceptible. Swathed with political milieu and narrating the dealings of Cultural Revolution. Coming Home depicts a tear-jerking spectacle of everyday lives in the midst of crisis where essential principles are under siege. The
ICYMI: Trailer for Equal-Rights Drama ‘Freeheld’ Premieres This Week
The trailer for what appears to be Julianne Moore’s next Oscar bait was previewed this week on BuzzFeed Entertainment’s Facebook page. Moore will play Laurel Hester, a New Jersey police officer who appeals to the state’s Board of Chosen Freeholders to allow her pension to be transferred to her domestic partner, Stacie
Gut
Tom (Jason Vail) lives a routine for a life. Every day he wakes up, jogs, then meets his wife and daughter for breakfast. His days are filled mainly with office tasks, exhaustedly carrying on with a spent relationship with his childhood best friend Dan (Nicolas Wilder) who works in a cubicle next
Ex Machina
Finally, the dark deft sci-fi writer Alex Garland directs his own dark deft sci-fi movie, and it feels like Stanley Kubrick’s sequel of Her. Sleek, heady and visceral, the psychological thriller Ex Machina exposes people’s unarticulated anxiety about the potential and power of the rapidly evolving technology we use today.
The Territory
Russian novels are often lengthy and are a bit tricky to adapt on screen. Looking at the trailer set for Alexander Melnik’s The Territory, it is easy to be intrigued by what the lengths and heights it took to capture each landscapes set for the film. Based on a novel by
Son of Mine
Limburg, in the south of Netherlands, is the location of Remy van Heugten’s feature film “Gluckauf” (Eng. title: “Son of Mine”). As an ode to the province’s former mining industry, he named the film after a phrase that all miners used to say, which means “to go up” or to
Filosofi Kopi
There’s so much to tell in a single cup of coffee. All the love and effort made in preparing it, the trade, the hard work every coffee farmer puts in harvesting these dark, aromatic beans; and the time and effort our baristas put in whipping up the “perfect” coffee. But
The End Of Love
What is it that we know about love? This is the question that begs to be known in Hsu Li Da’s second feature film The End of Love. We follow the lives of four contemporary couples at the beginning and or at the brink of their love lives. The key
An Kubo sa Kawayanan
The new film from Alvin Yapan is introduced as a “small film with big ambitions.” Twice I have heard of this:the first time from his actress Agot Asidro presenting his 2013 film Mga Anino ng Kahapon; and again from him last night at the Gala Screening of his WPFF entry An
Ode to My Father
Every war has never found its absolution; its damages lifelong. We hear stories from the past generations of their harrowing experiences, and we can only vicariously grasp them. Ode to My Father also seeks to make its audiences understand what it was like in the perspective of an everyday man,
Lost River
The most evocative image in Ryan Gosling‘s Lost River is midway its hyper-saturated nightmare, when Billy (Christina Hendricks), to the sick delight of a sizable audience, slices off the skin of her face. She traces the outlines of skin the incision has left, touches the flesh irrevocably exposed, all to an almost grinning composure—like
Big Eyes
Bilateral macro-ophthalmia, a clinical condition for big eyes or specifically, larger eyeballs, is a rarity. It is often part of a systemic condition. A more common finding would be exophthalmos, defined by Dorland’s Medical Dictionary as the abnormal protrusion of the eyeball. It is the appearance of enlargement of the
