So long, farewell Sinag Maynila Film Festival 2019! We were invited by Keith Deligero, Lawrence Ang and company thru Contagious Inc. to discuss the Sinag Maynila Film Festival. Forgive our shyness, here’s hoping you guys join in the discussion too! We don’t bite, although you can always bite us if you don’t
Category: Festival Coverage
“SI CHEDENG AT SI APPLE” is that ‘tita’ who calls you fat in reunions
Chedeng (Gloria Diaz) finds her true love and Apple (Elizabeth Oropesa) gets away with murder. This is the premise of Si Chedeng at si Apple, a road trip comedy film from the writers of Patay na si Hesus (Fatrick Tabada) and Birdshot (Rae Red). Both women in their 60’s have
The messy, mundane, and other #BuhayElbi things
Submitted by Cidee Despi Each year, Pelikultura: the CALABARZON Film Festival attempts to showcase the diverse cultures of Los Baños, Laguna through the #BuhayElbi category. The category is open only to residents of LB. The premise of the competition gives the filmmakers, often students of the University of the Philippines Los
Sundance Review: “SWEET COUNTRY”, A powerful slowburn on australia’s not-so-sweet history
Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country opens with Sam Neill’s preacher Fred Smith sharing a meal with his Aboriginal farmhands Sam and Lizzie Kelly (exceptional newcomers Hamilton Morris and Natassia Gorey-Furber). “We’re all equal in the eyes of the Lord,” the preacher sermonizes as he says grace with the couple. This scene serves as a
Siargao
From the hovering drone shots that capture how the lush greenery of the island converges with its unrealistically clear blue seas to the immersive surfing montages which alternate from above and below the deep, it’s undeniable that Director Paul Soriano’s Siargao has no trouble conveying the allure of the titular
Ang Larawan
There are projects that beyond their flaws you’ve got to praise for brazenness, the amount of love put into their creation. There’s this air of faith, of passion, that permeates all aspects, smoothening out whatever rough patches the material may have. Ang Larawan is this sort of project. Ang Larawan,
Call Me By Your Name
In “The Heptaméron”, Marguerite of Navarre asks the question: is it better to speak or to die? It’s a question that cradles us back to that thrilling, self-destructive, sweat-leaking-out-of-our-palms moment of professing our yearning for someone. Nevermind that it was merely a “special friendship”, which means everything and nothing at the same time.
Changing Partners
In the first minutes of Changing Partners, Agot Isidro’s Alex (don’t be confused, there’ll be two Alex’s here — that’s kind of the concept of the whole film) expresses her excitement over watching the new season of her favorite prime-time musical soap opera. Her much younger boyfriend Cris (Sandino Martin, one
Paki
About two-thirds into Giancarlo Abrahan’s sophomore feature Paki, almost the whole of its ensemble start to gather around a table for a meal. This is the first time the family’s matriarch Alejandra (acted to a tee by Dexter Doria) will face once again her then not yet present and newly estranged
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
In social psychology, there’s this concept known as moral self-licensing. Moral self-licensing is what we call the tendency of man to succeed an act of goodness with something we can, in simple terms, label as “bad.” In an episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s satiating podcast Revisionist History (which I strongly urge
Neomanila: Earned Redeption Failure
Warning: Full spoilers below. Neomanila has the uncanny ability to disorient. The film initially posits that in the underbellies of Manila, its inhabitants learn how to hold on to whatever light they can manage to get their hands on. It makes its audience believe that optimism is its endgame, that it
The Chanters
There’s a certain nostalgia that James Mayo’s The Chanters exudes even though set in the present, with social media frenzy playing a part in its story. The film evokes simpler times — times when it was commonplace for neighbors to gather around a shared TV screen after dinner just to catch the
Loving Vincent
There’s this scene from the Doctor Who episode “Vincent and The Doctor” back in 2010 where the titular doctor takes Vincent Van Gogh himself to modern day Paris to visit one of the exhibits in his name. Van Gogh, the epitome of the tortured artist, stands bystander as the curator
Ang Manananggal sa Unit 23B
There’s something inherently gothic in the pairing of romance and the supernatural — that notion of the taboo, the alienation that results from the “forbiddenness” of an affair, “you and me against the world.” There’s an idealistic purity that comes out from this subgenre of love; funny how it is
Baconaua
As dawn starts to creep in the horizon, we see the silhouette of Divina (Elora Españo), with a spear on her hands, standing in a the sea waist-deep. She’s sizing up the water, cautious not to make any unnecessary commotion. But no amount of concentration can make this a day
Kiko Boksingero
Family dramas often have the dire need to verbalize emotions via heavy-handed dramatic confrontations. Thop Nazareno‘s coming-of-age drama Kiko Boksingero spares its audience of this embarrassing rehash and instead sustains a light tone all throughout. The result remains to be a fully-fleshed earnest story efficiently utilizing its modest screen time.
Seklusyon
A take on battling one’s inner demons, Seklusyon is Erik Matti‘s return to cinema’s most difficult genre to pull off: horror. It requires the utilization of its various resources – sound, editing, cinematography, and most of all, story – with utmost precision. In this regard, it follows that any attempt
Here’s our review coverage of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2016 kicked off last September 8th and ran for 11 days thru the 18th. The largest film festival in North America hosted more than 1,200 screenings of the 296 films and attracted over hundred thousands of audiences in the busy festival village. It was an
Kusina
Something feels right about seeing Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillo on screen. Kusina (Eng. title: Her Kitchen) opens with her giving a smile, and her presence alone commands attention; immediately we are drawn in. We don’t see her again until much later, and while the scenes without her work adequately, the film
Lando at Bugoy
I am left with ambivalence upon learning in the credits roll that Lando at Bugoy is actually inspired by a real-life story. Does that supposed to elevate this film when it also happens to reinforce the silent opinion that the straightforward execution makes it look like it’s something you can
Mercury Is Mine
The defining trait of Jason Paul Laxamana’s Mercury Is Mine is its forthright craziness. Never has madness been beckoned with this much vigor; it’s reckless, relentless, and completely unsound of mind. The film opens with the title character, played by Bret Jackson, a young American, who, in the scene, finally
I America
I America, the new film from Ivan Payawal, is by no means a completely redemptive work. It is, instead, a hand-holding piece that argues the unfortunate failure of last year’s The Comeback is merely an unfortunate setback. And with his new film, the young director, at the very least, makes
Pamilya Ordinaryo
The everyday routine of a Filipino family is founded on endurance and survival: surviving the traffic during rush hours, and surviving to make good on their respective jobs; and enduring the heat, the exhaustion, and the every struggle to make ends meet. That is of course unless you are privileged
Sakaling Hindi Makarating
Letters and Romance. Since time immemorial the two have been intertwined like the hands of lovers, or in some cases, the fingers of a pleading man in heartbreak. It is through letters that romance can be sparked, it is through letters that said romance can survive or flounder. Of secret notes
Tandem
The best way to describe Tandem is that it is like the love child of Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive and Erik Matti’s On The Job. In a way, it takes the the 80’s sensibilities of the former and blends it with a plot involving the corruption and the political machinations of those in
