Clocking in less than two and a half hours, Magnum Muslim .357 displays a principled hero saving a damsel-in-distress from a villain working in the shadows. One of the seven basic plots in the world could work had there been a compelling script, convincing acting, focused cinematography, and a consistent
Tag: Reviews
Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles 2
A modest slice of entertainment, “Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles 2” is a return to the communal fun of adventures like Gagamboy (’03) and Magic Temple (1996).
Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo
Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo, a historical drama full of passion, plays differently against other films from different genres for there must be painstaking research involved to portray a realistic depiction of the grand narrative to the minute details of set design and character mannerisms. Thankfully, the movie does its job
Maratabat
Finding a voice that will be sincerely listened to in the age of young democracy is a great concern in the local setting. Searching for this against a number of barriers set up by tradition and by intrinsic fear of falling to the grim unknown is the aim of Maratabat:
Gemini
The oversimplified definition of film noirs has long been reduced to stories of extreme cynicism and ambivalence, a test, if you will, in perception of the truth. Naturally, my main attraction with Ato Bautista’s neurotic thriller Gemini roots from the film noirs repetitively played (but with different sets of actors)
M. (Mother’s Maiden Name)
M. (Mother’s Maiden Name) tries to respond to two questions: (1) What does your mother’s maiden name mean to you? (2) What do you do when dealt with an illness on its terminal phase? For the first, the dramedy explicitly responds through a direct answer coming from the icy, meticulous, career-driven
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,
#TWD 5.8: “Coda”
The collective effort that The Walking Dead took in order to up the ante for its fifth season is, it can be said, squandered, with such a ridiculous conclusion that leads to yet another tragic death. What the fuck, Scott M. Gimple? Lost your senses? I read in Facebook posts
Grace of Monaco
According to the crimson text that opens it, Oliver Dahan’s Grace of Monaco is “a fictional tale inspired by real events,” and in sitting through what pompous catastrophe that it precedes, you finally arrive at the purpose that it serves. Dahan, who previously made La Vie en Rose, expressed his
#TWD 5.7: “Crossed”
The fifth season of The Walking Dead has so far been a whirlwind, with consistently solid episodes that keep formidable emotional groundings. It helps that Scott M. Gimple understands the need for a faster pace, and in the process, takes the previous season’s few achievements to great use. Episodes from
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
Nightcrawler
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
Hindi Sila Tatanda
Malay Javier’s Hindi Sila Tatanda is an indulgent play at sonic and visual euphoria. The film has earned that merit. It is technically subversive, too; beginning as an innocuous slice-of-life coming-of-age with scenes that are mistakably Sundance-mold, until it plunges to a more sci-fi/genre film vibe, and finally pulls back.
#TWD 5.6: “Consumed”
Carol’s transit from small to major character is, as is the normality in the series, especially ugly, having to witness the true death of her daughter as a walker. There is a precious moment in this week’s “Consumed,” which resonates that loss deeply but the show is past the naiveté
Red
There is no description for Jay Abello’s Red more apt than a ripple, making circles within circles and telling a story about stories. In the whole it is a well-meaning reminder of the true role of an audience to a story, of the unspoken symbiosis between the teller and the
“Set Me Free” by Dillon Francis & Martin Garrix
The title of the album from which the terrific electro-house banger “Set Me Free” is released could not be any more apt: Money Sucks, Friends Rule. From all far-across corners, I can almost hear snorts lilt and drone: “You listen to that music,” this and that, that and this. Yet,
The Babysitters
Being a film about a pair of swindlers, Paolo O’Hara’s The Babysitters begins with an auspicious prelude in which a caroller drones sarcastic lyrics to those who would not spare him loose change. The scene, whilst not the most striking starter, sets the film thematically well. In the world that
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
#TWD 5.5: “Self-Help”
The Riddle of Samson—“out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet”—is cited towards the end of “Self-Help.” It can be a portentous build-up to Eugene Porter’s inexorable reveal, an homage to Stephen King’s third Dark Tower, or both, but the scene in which the riddle
#TWD 5.4: ‘Slabtown’
At last we arrive at Episode Beth (Emily Kinney)—the arc for which you and your meme generators have been in keen anticipation. The episode, titled “Slabtown,” opens in a hospital ward, peeping through a now-desolate Atlanta. Who took her is naturally our first inquiry: The last time we saw of
T’yanak
Of the plethora of think-pieces that John Carpenter’s Halloween has inspired over the decades, one thought remains most astute of the masked killer Michael Myers. He is not the predator, nature is—because it has allowed his existence, this err. The scene towards the film’s end perfectly illustrates my point: Myers,
The Book of Life
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
#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,
