It is interesting that when Rick (Riz Ahmed) nervily assesses his employer—“your problem is you don’t understand people,” he notes—Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), the employer in question, would only feign him a bug-eyed sympathetic look while coating a condescending grin. Rick has not a lick of sense how Bloom, at
Tag: Essential Viewing
Violator
For an audience as discerning as the “Dodo” Dayao—his film writings, after all, are compiled in his expansive blog titled “Piling-Piling Pelikula“—the expectations for his film are naturally high. The man, known to a large sample of readers a prolific film critic* and ardent enthusiast, operates with a sense of cutting-edge
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
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;
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
Dagitab
There is not much to do but surrender to Giancarlo Abrahan’s Dagitab (alternatively titled The Sparks), a film that holds captive its audience. It radiates in visual and textual opulence that only the deftest of hands can achieve. One scene in particular makes a perfect summation of the film as a fine work
Guardians of the Galaxy
Our fifteen-year-old selves, as I am confident is the same for most, live in an era in which we are most willing to plunge and spike into the nerdiest depths and heights of cinematic exploration in our lifetime. By close and objective inspection, this is the most awesome! The 80’s
Snowpiercer
Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho marks his momentous English-debut in Snowpiercer, a subversive, genre-melding and timely contemplation of an all-consuming society, confronted with an earth-wide layer of permafrost that renders humanity to near-extinction. What success The Wachowskis’ have achieved with their multi-dimensional odyssey that is The Matrix, Bong successfully achieves here with only
