Author: Wanggo Gallaga

THEATER REVIEW: Beautifully Broken – A Review of ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’

CAST (Company of Actors in Streamlined Theater) caps off their season with the play ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ by Rajiv Joseph. It’s a deceptively simple play with only two characters in just roughly a little bit over an hour but there’s a wealth of humanity that is loaded within as it explores the literally painful love story of two friends over the course of 30 years. I say literally because we meet the two friends – Kayleen and Doug – in five-year intervals, from 8 to 38, and one of them is always hurt. It wasn’t kidding when it included “gruesome” in its title.

Photo courtesy of CJ Ochoa

Directed by Nelsito Gomez, the play makes full use of Mirror Studios’ wall mirror for actress Missy Maramara to write down the character’s ages and the location of each scene before it starts. The two actors, with Topper Fabregas playing Doug, change in front of the audience, going down to their underwear, making them vulnerable and exposed as the characters seem to fall into whenever they meet each other. The actors barely ever leave the stage (except for one scene shift when Fabregas leaves entirely), which means we get to see them put on their make-up and prosthetics for whatever injury their characters have gotten into before the scene begins.

Photo courtesy of CJ Ochoa

From 8 to 38, we see Kayleen and Doug navigate through very tough life experiences. Doug seems to get himself into situations where he can fall from very high places or maybe even lose an eye. Kayleen’s personal life – with her boyfriends and her parents – leads her to self-harm. In the scenes that makes up the play, set in a non-linear order, we catch the two find solace and comfort in each other and yet unable to say how they really feel, unless the timing is all wrong. These are characters who are so used to being broken, whether physically or emotionally, that they seem to be more comfortable leaning into the hurt than moving towards the safe space that they’ve made for each other.

Photo courtesy of CJ Ochoa

Despite the blood, the pain of their circumstances, and their inability to be truly honest with each other (and with themselves), the play is actually hilarious. Kayleen and Doug, on paper, are really sad and miserable people but when they are together, they bring out the best in each other and their wit and their candor are as true as any two best friends can be that it fills the stage with so much warmth. This is predicated by the effortless performances of Topper Fabregas and Missy Maramara.

Photo courtesy of CJ Ochoa

What’s incredible about the two as he easily they shift from 8 to 38, catching the joys and foolishness of our teenage years to the desperate rush of our 20s when we feel like everything is at stake, to the exhausted and jaded 30s when your life is not what you imagined it to be. All of these complex layers of people in these ages, the two actors are able to personify so perfectly while still adding on the added layer of these two specific broken individuals into the plate. It’s amazing to watch. And the fact that the play moves back and forth through time, means that Fabregas and Maramara must go from an adult back to a teen and then back to an adult again.

Photo courtesy of CJ Ochoa

The effect is captivating.

‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ is not an easy play to digest. It asks you to laugh with (not at) these two poor individuals as they try to sort out their lives while dealing with disappointment and pain, scene after scene. The characters make fun of their injuries, some of them almost fatal, but it’s a coping mechanism that they both cling on to. They try to find humor in the brokenness of their lives but what ends up being amplified is how badly these two people really want to live. This is a daring play, and I honestly would never have thought to have been able to see a play like this in the Philippine theater scene. It’s bold. It’s mature. It’s surprisingly what we need now as world events are constantly making us think about our mortality.

My Rating:

Gruesome Playground Injuries will run on November 29, 30, and December 1, 2024. Get your tickets here. For inquiries about reservations or partnerships, contact gruesome.mnl@gmail.com.

Please note that the show includes themes and imagery of violence, self-harm, suicide, sexual assault, abuse, injuries, and blood.

November 19, 2024
THEATER REVIEW: ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ and the Power of Vulnerability

I was fortunate enough to have been invited to the open rehearsal of The Sandbox Collective’s new production ‘Tiny Beautiful Things,’ a play based on the book by Cheryl Strayed and adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos. Directed by Jenny Jamora, the rehearsal was already a powerful, moving experience that brought me to tears and I’m excited to see the actual run at the PowerMac Spotlight Blackbox Theater in Circuit this coming weekend.

Image Courtesy of The Sandbox Collective/@TheSandboxCo

The book is composed of a series of advice columns by a woman called Sugar and the play creates a space for the columnist to interact with the people writing the letters and asking for her counsel. As written, these letter writers (performed by three people playing multiple parts) share the same space as Sugar on stage, but not in reality but the furniture and the food and the drinks are all shared by them. Letter after letter, advice after advice, Sugar becomes more emboldened to give of herself – her life story, her darkest deeds and thoughts, the private parts of ourselves we usually keep hidden – and in the process the following letters are equally as exposing creating a whirlwind of emotions. In that space, healing can begin.

Set in the round, the audience circle the stage, which means the actors have nowhere to hide and while the three letter writers do have moments when they can exit the stage when someone else is interacting with Sugar, our protagonist never leaves the stage. She is a constant presence in their lives, and in the duration of the play, she becomes a constant in ours.

Image Courtesy of The Sandbox Collective/@TheSandboxCo

Taking the role of Sugar is Iza Calzado, her second foray into theater and she imbues Sugar with a genuine tenderness that can sometimes contrast some of the dark parts of Sugar’s life that she shares with her readers (and the audience). What it creates is a complex character who has seen much, been through hell and back, and is grateful for the opportunity to turn these experiences into nuggets of wisdom that might be able to heal someone else. Calzado makes use of her screen presence and transforms it into a power on stage that keeps the focus on her and permits the sincerity to bridge the gap with her perspective on life, which may not always be like yours, but the insight is something so deep and profound that it touches you.

Image Courtesy of The Sandbox Collective/@TheSandboxCo

The three actors during the rehearsal were played by Rody Vera, Gabby Padilla, and Ketchup Eusebio (with Brian Sy and Regina De Vera as alternates) and they have the great task to shift characters after every letter. When not portraying a letter writer, they stay on the stage, either engaging in the conversation Sugar has with one of the senders or taking space at some part of the stage and just doing ordinary things. This direction keeps the stage alive and vibrant, like life is bursting through regardless if the sender’s story is a funny one or a sad one. The three players can shift to any gender or age, but they don’t assume an overdramatic rendition except for some special moments. When one of Ketchup Eusebio’s characters is a little boy, he fully embodies it and transform but when he has to play the part of a transman, it’s not an affected performance. It’s like there’s a baseline for all the characters that they play that they don’t stray too far away from. It feels connected to the fact that none of these people use their real names. All the letters are anonymous, and even when they ask for Sugar’s real name, she doesn’t give it either.

Image Courtesy of The Sandbox Collective/@TheSandboxCo

It’s the tiny nuances like this that adds an extra layer of depth into the production. It was an open rehearsal – so the set design approximates what will be on stage at the PowerMac Spotlight Blackbox – and no spotlights or lighting effects were used, but already the play felt so full and powerful. The set is a full-on working home with a coffee machine that makes actual coffee, and I can imagine what that smell would do for that scene in the actual theater. It’s this fullness that pulls you in further as you get swept into the world of Sugar and her letter writers.

Image Courtesy of The Sandbox Collective/@TheSandboxCo

And the brilliance of the script, pushed forward by its very capable cast and the clear directions, allows for the play to hit hard at the end and you’ve come to realise that the vulnerability that was slowly growing onstage, from Sugar to the senders of the letters asking for her advice, is the same vulnerability you are experiencing as you are connecting to one of those stories.

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The play underscores how vulnerability is an essential part of healing. As someone who is going through therapy now and trying to get over something, this play touched me in a very profound way. And even if you are not going through something, there’s a story there that is going to remind you of someone – or yourself – and you’re going to nod your head and smile.

My Rating:

Tiny Beautiful Things will run from November 16 to December 8, 2024, at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Black Box Theater in Circuit Makati. The intimate venue is the perfect setting for a play that thrives on human connection and emotional vulnerability. Tickets are available through Ticket2Me.

November 15, 2024
Movie Review: An Unmagical Christmas Tale: A Review of ‘Red One’

There is something frustratingly commercial about the holiday action adventure ‘Red One.’ The film imagines that mythical creatures do exist – from witches and trolls and even Santa Claus – but a hi-tech organization watches over them and ensures that there is a semblance of peace between the mythological world and the human world. For this film, Santa Claus is given the code name of Red One by his team of bodyguards and assistants and he lives in the center of a vast cosmopolitan city in the North Pole, hidden by a force field and a cloaking mechanism.

Right at the onset, ‘Red One’ attempt to rationalize the mystical and the fantastical by creating shadow organizations that are leaning heavily more towards science and technology than they are, to what is essentially, the realm of magic and wonder and imagination. Red One’s sleigh is a hi-tech vessel run by his gigantic reindeer but let’s put a lot of levers and buttons on the sleigh just to make it look technological.

It’s an approach that feels unimaginative and wholly capitalist-driven.

In ‘Red One,’ Santa Claus (JK Simmons) is kidnapped and the head of his security detail, Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson) must work together with the man responsible for getting Santa caught in the first place: the hacker and fixer Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans). Jack doesn’t believe in Christmas. In fact, he doesn’t believe in anything. He’s an absentee father who uses his know-how to work high scale jobs for anonymous clients for big money. His latest job got Santa Claus kidnapped and now he’s the only lead to tracking down his client.

The film takes on the buddy-cop formula, Callum and Jack can’t stand each other and are morally opposite of each other, and as their search for Santa leads them to the witch Gryla (Kiernan Shipka), they discover her sinister plan to punish everyone who has ever been naughty, which will include Jack’s own son.

Despite all of Chris Evans’ charms, even he seems to struggle finding a sweet spot for Jack. As written, he’s an awful person and an awful dad and while the film attempts to redeem him (as a mainstream movie would do), Callum is also hoping to retire because he does not see the good in people anymore. Naturally, the film attempts to change his mind.

Throughout the film, the two battle it out against Gryla’s assortment of lackeys for some big special effect fights with explosive choreography that doesn’t really mean anything if you don’t particularly like anybody. The only time that the film touches upon something that feels really magical and special is when it brings them to Germany to visit Krampus (Kristofer Hivju) and everything about Krampus and his world feels the most authentic because it doesn’t rely on the hi-tech world that feels so odd in this story.

The marriage of science fiction and hi-technology and magic has been done before. You have television shows like ‘Dr. Who’ and ‘Torchwood’ who have made it work. The idea of Thor and Dr. Strange seems to fit well in the MCU but ‘Red One’ takes such pride in their gadgetry and tries to make Santa hip and cool rather than see that there is some level of coolness to the whimsy of an old man delivering gifts all by himself. The bombs and the explosions, the hi-tech gear, and flying cars all seem to undermine the whole spirit of the symbol that Santa brings. It’s not the toys but the good cheer and the generosity of spirit that makes Christmas so great.

Even with Lucy Liu, Bonnie Hunt, and a hilarious Nick Kroll can breathe some humanity in a film that imagines Santa Claus as a Mission Impossible agent and that Christmas is just job that he does every year. They say it’s for the kids, but the only real kid in the whole movie is that of Jack’s and he doesn’t really play a part until three-fourths of the movie.

My Rating:

Red One is now showing! Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

November 15, 2024
Movie Review: ‘Balota’ is a Wake-Up Call, Caught in the Middle of Its Mainstream Sensibilities with Indie Aesthetics

Immensely relevant, ‘Kip Oebanda’s ‘Balota’ is a timely call for the people to wake up and take charge of the nation’s future by being savvier about our elections and our politics. The film takes a dark, satirical tone to give voice to what the film expresses as something we all are aware of – corruption, dirty politics, election fraud and theft – but seem incapable of stopping. With a brilliant cast, ‘Balota’ is spread thin by the film’s two-pronged approach: mainstream sensibilities and an independent filmmaking style. The film is successful at what it sets out to do in its messaging but struggles to fully utilize either of its approaches to make something that really stands out.

‘Balota’ is set in 2007, in an unnamed, small rural town during its mayoral elections. On one hand is the incumbent mayor (Mae Paner), a land grabbing politico who is well-known for her affairs and policies on work and employment that have caused casualties while her opponent is a former sexy-star-turned-politician (Gardo Versoza) who promises a change of guard. Caught in the middle is Emmy (Marian Rivera), a tough, well-loved teacher who is assigned as a poll watcher and as she must deliver the ballot box to the governor’s office for counting, she escapes with her life from an armed attempt to steal the ballot. Alone in the woods and with no one to trust, she has to figure out what to do with the ballot box that is handcuffed to her hand while fearing for the safety of her son (Will Ashley).

Oebanda creates a vivid world. He dramatizes for us, in simple terms, the way these things work during elections. He shows us how votes are bought, how goons shake down the people, and how even the police are involved. The town is a living, breathing entity with its own thoughts and agency. Emmy’s son, Enzo carry a superficial discussion on politics with his cousin Jimbo (Raheel Bhyria) that shows us how the youth have interest but still need to dig deeper into the layers of politics outside of image and branding. The cops, through the characters played by Joel Saracho and Royce Cabrera, show different aspects of people all just caught up in the crossfire. At one point, the film even takes time to focus on two members of the queer community – played by Sassa Gurl and Esnyr Ranollo – and how a job can be opposite of your own political views while Donna Cariaga plays a woman leading a protest for worker’s rights and justice for her dead husband against Mae Paner’s incumbent mayor.

Image from Marian Rivera FB Page

It’s a wonderful interweaving of real-life issues and characters with different motivations and value systems and it’s so interesting to watch as the film shifts from a satire to political thriller as Emmy has to literally fight for her life. As the film unfolds, it builds up on the campier aspects of satire, moving more and more towards the absurd. At the film’s third act, Emmy faces off with the main antagonist and they have a back-and-forth that is straight out of a teleserye only elevated by Marian Rivera and her co-star’s (won’t reveal to spare you of a spoiler) magnificent acting.

Image from Marian Rivera FB Page

But it’s this aspect that I find the weakest in the film. The film carries mainstream sensibilities – this is a film Oebanda needs people to see and so he casts Marian Rivera and creates a plot that is thrilling and exciting but carries with it an idealistic ending (but still with a sharp ending commentary) and a mainstream tone – but it’s shot and filmed like an indie movie. There’s a lot of holding back to try and keep the film grounded in its aesthetics and pacing. It’s not quick in its narrative rhythm as it likes to linger to try and evoke thought. There’s still a feel and an aesthetic that keeps it feeling like an indie film when the foundation of the story feels better suited for a mainstream film. It saddles uncomfortably in the middle and I feel the film would benefit more if it leaned in more to any other two sides.

But despite my observations, I love the performances in the film. Rivera manages to truly be in the moment and really captures all the layers that makes Emmy such an interesting character. She’s tough but loving and the way every character reacts to her as written is supported by the way Rivera realizes the character. She has a strong moral center but never makes it corny or fictional. She is vulnerable when her character is pushed to the limits, but you can also see her gather her strength when her character needs it. It’s a magnificent display of Rivera’s range. Everybody else manages to elevate the material with Royce Cabrera, Joel Saracho, and Gardo Versoza also showing off their immense range.

My Rating:

Balota is now showing! Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

November 12, 2024
Streaming Review (Disney+) — Unglamorous Gangnam: First 2 Episodes of ‘Gangnam B-Side’

Wanting to show “the shadow of Gangnam,” director Park Noo-ri takes a gritty and brutal approach to showing the popular party district of South Korea in her new Disney+ series ‘Gangnam B-Side.’ The show is an 8-episode mini-series with 2 episodes released every week for 4 weeks. It’s a crime drama that is centered on a woman, Jae-Hee (Kim Hyeong-Seo), who is on the run from the dark underbelly of Gangnam for what she knows about a series of disappearances in the area. On the case is Kang Dong-woo (Jo Woo Jin), a detective who has no friends in the police force after he exposed corrupt police officers a few years prior but has a personal connection to Jae-Hee, as she happens to be friends with his troubled daughter. Adding more chaos to the mix, Jae-Hee’s pimp, Gil-ho (Ji Chan Wook) is trying to protect her by coming after the man who has ordered for her to be found. Rounding up the players is a new young prosecutor (Ha Younkyoung), who appears to be swayed by the politics of corruption in the justice system and Noh Joon-Seo (Jung Ga-Ram), a drug-addicted idol who is connected with the underworld and is after Jae-Hee.

In the first two episodes, Park Noo-ri takes her time to establish the harsh world of secret clubs, heavy drug use, and prostitution. She takes time to deglamorize the party scene of South Korea and is adept at giving us the decadence and brutality of this world. As the show is made and exhibited in Disney+, it’s not afraid to get very violent and very risque, with very overt displays of drug use and heavy implications of sex.

In fact, the more familiar members of the cast – Ji Chan Wook, Ha Younkyoung, and Jung Ga-Ram – take radical transformations to play outside of their type. Ji Chan Wook is menacing as the outlandish street enforcer, Gil-ho. He smokes, he wears fur coats and makes use of his physicality to do some hard-hitting action scenes as he ruthlessly beats up anybody who gets in his way. The usually bubbly and cheerful Ha Younkyoung is the guarded prosecutor with a stern and no non-sense aura. Jung Ga-Ram, on the other hand, is menacing as an idol who may or may not be sober in most of his character’s scenes. This alone brings a lot of excitement to the show as we are watching some of K-Dramas most reliable performers do something outside their wheelhouse.

A lot of K-Dramas in this genre shows us the corruption amongst cops, so this is nothing new. From the way the first two episodes are presented, it seems that Detective Kang Dong-Woo is prepared to face off against the whole force to protect Jae-Hee and the first two episodes tease that maybe we’ll be seeing him teaming up with Gil-Ho in later episodes, which will be quite interesting to see. After all, they are both strong and competent yet opposites of each other in the law, though they both are men of integrity.

What Jae-Hee knows is yet to be revealed and no one knows she has it on record on her phone except for Noh Joon-Seo. This is a crucial plot point that will keep the show thrilling and suspenseful until next week. The loose cannon here is the prosecutor, Min Seo-Jin. She seems tough and a scene plays out where she’s asked to do as she’s told so she can rise in the ranks fast but she’s not afraid to demand that she insists on being properly compensated. The casting of Ha Younkyoung is perfect here because you expect her to be a good guy, and she might still be, but the fact that you aren’t sure yet by the end of the second episode adds to the thrill.

The first two episodes of ‘Gangnam B-Side’ shows off all the strengths of the series. It’s got a great cast, great action scenes, interesting characters, and a thrilling plot. If it maintains this, it’s going to be a fun 4 weeks.

My Rating:

Gangnam B-Side is now streaming on Disney+! Click here to watch it now.

November 11, 2024
The Duality of the Cast of ‘Gangnam B-Side’ Comes Through at their Press Conference

Last week, ClickTheCity was invited to attend the press conference of Disney+’s latest action-packed crime Kdrama ‘Gangnam B-Side.” In attendance was the main cast of the show: Jo Woo Jin, Ji Chan Wook, Ha Younkyoung, and Kim Hyung Seo, and director Park Noori. The show is a gritty, hard-hitting crime series that is set out show the other side of the glamorous Gangnam district, known for its cosmopolitan flavour and its club scene.

The show centers around Kim Hyung Seo’s character, Jenny. A woman on the run as she has something people are willing to kill for. Jo Woo Jin plays a police captain who is hated by the police force for giving up corrupt officers and is now searching for Jenny because of her connection to his daughter. Ji Chan Wook plays a street enforcer and pimp, who seeks to protect Jenny from those who are out to kill her. Ha Younkyoung plays the new prosecutor who finds herself caught in this intricate web and her own agenda is still quite unclear at the get go.

The show’s first two episodes is fast-paced and thrilling and it’s not afraid to show the darker side of South Korea’s fancy party district. The violence is brutal and the presentation of drug use and the implications for sex are heavily shown, which makes it tougher and braver than most Kdramas out there. Ji Chan Wook and Ha Younkyoung play characters so far removed from their usual roles.

In fact, the duality of the stars were in full display as they came up on stage when called for photos and showed their usual lively and bubbly selves but when the host would ask them to give an action pose or a fearsome pose, they’d quickly get into character. The person on screen in the show is so far removed from the persons present at the press conference.

Kim Hyung Seo was the most giddy and excited amongst the cast. She admitted that she was so busy shooting that she was thrilled that she was going to meet “new people.” When describing her character, Jenny, she could only say “a mystery” as she was scared of spoiling anything. “She seems fragile and unstable,” she says and then stops herself explaining that she had accidentally slipped and said a story point in a previous interview and so now she is being very careful. Everyone laughs and doesn’t press her for more.

The lead of the show, and the one who seems like the moral center, Ji Woo Jin plays Kang Dong-woo, who he describes “a character with fiery passion for justice” and “a real adult who you’d want to be on your side.” He shared that director Park Noori, who he has worked with before, asked him to portray the character with a very heavy presence and so he gained 18 kilograms to take on this role. “I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been,” he said, but he seems to have lost it all as he was praised by the host that he’s like a shapeshifter.

The most notable transformation for the show is that of Ji Chan Wook. Always the gorgeous leading man, Ji Chan Wook is now playing a gritty, frightening underworld enforcer. He smokes in the show – I wonder if his endorsements will be affected – and he wears outlandish costumes. Ji Chan Wook explains, “He is dressed to standout. He is styled to appear more dangerous.” When remarked that he looks so different and exudes an aura so contrasting to his usual cookie-cutter roles, Ji Chan Wook gives credit to the make-up team, the stylists, and the cinematographer. He explains that there’s always a wound or scar on my face to show how dangerous his world is and he can only do so much to be someone he’s not. “A lot of my transformation is due to the great work of my team,” which is such a refreshing approach for his answer.

To prepare for her role, Ha Younkyoung interviewed retired prosecutors and really studied their culture and what they go through all the time. She was praised for her eloquence and diction in the previews of the episodes and she said it was due to the way the character is written, “My character doesn’t speak much but when she does, it’s a lot of jargon and it’s long so I had to practice and make sure I got it right.”

Director Park Noori has made a name for herself for directing the financial crime film ‘Money’ and it is there she got to work with Jo Woo Jin, who she immediately tapped for the role of Kang Dong Woo. She cast Kim Hyung Seo after an audition and knew she had her Jenny after Kim read the first line. “I cast her after she read the first line and I went and rewrote the screenplay with her in mind.” In casting for the street enforcer Gil-ho, Park Noori also said that she and her mother are fans of Ji Chan Wook and she wanted to explore a different side of his personality by offering him the role. She is also quoted for saying that his action sequences are “near perfect.”

The fight scenes in the first two episodes of ‘Gangnam B-Side’ are really exciting and full of energy and Ji Chan Wook and Jo Woo Jin commit to the exercise fully, creating action scenes that are fast-paced and brutal. When asked how he approached these “near perfect” fight scenes, Ji Chan Wook states that he is “more interested in the story of the action sequence.” He asks why is the character fighting in the scene and what weapon is he using. He is focused on the story of the fight to help him execute it well. On the other hand, Kim Hyung Seo had to do a lot of running in high heels and they “shot for 10 hours” and when she got hime she saw that she lost a lot of weight and she was happy about that.

Despite all the funny interactions and the care the actors and director shared about the show, at the end of the day, ‘Gangnam B-Side’ is still a dark tale about the unseen underbelly of South Korea’s party capital. Park Noori wanted to show the “shadow of such a bright place.”

If the first two episodes are any indication and if the level of secrecy from some of the actors about the nature of their roles give us a hint, this 8-episode series is going to be something to watch out for.

November 9, 2024
Streaming Review: ‘Outside’ is a Well-Crafted Domestic Drama Disguised as a Zombie Movie

From the opening scene of ‘Outside,’ writer/director Carlo Ledesma already lays the groundwork for his approach to the zombie genre. A beat-up van carrying four dirty, exhausted passengers pass through an empty highway flanked by sugarcane fields tells us everything that we need to know: the zombie apocalypse has already started, and this family is on the run. The film begins and they’ve already witnessed and experienced things. What exactly? While some of these events are spoken about much later on in the film, Ledesma expertly weaves in what the audience already knows about zombies to let our imagination do the work. It’s only from the cast’s performances that informs us how intense it all is. Sid Lucero, Beauty Gonzales, Marco Masa, and Aiden Tyler Patdu play the family and as we see them arrive at an old hacienda, we know what they’ve been through must have been hell.

And from here, this is what makes ‘Outside’ so refreshing. Ledesma knows the audience have expectations and continues to subvert it at every turn. You are expecting a zombie hoard but instead, he hits you with a complex domestic drama turned thriller all set in the backdrop of a zombie movie. Because while there are zombies, they are not the scariest thing in the film. For the pillars of this family – Sid Lucero’s Francis and Beauty Gonzales’ Iris – are not in good terms and their children, Masa’s Joshua and Patdu’s Lucas, are bearing the brunt of it.

Set in a broken-down hacienda somewhere in Negros Occidental, Ledesma uses the beautiful architecture of the house amidst the grand expanse of the sugarcane fields surrounding the mansion as a battleground for a broken family. Francis and Iris’ marriage is falling apart, and it unfortunately happens during a zombie outbreak. Tensions are high and moving back into Francis’ ancestral home reignites horrible memories of his traumatic youth with an abusive father.

The film unfolds slowly, establishing the deep hurts that have been embedded in each character, for even the children are not spared from the backlash of all of this emotional turmoil. Francis is trying to keep his family together while Iris is just looking for a place to feel safe and as the constant presence of zombies continue to complicate the already-tense situation, every emotion is amplified and pushes the characters to their limit.

‘Outside’ goes beyond the zombie genre and manages to intersect and weave in various plots – the domestic drama, psychological horror, and zombie movie – into one narrative. For those expecting a high-paced thriller, you might be disappointed (though there is one exceptional action-packed sequence at the start of the second act that is exquisitely choreographed and executed) as the film is more interested in developing and building up its characters.

Sid Lucero and Beauty Gonzales are wonderful at holding this whole film together. The film centers around the two of them and their battle of wills. Lucero handles Francis’ breakdown with all the layers that it requires so that it never feels like a caricature or some easy psychotic episode. He works on every individual dimension of his character’s burden: protecting his family, dealing with his trauma, reconciling with his wife, losing control, redefining the home he never wanted to return to. Gonzales, on the other hand, is a woman struggling against her lack of options. How does she get away from her husband with her kids when he has the key to the van, a gun, and a strong desire to keep everyone together. I was surprised by how this film was able to communicate how trapped some women must feel inside a broken marriage. While the zombies have taken multiple metaphors over the course of half a century or more since their appearance in the medium of cinema, this was the first time I saw the zombies as a metaphor for all the external forces that keep women in a failing marriage.

While I feel that the film could use a simpler plot – there are scenes that are there where I feel they only serve to offer new choices for Francis and Iris – what I love about ‘Outside’ is that it never goes out of its way to scare you. It is so confident that the dramatic situation is already tension-filled and frightening that it doesn’t go overboard in the filmmaking to scare you. No inorganic jump scares or overbearing music or crazy camera angles. It’s just clean, beautiful filmmaking that’s focused on character development that’s pushing the story forward. The fact that the film is well-acted, and the elements are fit for horror is just icing on the cake.

My Rating:

Outside is now streaming on Netflix! Click here to watch it now.

October 20, 2024
Movie Review: New Characters, Same Story, Same Tricks: ‘Smile 2’ Is Your Standard Horror Film

I don’t remember much from the first movie, ‘Smile,’ except its dramatic ending confrontation where the demon finally reveals itself and I thought the imagery of that was quite gruesome and original. But I don’t remember much about the story or the main character and what happened to the demon after the film. Luckily, the sequel, ‘Smile 2’ takes none of that story and just presents the demon and how it is victimizing new characters.

Unfortunately, this means that writer/director Parker Finn must establish his new protagonist and the world that she lives in and how the demon fits in all of this. Going over my review of the first film, I commented that Finn has an issue with drawing out scenes and overextending his moments and storytelling and he’s still at it. The film is a little over two hours and it gets exhausting. Finn has a good sense for creating tension with his camera but as a storyteller, he is constantly trying to scare you and after a while, we forget the story, we can’t invest in the characters, and we are just preparing for the scares.

Naomi Scott stars in Paramount Pictures Presents A Temple Hill Production A Parker Finn FIlm “SMILE 2”

In the sequel, the demon finds its way to haunt Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a pop star who just got back from serious car accident. At the top of her game, she succumbed to the lure of drugs, and she is attempting a redemption tour, trying to stay sober while the death of her boyfriend who perished during the same car accident is still fresh in her mind. She has a new album and is preparing a tour and it’s the worst time ever for someone to be making a comeback but there is pressure from her management, who is also her mother (Rosemarie DeWitt).

Lukas Gage stars in Paramount Pictures Presents A Temple Hill Production A Parker Finn FIlm “SMILE 2”

So now Skye must rehearse, make appearances, fit for costumes, and psych herself up for her concert in just ten days while the demon begins to plant delusions in her head. What follows is a slow descent into madness for Skye and because the film never really takes the time to humanize her, it’s hard to be on her side and root for her to survive.

Naomi Scott does not have the most expressive face, and it creates a resistance to trying to connect with her. She comes off as cold and unfeeling and it may be part of the character but it’s a performance that doesn’t help us want to be on her side. When she’s performing as Skye – singing and dancing – you can see that she’s made for it, and she’s prepared. She looks amazing. But it’s a horror film. I have to root for her, and I don’t. Later on, when the hauntings escalate, she begins to really express her fear and frustrations; she really works double time to show us she’s going mad. It’s a committed portrayal but she needed a softer approach early on and that is a point against the film.

What Finn creates are some gruesome and twisted imagery, playing off Skye’s own hurts and insecurities. He brings in the pain and the trauma from the car accident for some really strong visuals that can elicit horror. He also isn’t’ afraid to get silly, with a choreographed tableau that is equal parts frightening and funny. He keeps pushing and pushing for Skye to lose her mind and hoping that we’d all have fun seeing her break and at some point, I felt that the film may have gone far away from where it is set up to be, but it manages to turn back and deliver the ending that was needed for a film like this.

In the landscape of horror, ‘Smile 2’ has some vivid imagery that may find longevity as a meme but outside of its thrills in the cinema, it might just get lost in the shuffle of all the other horror films coming out this October for the month of Halloween. It’s a fun watch with a date or your barkada but it’s not something you need to rush to see.

My Rating:

Smile 2 is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

October 18, 2024
THEATER REVIEW: ‘Six’ is Fun-Filled History Lesson on Women Empowerment Disguised as a Pop Concert

I’m a musical theater puritan, growing up and raised on Stephen Sondheim, Maury Yeston, Kander & Ebb, and Lerner and Lowe. Later on, I discovered Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. So, I’m not the kind of guy who truly enjoys a jukebox musical, much less new musicals that stray so far away from what I am used to. I didn’t like the thought of ‘Hamilton’ until I finally got to see it and it completely changed my mind. So, I find it funny that I was against coming in to watch the musical ‘Six’ because of its usage of pop music as its aesthetic and motif; but I was – once again! – made to eat my own words and when I saw the show and realised how amazing it is.

SIX UK Tour 2023 | Pamela Raith Photography

The 2017 musical by Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow reimagines the six wives of Henry VIII – Catherine of Aragon, Ann Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Ann of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr – as an all-girl pop group, who are in a concert and decide to hold a competition to decide who would be the group’s main vocalist. The winner will be determined by who suffered the most under Henry VIII.

The whole show takes on a full pop concert aesthetic. The backdrop is a dynamic LED light board that plays off on the songs. The band, called “Ladies in Waiting” are on stage with the performers and also part of the show in their own nuanced way. The bright, structured costumes are a mix of 70s Eurythmics and Devo inspired outfits with added touches of Victorian-era designs. And the five actresses come out, singing their hearts out and calling out to the audience, in our case “Hello, Manila,” as if they were straight out of a tour (which they are).

SIX UK Tour 2023 | Pamela Raith Photography

The opening song, “Ex-Wives” got me afraid, and proved my point about how pop songs aren’t fit for musical theater. The song is in the narrative mode and tries to establish the characters and the setting in a pop song and it sort of comes off clunky and verbose. Musically, it feels all over the place and it made me feel smug and petty.

In-between, the actresses are doing an amazing job at bringing these characters to life. The women are feisty, filled to the brim with personality, and are all leads in their own way. To prove they suffered the most, they each get a song – a monologue, if you will – to explain the hardships they endured, and this is when my feelings about the show shifted.

Pamela Raith Photography

Each individual song, after the opening, tells a story about the sort of oppressive world women have to live through each day. There’s sexism, unfair beauty standards, and oppression of all sorts that somehow work so well in each individual story. The songs, when focused on just one person’s story works so well and each wife has their own distinct musical style that was purposefully inspired by an existing pop star (according to some online articles).

Pamela Raith Photography

The touring cast is insanely talented, and they take each song and just knock it out of the ballpark. Billie Kerr plays Catherine of Aragon and I love how she never hid her thick Scottish accent while playing the English queen who hailed from Spain. It creates a layer of artifice that fits so well to the show and adds another layer of humor that just fits perfectly. Yna Tresvalles plays Ann Boleyn, and she is so full of charm and spunk. In my opinion, her character has the funniest lines, and she keeps it going throughout the whole show. Jane Seymour, the only woman who King Henry VIII supposedly loved, is played by Liberty Stottor, who gets to sing the emotional power ballad. Her soaring vocals creates a truly emotional moment that helps break the hilarity of the first two songs. Hannah Victoria kills it as Ann of Cleves, whose song is ready for the Top 40 supremacy. Lizzie Emery channels Britney Spears as she portrays the provocative Katherine Howard, whose song is more an acting piece than a vocal piece and Emery sells the story of sexual exploitation so convincingly that it brings you back into the story (the way Jane Seymour’s song does). Finally, Eloise Lord nails Catherine Parr and has the unenviable position to play the character that turns the show around. Her incredible vocals turn her R&B flavoured song into a showstopper.

Pamela Raith Photography

I had to mention all the six actresses because they were all phenomenal. ‘Six’ is pretty much a monologue play that is sung-through and despite it’s silly pop-concert conceit, manages to really bring to light the sort of challenges women continue to face every day. They use the stories of the six wives but told with modern touches – lingo and jargon, dating apps, and the like – to show that the way the patriarchy has objectified women hasn’t much change in 500 years.

Pamela Raith Photography

Except for the first song, which I’m not a fan of, the rest of the songs fit perfectly as both narrative exploration of character as well as rousing pop songs that will get you clapping to the beat. It’s such a fun show that I was taken completely by surprise and fell immediately in love with the musical. In fact, I don’t want to listen to the album on a streaming site because I want to remember how it sounded with this touring cast in my head. I wish I could see it again and I wish more women get to see it for its message of reclaiming your identity from the patriarchy.

My Rating:

SIX the Musical is currently running for a strictly limited engagement at The Theatre at Solaire until October 20. For more updates and exclusive peeks behind the royal curtains, keep your eyes on gmg-productions.com and follow @gmg.productions. This October, the queens of “SIX” aren’t just rewriting history—they’re making it.

October 16, 2024
THEATER REVIEW: Theater as Voyeurism – A Review of ‘Request sa Radyo’

There’s a magic, a spontaneity, that live theater offers that movies can never really capture. I love both, dearly, but while the power of film as a storytelling technique is how it uses the camera to capture the essence and truth about life and the human experience – the camera (and editing) being able to come close to the subject, distend time, connect images together – theater allows us to see it in front of us in real time. The narrative is unfolding right there, on the stage, and if one is so bold (and one should never) you could get up and touch it. It’s that presence, what cultural theorist Walter Benjamin would call art’s “aura,” that makes the theatrical experience like no other.

This aura is pushed beyond its limits in the masterpiece play ‘Request Program’ (or ‘Request Concert,’ depending on the translation), a 1973 play by Fran Xavier Kroetz. It’s a roughly 70+ minute play with absolutely no dialogue. Just one person coming home after what seems like a long day and we witness their evening activities before going to bed. No dialogue whatsoever except the character switching the radio on, giving us a clue to what lies underneath.

At the Samsung Performing Arts Theatre in Circuit, Makati, a revival of the play with distinctly Filipino touches has been reimagined as ‘Request sa Radyo’. The production stars both Lea Salonga and Dolly De Leon, who perform separate shows just an hour apart. It is produced by an incredible team, including theater director Bobby Garcia and stage and costume designer Clint Ramos, a 6-time Tony Award nominee and recipient of the Tony Award for Best Costume Design.

Bobby Garcia

At the Samsung Performing Arts Theatre in Circuit, Makati, a revival of the play with distinctly Filipino touches has been reimagined as ‘Request sa Radyo’. The production stars both Lea Salonga and Dolly De Leon, who perform separate shows just an hour apart. It is produced by an incredible team, including theater director Bobby Garcia and stage and costume designer Clint Ramos, a 6-time Tony Award nominee and recipient of the Tony Award for Best Costume Design.

Clint Ramos

Theater, sometimes called Drama (as in “to dramatize” a story), usually follows an event, a complication or a struggle that can be enjoyable to watch or even disturbing, with the idea of evoking thought and emotion. It’s why we go to the theater or the movies: this never ending need to consume stories and to make it what we will. What separates ‘Request sa Radyo’ apart from almost all of the theater productions you’ve seen is that it asks us to observe and experience the mundane, the ordinary.

Photo courtesy of Sandro Paredes

The character simply enters her home – in this iteration, it’s a flat in New York, the character in hospital scrubs, either a doctor or a nurse, most probably a nurse – and settles in for the night. She cooks dinner – she actually prepares rice – and microwaves leftovers from the refrigerator. She washes a stain on her blouse while listening to the radio. Once in a while, she stares out into space. She eats her dinner. She cleans up. She does some art while listening to a radio station that markets specifically to Filipinos in America, playing mostly Tagalog songs and subtly creating the play’s narrative thrust.

Photo courtesy of Sandro Paredes

In the hands of Lea Salonga, a multi-awarded theater luminary, the role takes on weight and meaning. You’re expecting her to sing at any moment, but she enters with heavy steps and not an ounce of glamour or sophistication on her. The silence is deafening and, oftentimes, as she’s waiting for the rice to cook, she stares out into space and there’s nothing there to fill up the empty space except the songs from the radio. Salonga’s character is so striking from how numb she seems to be. It felt like this was a performance for film, surprisingly, like you want to come in close to look straight into her eyes. I was seated far away, and I was fascinated by the absence of drama.

Until that unsurprising ending note, which you can feel is coming, but you aren’t quite sure why or how you know.

Photo courtesy of Sandro Paredes

‘Request sa Radyo’ is a brilliant piece of theater and that is demanding and thought-provoking. Garcia and Ramos create a space – an actual living space – where Salonga can cook and clean and be as ordinary as she can be and it builds such a strange rapport with the audience. I can’t even help it, but I found myself saying things like ‘Lea washes dishes differently than me’ or ‘I’d switch off some of the lights’ and finding myself connecting with the character in some form or another.

Despite the lack of dialogue, the role is so difficult because, despite the fact that four hundred people are watching her, Lea Salonga has to go through her character’s evening routine as if no one is watching her. It’s an acting exercise that is a true test of one’s skill and talent: to be completely un-self-conscious and to be completely ordinary and mundane for 70+ minutes.

‘Request sa Radyo’ is a meditation on loneliness and longing. The art of theater and even movies is about voyeurism, but this amplifies it and highlights it where the play asks you to really just watch someone be without any real promise for a story. There is, though, if you look hard enough; and the experience is so riveting.

My Rating:

Request sa Radyo is currently running for a strictly limited engagement at the Samsung Performing Arts Theatre in Circuit, Makati until October 20. For exclusive updates, including ticket sale releases, visit TicketWorld.

October 15, 2024