As Hugh Jackman’s P.T. Barnum starts selling the idea that using exaggerations, myths, and tall-tales as thinly-disguised truths are admirable, truth be damned, I couldn’t
Category: Reviews
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
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
Smaller and Smaller Circles
Serial, Making a Murderer, The Keepers, deep dives that have sprung forth from the recent death of Charles Manson; a jarring insight commonly seen in
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,
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
Nervous Translation
People often say “see the world through the eyes of a child,” acting as if these words are the remedy to cynicism. Somehow this phrase
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
Thor: Ragnarok
Every so often, Marvel would release a collection of comics known as the ‘What If’ series, in which a cosmic being named The Watcher peers
2017 Viddsee Juree Awards Top 10 Finalists Announced
Fresh, innovative and inspiring stories have been chosen to vie for top honors at the Viddsee Juree Philippines, a festival of short films that aim
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
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
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
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
An aggressively bonkers espionage film, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, has breached into comic book territory by amplifying its level of outrageousness in this sequel. The
Blade Runner 2049
Let’s set expectations first. Full disclosure, I am in love with the original Blade Runner. It’s up there with Oldboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Fight Club
Respeto: The Futility of Resignation
Warning: Full spoilers below. There’s a mislead inherent to Treb Monterras II’s Respeto. By its sheer inclusion of the rap battle subculture — one whose
Logan Lucky
It’s interesting to see how after a sort-of drought in the heist genre, we get two quality entries this year with Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver
Death Note
Adaptations are a tricky business. There’s much to consider. At one end, originality must be injected to make the familiar unfamiliar (well, any self-respecting creative
Birdshot: An Allegory of Paradise Lost
Warning: Full spoilers below. For the past three days I’ve been thinking about what part of Birdshot leaves me so unsettled, restless with a feeling
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”
