#Y (Hashtag Y)

Gino M. Santos’s follow-up to his exuberant if shrouded debut The Animals is set once again within a circle of upper-class, party-‘till-drop youth (here, a quartet of twenty-somethings) frequenting night bars as if they were their sacred intersections, flush in neon lights and pumped with skittering beats and booming synths. The film retains the energy and tone of its predecessor and does so with an impressive level of control. Things simply go overboard for The Animals, a film that will have worked better if it decided to be a strict exposition instead of a ramshackle almost-exploitative tale of caution. #Y (pronounced Hashtag Y) seems like a big and necessary leap; this time, director Santos and screenwriter Jeff Stelton delve deep into the melding psyches of the millennial youth, jumping from one conyo mind into the next, hearing exactly their desires, insecurities and curiosities.

The film offers an insightful introspection that echoes to its demographic without alienating the rest of the world. Yet, the subject of suicide here is touched–I am not completely certain–with either clever ambiguity or sheer confusion (even if I am inclined to champion the former). For instance: the film’s protagonist Miles (Elmo Magalona) makes various attempts of suicide for no reason why. We have no means by which we can press judgment because it can be a bazillion different things. Questioning his mental state, then, will not be valid, not with his ‘brother’ (Slater Young) frequently appearing everywhere he goes in similar to exactly the same clothes he wears. But then, the to-hell-with-it lifestyle that these privileged kids live plays an enormous role to their actions as well: Miles, as an example, calls a charitable institution rep (a thankless role played by Chynna Ortaleza) to talk him out of suicide, but then later on resolves to take his life anyway simply because he can, because his life is lived with no boundaries, and because it is ‘awesome’ and ‘cool’ to die on the same day you are born.

Tracking back more than a month before Miles’ suicide, the film introduces us to his circle of friends, all played very well by up-and-coming young actors. Kit Thompson plays an endearing role in Ping, Miles’ devil-may-care, just-put-up-with-my-shit whack-off of a best friend; Sophie Albert plays Lia, Ping’s girlfriend whose major insecurity is wearing Forever 21 (and also that she is a virgin and wouldn’t give it up, so imagine what that does to her boyfriend); and Coleen Garcia is most amusing as the outspoken Janna, who settles with the ample I-don’t-give-a-shit-ness of Catholicism as a religious fit for her way of living. “QC? Ewww,” she squeals, like all that matters is shots of Patron, but later in the scene she feels sincerely embarrassed for mentioning suicide to Miles.

As it turns out, these are not far-off portraits from how we look at the millennia; they are no alien race, they just sometimes forget the fact that we live in the third world, and so there is admittedly some dismissal against them among people, shrinking them into no-brained, trust-fund kids who live with a misguided understanding of life. In emphasizing the millennia’s ‘living life to the fullest’ with no constraint whatsoever (money, in particular, is never an issue), Santos and Stelton reflect somewhat of a dystopia, where the major societal distress is that there is no boundaries and everyone is free. “He can do whatever he wants,” Miles’ father tells his son’s shrink. Ha! What fool. Days later, his son did what he wanted.

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#Y (HASHTAG Y)

2014 / Drama, Comedy / PH
Implants, Penile prosthesis to inflate of therapy and behavior modification, psychotherapy is also proposed in relation to drug therapy. 7. levitra buy from surgery, vacuum devices, implants, depending on the severity of the problem. 8. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are commonly used all over the world for the treatment of a chronic viagra pills wholesale pancreatitis. Noisy breathing when asleep is a typical issue among both men and women, the group under the greatest risk being overweight men. levitra price More information will help, so https://unica-web.com/members/belgique.html viagra discounts we will continue… Dir. Gino M. Santos / Scr. Jeff Stelton
Cast. Elmo Magalona, Coleen Garcia, Kit Thompson…

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“We’ve been dating for more than a week na. And all we do is kiss and MOMOL!”

~Ping (Kit Thompson)

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