The pleasures of The Book of Life is found both in and outside the brackets. The story [within the story (within its story)] may be easily dismissed derivative—and it is—replete with archetypal tropes and often unreliable characterization. Yet it remains characteristic, not strictly in its distinct visual identity but as
Author: Armando Dela Cruz
Genre apologist. Coffee enthusiast. All-around good guy.
#TWD 5.3: ‘Four Walls and a Roof’
“Four Rooms and a Roof,” the stirring third episode of fifth-season The Walking Dead, marks what looks to be a dramatic swerve for the series. First: events are building up rapidly—as with the easy disposal of Gareth (Andrew J. West) and his cannibal crew—a welcome change of pace, given last
V/H/S: Viral
The V/H/S films, as ever true in horror anthologies, are met with timid reception; they are at best uneven compilations of short feature-works by up-and-coming horror filmmakers. It seems a safe presumption that such a franchise can only be the brainchild of genre liberals and bored experimentalists who, by extension,
The Trial
Chino S. Roño’s The Trial is a welcome enlightenment to our native mainstream cinema—the kind that pushes boundaries and rediscovers for its audience elements other than what they have long since grown accustomed to; the kind that tries to push through somewhat fresher material; the kind that will not conform
Watch: The ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ trailer is here ahead of schedule; blame Hydra.
Marvel has taken to Twitter its explanation for the week-ahead release of their very much-awaited sequel epic Avengers: Age of Ultron. “Dammit, Hydra,” the tweet says. Marketer’s scheme or not, there will be excitement surging from all your social media. Be forewarned. Because the trailer is all the things you would expect: it is massive,
Watch: Motion comic for Mervin Malonzo’s komiks ‘Tabi Po’
Those who have read Mervin Malonzo’s utterly terrifying first-volume of the “asuang” graphic-epic Tabi Po should be itching by now to get their hands on Isyu 2. Especially after how Isyu 1 ended with such a cliffhanger. The first volume opens with “pasintabi kay Rizal,” but let it not fool you! Besides the ode to
Whiplash
Every frame of Whiplash is about rushing head-on past the fringe. It is about insanity. That is why the title could not be more apt. Whether it is the tragedy of mediocrity, the Great American Opium or one’s deceitful narcissism, filmmaker Damien Chazelle never settles by one conclusive end. And he
#TWD 5.2: ‘Strangers’
The Walking Dead tends to grow laborious at times and it often does when its principal characters are gathered in a group. So it is rather delightful to see the show picking up pace and going on-point with its tense second episode ‘Strangers.’ The whole lot is compact (if talky), bringing
Scarlett Johansson as Motoko in live-action adaptation of ‘Ghost in the Shell’
Not that the prior eyed actor actually “looked” the part–that would be Margot Robbie (of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wallstreet fame, had already said yes to comic-to-film adaptation of Suicide Squad)–it can be said that fans of the 1995 animé feature Ghost in the Shell are still somewhat sour with the casting decisions
FX: ‘American Horror Story’ is renewed for fifth season; no Jessica Lange?
Last week’s premiere of the much-anticipated fourth season of FX’s horror anthology series American Horror Story is promising. This may be applied to how the season starts off—with twin-headed oddities Bette and Dot (both played by Sarah Paulson) “literally walking to the gates of hell”’—as well as how it performs
Marvel confirms end of ‘Fantastic Four,’ forrealz this time
After a half-decade sway of cancellations and re-launches, Fantastic Four is officially cancelled. And while that rings much finality, think not. Although current FF writer James Robinson confirms that “the book is going away for a while” at this year’s New York Comic-Con and presses that there will be no
#TWD 5.1: ‘No Sanctuary’
The human race commit atrocities it eventually forgets. For whatever reason the thought lingers as I watch the fifth season premiere of The Walking Dead which plays as if it is set to lure its audience back. The episode is the hell of red, riddled with maimed Walkers, gnawed faces
TSZ #3: ‘Gone Girl’ (2014)
THE SPOILER ZONE is a haven (on a different dimension, perhaps? Erm, doesn’t matter…) in which one can further discuss a film most elaborate and insightful as possible, in hoping that for a deeper understanding on said film. Here spoiler-y details not only allowed, but encouraged. So step out or proceed
Watch: Trailer for ‘Ilustrado’: the first ‘Bayaniserye’ in PH television
Serving as annex to its main network, GMA News TV has apparently been pushing the boundaries of local television with the TV series productions of its News and Public Affairs division. Over the past few years, it has released numerous boundary-pushing series in the like of the striking Bayan Ko, which
Gone Girl
Amy Elliott Dunne is many different things. The woman is of relentless nature whether in filling the epitomized role brought about by her parents’ well-meant perfectionism and their children quiz-books called ‘Amazing Amy;’ in relishing her dominion over personal relations when she has it and insisting on it when she has not;
Watch: Ed Sheeran’s music video for crooner single ‘Thinking Out Loud’
Ed Sheeran is considered first a crooner–the type that seems to fall in and out of love on a daily basis–with songs suffused with doe-eyed ragged charisma, as his breakthrough single ‘The Lego House.’ Sheeran is past beyond this point obviously, and beginning to make a slightly different mark with his sophomore
The Boxtrolls
Like its titular tinkerers, The Boxtrolls is drawn to a familiar patchwork of a story, collecting ‘scraps’ from other works of animation that are attuned to the subliminal works of its animation house, Laika Studios. Yet, this should not stand as discouragement for the viewer who seeks the political in
‘Gotham’ has found its Harvey Dent; Nicolas D’Agosto plays the role
Fox’s Gotham has booked an actor for the role of Harvey Dent. Nicholas D’Agosto, known most famously as the fictional doctor Ethan Haas in the Showtime drama Masters Of Sex, is officially on-board for the role which recurs in the first season of the DC series meant to precede the
Watch: ‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ horrific stop-motion opening
As if Jessica Lange singing a Lana Del Ray song is not enough reason to prowl at this season’s pilot of American Horror Story, creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck are spilling details non-stop that make binge-watching an even more impossible task. I have told friends the close possibility of it taking
Annabelle
James Wan’s filmography did not begin with the most idealistic debut: Saw, to date, is recipient to the larger sample in the collective dismissal against the modest filmmaker. However, none of this should imply that Wan’s inauspicious debut is plainly schlock—a plot(?) surrounding a mysterious killer that entraps the morally-fractured
TSZ #2: ‘Dementia’ (2014)
THE SPOILER ZONE is a haven (on a different dimension, perhaps? Erm, doesn’t matter…) in which one can further discuss a film most elaborate and insightful as possible, in hoping that for a deeper understanding on said film. Here spoiler-y details not only allowed, but encouraged. So step out, if you
Dementia
Dementia is a thing of curious alchemy. There is a scene nearing its end that simultaneously affirms and overturns its ideological confusions: Heavily influenced by New Asian horror, Percival M. Intalan’s debut feature as director is not a story strictly about hateful ghouls, but it is about hurt and betrayal
The Babadook
Because it hides amorphous behind so many masks, no bogeyman is outgrown by its tormented. The Babadook, Jennifer Kent’s brilliant debut as director, appears latched to this idea of everyday phantoms which on every level is true. It opens with a sequence in which Amelia (Essie Davis, literally floating in
Tell-All
A plot surrounding narcissistic famed-personas and root beer-eyed scheming “specimens” poses a prominent caution sign, and superimposed, when it is written by Chuck Palahniuk. The author of Fight Club lets ode to the Old Hollywood with his novel Tell-All, one of his most exhaustive works thus far (sparing Rant; that was
Maria Leonora Teresa
If the mechanics of terror are as superficial as placing drum-hits and cheat-scares, then the genre might as well be dismissed moot, at the easiest, as it is sometimes dismissed by the high-brow cinephile. And there is a reason why it is not. For one: the genre of horror — for
