Netflix film “Windfall” gathers a set of characters in this sleepy suspense film, reviewed by Ela Bicera. Windfall as defined by Merriam-Webster, is something (could be leaves or fruits) blown down by the wind. Windfall is considered a blessing, a sudden luck or advantage for whomever receives it. Every character
Category: Streaming & Home Media
How “Turning Red” offers a distinct narrative on puberty
Princess Kinoc writes about “Turning Red”, a new Disney animated picture directed by Domee Shi, with voices from Sandra Oh as Ming Lee and Rosalie Chiang as Mei-Mei. It is unusual for a Disney movie to show us how the real things happen in real life. While there is no
“Death of Nintendo” and the joys of 90s nostalgia
“Death of Nintendo” is Ela Bicera’s first Raya Martin film and her first contribution to FPR as a film critic. Death of Nintendo (2020) is a coming-of-age film that shows 90’s teenage nostalgia. I’m not sure if this is based on Director Raya Martin’s own story or if he’s basing
Gensan Punch offers more than your average boxing movie
Brillante Mendoza is back in ‘Gensan Punch’ and he’s understood the assignment really well. There’s a longing, lingering effect on Brillante Mendoza’s films that will continue to haunt you. It’s probably the social realism, the commentary on poverty and Philippine politics and his use of brutal scenes that complete his
Vivian Hsu returns to PH screens with HBO Asia’s “Who’s By Your Side
“Who’s By Your Side” debuts with two episodes starting this Sunday, October 3. Filipino Fans of Chinese dramas can stream the HBO Asia original series – Who’s By Your Side – exclusively on HBO GO from Sunday, October 3 at 9pm.Simultaneously available on the HBO channel, the Taiwanese series premieres
These Filipino Artists have collaborated with Netflix for La Casa de Papel (Money Heist)’s final heist through Paper Art
The artists have featured some of the notable locations featured on Money Heist (and on the title card) such as the Royal Mint of Spain and more. The end of this heist is coming! To celebrate the final part of La Casa De Papel, Netflix has teamed up with four
MOVIE REVIEW: Dito at Doon (2021)
The anxiety riled in JP Habac’s “Here and There” (Dito at Doon) is more than just the “will-they, won’t-they” aspect between two strangers, but the uncertainty of when the pandemic will be over. We did an episode with the cast and crew of Here and There/ Dito at Doon! Watch
REVIEW: Memories of Forgetting (2021)
In Jay Altarejos’ Memories of Forgetting, a romance is soon rekindled, but a secret must first be discussed. “Our memories fragile, our lifetime is very brief, everything happens so fast that we don’t have time to understand the relationship of events.” – mula sa pelikulang “The House of the Spirits”
I’ve seen #TheSnyderCut and…
I liked it. For a non-comicbook reader like myself, I advise you to watch the following DC films in this exact order: Suicide Squad, Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman, Shazam, and the 2017 cut of Justice League before watching #TheSnyderCut. Mild spoilers and opinions that might bruise you are
Film Review: EMA
Pablo Larraín has been out and about for quite some time now, yet he became a household name in 2016 after the creation of two films–Jackie and Neruda, both of which are biopics that have been deconstructed into audiovisual poetry, made even more introspective by its elements of fiction that
Past, Present, Perfect Recap (Episodes 1 to 2): Of Words and Past Loves
Our fave gal, FAMAS award-winning filmmaker, Dwein Baltazar has just launched a new project. Past, Present, Perfect? premiered on the online streaming platform iWantTV last May 31st is your post Hallmark-card inception of a forlorn love story of dreams, young love, and literature. And with this, we’re still hoping that Uniqlo finally gives her the
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 would feel the need to do so). On the other hand, one can’t stray too far or risk being accused of dishonoring the source material.
Emelie
The image of a listless suburban street opens Michael Thelin’s Emelie in such a blisteringly icy note. From an obscured point-of-view, we see a truly American terror unfold: a young woman kindly directing a stranger to the post office gets drugged and hustled inside a car. That it shatters the
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
Cure
The serial killer in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 1997 film Cure does not fit the description cinematic representations typically associate his likes. Mr. Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara) is encased in a fragile frame, scrawny, and is almost always flushed in daze. If it isn’t for the film’s first scene—a white-collar working man burgeons
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.
Han Gong-Ju
The proverbial desire to escape from the past has proven to be no less than harrowing, if not futile, for Han Gong-ju’s titular character (Chun Woo-hee), who is forced to leave her hometown following a gang-rape scandal. Despite the defeatist premise, Lee Su-jin’s visually dissonant directorial debut maintains a constant
Before Sunset
Like a high school reunion, Before Sunset is a rekindling of lost loves, and reigniting friendships we hoped to last forever. Director Richard Linklater revisits the American Jesse and the French lady Céline 9 years after their night in Vienna, which is also 9 years after the release of the
Before Midnight
Time is a consistent fascination for Richard Linklater. Friend or foe, time in his films is always depicted for being the most humanizing aspect of life—which it is. Everyone seem lost in its evanescence, compelling transports away and back to the present, and daring to bend its ephemeral and often
Before Sunrise
In our finite existence which is being challenged by both the ideas of determinism and randomness, the profound sense of connection between earthly beings are often in the most ephemeral encounters. Before Sunrise creates two memorable vivid characters in the romantic setting of Vienna conversing about some pseudo-intellectual ideas about
Starry Eyes
Starry Eyes begins with a deceptively auspicious start—an obsessed starlet (played by Alex Essoe) stumbles to her first acting job—relying on studious atmospherics that evoke very much the work of David Cronenberg. There is a brooding sense of mystery in the film that is well-built up, and also almost Lynchian,
The Fog
John Carpenter, a known conjurer of fright and respected genre figurehead, refers to his 1980 shocker The Fog as a ‘children’s film.’ The campfire scene early on is perfectly attuned to this notion, so as the number of scare scenes sprawled in the film; yet Carpenter, as ever, exudes a
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
It is from the fest circuits of ’04 and ’05 that Paul Etheredge-Outzs’s film Hellbent is unwarrantedly announced as “the first homoerotic slasher.” However, cultists who are actually familiar with the sub-genre’s history, argue in unison, championing a film more deserving of the title and that has already existed some decades
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,
