Author: Wanggo Gallaga

Sinag Maynila Review: ‘Her Locket’ is an uneven tale that tries to do too much

‘Her Locket,’ a film directed by J.E. Tiglao, from a script by Tiglao and Maze Miranda, is mixed bag of stories where some narratives play out better than others, while some of the more interesting ideas of the film are left out completely. Set primarily in the home of Jewel Ouyang (Rebecca Chuaunsu), a woman suffering from dementia, and her son, the lawyer Kyle (Boo Gabunada), her memories start to return after finding a locket that holds a phot of her and her family. She relates these stories to her new caregiver, Teresa (Elora Espano), who has issues of her own concerning her father and who carries a desperate need to change her appearance.

The film jumps back and forth through time, detailing Jewel’s complicated relationship with her parents and her brother Magnus (Benedict Cua as the younger version, Francis Mata as the older version) that includes leaving architecture to pursue an actor career and her frowned-upon relationship with a Filipino (Tommy Alejandrino), Each story is its own little movie that attempts to build the momentum for a confrontation between the older Jewel and the older Magnus after Magnus has taken what is rightfully hers.

Captured from YouTube: Her Locket Trailer 2024

The film attempts to tell many stories: one of mental health and the struggles one faces when living with dementia and caring for someone with dementia; the complexities of Filipino-Chinese traditions and how they can be oppressive for the younger generation; through Teresa, there’s a story about trust and loyalty and a need to run away from her past while Jewel, recalling now all her lost memories because of the locket, is ready to confront her history and face off with her brother.

Telling all of these stories, ‘Her Locket’ becomes a mixed bag because the script struggles to connect all these stories thematically. While there is a parallelism that is attempted with Jewel and Teresa’s need to face their past, the stakes are very different for both characters. Jewel’s oppression is cultural, but she has the means to take a stand and she has the strength to choose the path of kindness despite all that’s done to her. On the other hand, Teresa’s oppression is economic, and she does not have the means to easily face up to the challenges. The comparison isn’t equal, so it has a hard time finding synergy within the film’s overall narrative.

At the same time, the story tackles the complex traditions of the Filipino-Chinese family – their push towards business rather than the arts, arranged marriages, their resistance to mixed race relationships, and their strict beliefs against queer children – but these are stories that have all been told before in one way or another in books, movies, and television shows. I know that these issues still exist but their appearance in this film doesn’t offer any new insight or perspective into these narratives.

Captured from YouTube: Her Locket Trailer 2024

The writing also has a habit of painting its characters with only one palette, rendering many of the characters as one-dimensional such as Magnus and even Jewel. The most complex character in the film is Teresa, whose story feels adjunct to the rest of the movie. Her relationship with Jewel is the heart and soul of the film with Chuaunsu and Espano creating a palpable chemistry that grounds the film.

The best parts of the film go to the flashback featuring Sophie Ng as a younger Jewel. Ng has a way of breathing life into the role that even if she is written as a character straight out of a melodrama – a martyr, a victim, kind to a fault – she makes it believable. Her scenes with Tommy Alejandrino are the strongest, where Tiglao shows a capable hand of playing out the romance of their storyline. Their chemistry is strong, and their scenes brings life to the film. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long.

Captured from YouTube: Her Locket Trailer 2024

There are storylines that are presented that are never played out that could have given us a new perspective of things such as Jewel becoming an actress despite her mother’s disappointment, or a further examination of her relationship with her father, which is given just a few scenes. Those are vital but when you consider that the film’s third act is that of a courtroom drama and the children’s relationship with their father is put on centerstage, there should have been more.

‘Her Locket’ is an ambitious piece that leans in the more familiar narratives and tried to put them all in into one movie that its parts are far better than the sum. But the performances from Ng, Alejandrino, and Espano are something to remember.

My Rating:

Her Locket, a finalist in the #SinagMaynila2024 Feature Film Category, is in select cinemas from September 4-10, 2024.

September 8, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Not taking itself too seriously, ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ finds its charm in its embrace of whimsy

I’ll be the first to admit that I did not want a ‘Beetlejuice’ sequel. I loved the film when it first came out in the 80s. It was weird and out of the box for that era. I saw the film again two years ago on a streaming site and I was so sad that I felt the film did not age well. The pacing was off, the story a little disjointed, and with only the Day-O (Banana song) sequence to be the only sequence to have kept its charm. 36 years since the last film, a sequel seemed like a cash grab. I couldn’t imagine what they could do with the movie to make it feel fresh and new, aside from the fact that I haven’t really liked anything Tim Burton has done since ‘Big Fish.’

To my utter surprise, ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ is a wild, crazy ride that is whimsical and left-of-center while somehow finding a grounded emotional core that keeps it from being just mindless fun. This is the best that Tim Burton has done in the past decade because he returned to old school aesthetics. Gone are the bright CGI effects that dominated his style like in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.’ He opts for puppetry, low-tech green screen effects, and practical sets that gives the film a charm that matches toe-for-toe with the hilarity of the film’s tone.

Set 36 years after the events of the first film, ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ follows Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), a widow who works as a television host for a show about haunted houses. Her gift for seeing ghosts has given her a job but it has also created a rift between her and her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega). When her father dies, Lydia takes her stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara) and her boyfriend and her show’s producer, Rory (Justin Theroux) to fetch Astrid and to return to Winter River to bury Lydia’s father and to pack up their old house where the events of the first film happened. Throughout this period, she is suffering from visitations from Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), who is still in the afterlife, and still trying to get married to Lydia so he can return to the mortal plane.

At the core of this film is the complex relationship of Lydia, Delia, and Astrid. Astrid doesn’t believe in the supernatural and is angry at her mom for being a medium on tv. Astrid thinks her mom is faking it because, if she could see ghosts, she wonders why she’s never seen or talked to her dead father. Delia, on the other hand, walks on eggshells around Lydia. They never had the best relationship even since the first film and now she doesn’t know how to be a stepmom to Lydia, when she obviously doesn’t approve of Rory.

Things take a turn for the worst Rory, in a foolish attempt to help Lydia exorcise her past trauma summons Beetlejuice, everything turns chaotic, and Lydia must face her past if she wants to save her daughter.

Interestingly enough, ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’ takes its time with its story, re-establishing us to the characters while introducing us to the new ones. It takes a whole hour before the multiple storylines come together. There’s a storyline involving Monica Belluci as Delores, the first wife of Beetlejuice, which is completely unnecessary to the whole plot and can be removed but everything else comes wonderfully together after the one-hour mark and we see Lydia and Delia and Astrid all grow from this crazy adventure.

The film is not afraid to be silly while tackling, albeit in a whimsical manner, topics like grief and complex family dynamics. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and allows all of its actors to have fun – including Willem Dafoe, for his hilarious take on a former B movie actor turned detective in the afterlife – that the effect is infectious. It leans on the 80s and 90s for its aesthetic and music and it manages audience expectations quite well that if you surrender to crazy antics, you’ll have a lot of fun.

I didn’t want this sequel but I’m very surprised at how much fun I had while watching it. It’s great to see Keaton and Ryder and O’ Hara having a ball.

My Rating:

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

September 4, 2024
REVIEW: A total theatrical experience, ‘Mula sa Buwan’ dazzles with Gab Pangilinan taking center stage

I saw ‘Mula sa Buwan’ a few years ago, straight out of the pandemic, and as well lauded as the show was, I personally found it chaotic despite the fantastic songs and the incredible singers who were cast in that show. I couldn’t quite get into it then but that show alone showed all of Gab Pangilinan’s star power and her capacity to fill a stage with her presence and vocal chops. Coming to see this revival of the show, still at the Samsung Performance Arts Theater, the new direction by Mikko Angeles expands the stage work to include video projections that manages to amplify the narrative and creates a whimsical, almost fairy-tale like quality to the show (and a dark twisted one later in Act 2) and somehow centers the emotional weight on Pangilinan’s Roxane. It was a clever move because Pangilinan has really pushed herself to a level, I’d like to say is equal to “national treasure” because not only can she sing, but she infuses the work with all the emotions of the scene that it fills the whole theater with electricity.

‘Mula sa Buwan’ is a Filipino adaptation of ‘Cyrano de Bergerac.’ Set in Manila, right before World War II, the play follows Cyrano (Myke Salomon), a poetic genius with a comically large nose. He is known about town as a poet, a stern ROTC commander, friendly to the outcasts of society, and seems unafraid to use his wits and skills to best anyone he feels does not live up to his standards for a civilized life. At the show’s beginning, he comes off as a bully, breaking up a theatrical show for not having authenticity and making a fool out of his commanding officer, the son of a general, for his uncouth ways. But Cyrano finds himself in a sticky situation as the love of his life (and childhood best friend) Roxane has fallen in love with the handsome Christian (MC Dela Cruz), who has just come to town and is stationed under Cyrano in ROTC.

Insecure over his appearance, Cyrano accepts Roxane’s request to ensure that Christian is to be kept from trouble and when he discovers that Christian feels the same way as Roxane, he orchestrates a deception to get the two together. The thing is, Christian is not good with words and can be very clumsy, and Roxane has a poet’s heart and is attracted to wit and eloquence. Under the cover of night, Christian serenades Roxane while she’s on her balcony with Cyrano hiding in the darkness feeding him the words.

It’s the classic mistaken identity love story trope that no longer feels as romantic in the midst of 2024 sexual politics. In the current climate, what Christian and Cyrano do is catfishing – no matter how good their intentions may be – and Roxane was made to be a fool. The era nor the poetry of Pat Valera’s script can soften that so what Mikko Angeles does is to play up Cyrano’s and Christian’s selfishness. He doesn’t hide from it but he plays it up. In fact, there’s an old school theatricality to the performances – the line delivery and the blocking – which highlights the naivete of the time. It’s crucial for the emotional shift that happens on Act 2.

Because World War 2 does come and the playful romance and idealism of Act 1 is torn asunder and reality kicks in so when Roxane is forced to face heartache and pain caused by the war, Pangilinan brings all that pain, built up since Act 1, into a powerful solo that brings the house down that even I was in tears. Roxane is the heart of this production and by putting her at the center, played with by the two boys and their affection for her, the sting of the second act hits harder.

It’s not a perfect show, though. There’s a whole section in the play about the ‘Makulay na Kabataan,’ a group of outcasts (queer people and artists) who are fighting for freedom and independence but there’s no real feeling of oppression that pervades the first act. There is talk of independence, but never do we ever really feel the American occupation haunting the scenes. The title song, ‘Mula sa Buwan’ is a call for a place that is more forgiving, a place that is free from oppression but there’s none of the things that they are wishing for is seen in the play. The love story is front and center but the going-ons in the background feel empty and hollow. What are the colorful children protesting against? Why do they need independence when they can put up plays and sing out in the streets? Anything outside of Cyrano, Roxane, and Christian’s love triangle seems more like filler than something that is integral to the show nor does it inform on the love story itself.

With that said, this production of ‘Mula sa Buwan’ is still a total theatrical experience. The set designs by Ohm David are brilliant. It’s a barrage of moving sets with strange perspective that really amplifies the whimsical tone of the show. It’s immersive in a way that it feels that the world is large and wide and deep. The lighting design Meliton Roxas Jr magically illuminates the most important parts of the scene that allows us to follow the story (though I do wish the balcony sequence was just a bit darker to really sell the idea that Roxane can’t see who she is talking to) while the video projections of Joyce Garcia is immensely transformative turning the show into a fairytale. Myke Salomon’s musical score creates urgency and builds emotions. The first song of the second act is absolutely brilliant.

And the performances – Myke Salomon, Gab Pangilinan, MC Dela Cruz, Phi Palmos, Jillian Ita-as, and Jerom Canlas – fantastic singers and dancers and are able to carry the comedy as well as the romance and then the sudden dramatic shift for Act 2. It’s a total theatrical experience that is so inspiring to see on the Philippine stage.

My Rating:

‘MULA SA BUWAN’ is running until September 8 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater. For ticket details, visit mulasabuwan.com or purchase your tickets through TICKETWORLD or bit.ly/msb2024tickets.

August 31, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: When Love Is Not Enough: a review of ‘Un/Happy for You’

The romance genre in the Philippines has taken a more realistic turn since Antoinette Jadaone’s ‘That Thing Called Tadhana.’ While the kilig is still the driving force that pushes these films, movies like ‘Never Not Love You,’ ‘Sid & Aya: Not a Love Story,’ ‘Alone Together,’ and similar blockbuster films in that same vein has pushed our romantic films towards a more realistic tone: fighting for the belief that one must fix themselves first before one even thinks about pursuing love.

Petersen Vargas’ ‘Un/Happy for You’ illustrates what happens when one throws themselves into a relationship before they have solidified who they are as a person. It plays off, first as a romantic comedy before shifting gears into a romantic drama as it navigates the truth of the history behind the breakup of the two leads, Juancho and Zy.

The two protagonists meet in Bicol during a chili eating contest. Zy is desperate to join but needed a partner and took with her the first person she saw, which was Juancho. Sparks fly as the heat of the spicy Bicolano food explodes in their mouths and the two share a passionate kiss. Then six years pass, and Juancho is now owner and chef of a popular restaurant in Naga City called Casa Rosa. While inviting a VIP to his restaurant that evening to invest in his expansion to Manila, he sees Zy again after all this time. He decides to invite Zy to the restaurant – in fact, he pretty much forces her to go – despite the fact that it seems they did not break up in the best of terms.

While preparing food for her, we discover that Juancho and Zy broke up two years ago and he has held a grudge for the way that she left him and plans to take his revenge. Zy is in town to research for an article she’s writing about Bicolano food for her writing job in New York. Juancho uses all his connections to make things difficult for her but in the process, his feelings are returning (or have they never left?) and it seems that Zy herself may be feeling the same way.

Vargas excellently uses the film’s tone and aesthetic to amplify the charm of Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto to its fullest extent. Both actors have such powerful onscreen presence, and they can fill the cinema screen with their charisma. Garcia has that everyman quality while being ridiculously good-looking and Julia Barretto shines and commands attention, her beauty pushing through even though her make-up looks way too heavy in many scenes. There’s an electricity that jumps out of the two when they share scenes together and Vargas is masterful at setting up the camera to highlight this for its full effect. Noel Teehankee’s cinematography helps create the glossy sheen necessary to sell this love story.

But the script by Kookai Labayen, Crystal San Miguel, and Jen Chuaunsu (from a story by Kookai Labayan, Crystal San Miguel, and Simon Lloyd Arciaga) is tricky and clever. At first, Zy is completely framed from Juancho’s perspective so it attempts to justify Juancho’s unfair revenge, but things take a more painful turn when Juancho goes way too far, conflating his feelings of hate and love for Zy, and crossing the line.

And when the camera switches to show Zy’s side of the story, the film becomes an exploration of the toxic way that many immature people can love and hurt the people they care about the most. Following the trend of the smarter romantic movies that have come out in the past ten or fifteen years, ‘Un/Happy for You’ becomes another reminder that love is not always the answer and that love, when not managed by reason, can be such a destructive force.

With Joshua Garcia as the vessel of this, it softens the blow and gives the audience leeway to be forgiving. But when you take away Petersen Vargas’ excellent use of mainstream film language and the explosive chemistry of Garcia and Barretto, what we have is the story of a very toxic person who manages to ruin people’s lives in the name of love.

Being an ABS-CBN film (co-produced by Viva), there are safe places for these characters to land and so you can expect that the hardships these characters will face will be softer than what they deserve – though, in my opinion, Zy deserves better – but the film needs to be in that mode to catch the audience off-guard so that it can deliver its most striking messages with full impact. It has all the trappings one could ask for in a mainstream romantic movie but there’s a lot more that the film is trying to do underneath and except for the film’s odd final line (that doesn’t quite make sense, when you take into account everything that has happened) the film really hits all the right notes and is another showcase for Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto’s talents and star power.

My Rating:

Un/Happy for You is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

August 30, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: The dark, twisted fairytale ‘Blink Twice’ is an explosive debut for director Zoe Kravitz

I absolutely loved the first half of Zoë Kravitz’ directorial debut film ‘Blink Twice.’ The movie plays off like a sordid, dark fairy tale when a catering server, Frida (Naomi Ackie), who is struggling to make ends meet, serves at a function funded by the charity run by her current obsession, the billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum). With razor-sharp precision, Kravitz manages to telegraph Frida’s mental state when anything Slater King enters her mind from how she consumes media to how she acts when she finds herself near him. She’s so obsessed, she finds a way to sneak herself and her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) into the party and, just like a fairytale, she manages to capture the attention of Slater King, and he invites her for a weekend to his island with a few of his friends.

There’s a fabulous interplay here of imagery and circumstances that manages to amplify Tatum’s charm as he plays the humbled billionaire (the film opens with his character make a public apology for a vague wrongdoing) with such ease but it also manages to show how all of this – the island, the great food, the unlimited supply of alcohol, and the lack of worries – can seem so hypnotic and entrancing for Frida. It doesn’t help that Slater seems interested in her, even when the gorgeous Sarah (Adria Arjona) is also throwing herself at the billionaire.

Channing Tatum stars as Slater King in director Zoë Kravitz’s BLINK TWICE. An Amazon MGM Studios film
Photo credit: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios | © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

But while this unexpected, indulgent fairy tale of excess unfolds, there’s just something amiss, something just offscreen that feels wrong. We know it. Zoe Kravitz hints at it every chance she gets from the Mexican woman who is working in the island trying to catch the venomous snakes that Slater calls “pests” to the unending passage of time. How much fun can one person have before it starts to become redundant and boring?

The film takes a very slow pace before anything starts to reveal itself – a full hour, in fact – of non-stop partying with Kravitz slowly amping up the strangeness and the weirdness. When Jess suddenly goes missing, and no one seems to know who she is, Frida begins to suspect something is very wrong and that’s when the film shifts to his second half.

After the revelation, all of the dark fairy tale trappings is switched into the literal and the prosaic. Frida and one unlikely ally begin to talk openly about the film’s themes – though important, and very timely – but completely demystifies the film’s elegance that it had so easily built in the first half of the movie.

(l-r.) Levon Hawke stars as Lucas, Simon Rex as Cody, Liz Caribel as Camilla, Channing Tatum as Slater King, Haley Joel Osment as Tom, Trew Mullen as Heather, Naomi Ackie as Frida, Adria Arjona as Sarah and Alia Shawkat as Jess in director Zoë Kravitz’s BLINK TWICE, an Amazon MGM Studios film. Photo credit: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
© 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

What began as an excessive and overly indulgent dark and strange fairytale has now become a straight up psychological thriller with a lot of violence that speaks directly to the film’s themes.

I must admit, the second half is a fun albeit brutal and such a sharp contrast from how it started. It takes a more commercial tone at this point and plays for the full-on fantasy of the film’s theme, which finds itself in orbit with such concepts as retribution and accountability. It’s a twist that doesn’t feel too clever but fits so well in the narrative that the film has managed to weave.

Actor Channing Tatum and director Zoë Kravitz on the set of their film BLINK TWICE, an Amazon MGM Studios film.
Photo credit: Carlos Somonte | © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

For her directorial debut, Kravitz has managed to show great range, and I must admit that I love her choices. Everything I needed to see, the camera went there, and it even managed to defamiliarize some of the most mundane of scenes that it is frightening and funny at the same time.

Naomi Ackie stars as Frida and Adria Arjona as Sarah in director Zoë Kravitz’s BLINK TWICE, an Amazon MGM Studios film.
Photo credit: Carlos Somonte | © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The performance from his magnificent cast is astounding with heavy hitters like Geena Davis and Christian Slater showing off why they are legends. But it is Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum that really grounds this movie and anchors it into something real. Ackie manages Frida’s obsession over the billionaire with such authenticity that it is a scary mirror of how we tend to idolize these people we see on social media for whatever reason and Tatum manages to bring it to life. I feel that he is a heavily underrated actor and that when the film plays to his strengths, he always manages to make it work.

There’s a lot to love in ‘Blink Twice.’ Another fun and whimsical film that questions the existence of the ultra-rich and their proclivities. It’s something that we are seeing often now on social media and I’m glad it’s coming to our cinemas.

My Rating:

Blink Twice is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

August 22, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Alien: Romulus’ gives justice to the aliens and still finds time to get weird

You don’t need to see the six films in the ‘Alien’ franchise to understand the story but ‘Alien: Romulus’ takes its time to pay tribute to the first four films in the franchise that a quick watch of those films would be a pleasant treat before catching this installment. Directed and written by Fede Alvarez and co-written with Rodo Sayagues, ‘Alien: Romulus’ is a classic creature feature that takes its time to set up the dramatic situation before it starts delivering on its promise of thrills and spills. It makes full use of its science fiction and horror genre to deliver a story that still manages to stay true to the essence of the franchise’s underlying message that capitalism, in the form of the megacorporation known as Weyland-Yutani Corp, is still our biggest threat, even in the face of one of the most terrifying creatures ever created on fiction.

The film follows the story of Rain, played by the versatile Cailee Spaeny, who has transformed after such breakout performance in ‘Civil War’ and ‘Priscilla.’ Rain is trapped in a mining colony, trying to finish off her contract with the corporation so that she can leave and move to a planet where she can actually see the sun. The mining colony is an unforgiving place that has taken the lives of her parents, and she now lives with her “brother,” the busted synthetic Andy, played excellently by David Jonsson. When she discovers that her contract has been extended, she decides to take an offer by an old friend, Tyler (Archie Renaux) to fly to space to hijack an abandoned ship floating in orbit around the planet. The ship contains cryogenic sleep pods that will allow Tyler, Rain, and the rest of their crew to make it to a more hospitable planet several lightyears away.

Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine in 20th Century Studios’ ALIEN: ROMULUS. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Everything goes according to plan until they discover that the ship is not just a ship but a space station and that something very bad happened inside leaving the whole crew dead. As they reboot and repower the space station, a vessel so big its partitioned into two areas and called Romulus and Remus, they end up waking the alien lifeforms that the ship has been carrying all this time.

(L-R): Archie Renaux as Tyler and Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine in 20th Century Studios’ ALIEN: ROMULUS. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

With the alien lifeforms known as xenomorphs now awakened, Tyler, Rain, Andy, and the rest of the crew are now trying to escape with their lives.

Director Fede Alvarez on the set of 20th Century Studios’ ALIEN: ROMULUS. Photo by Murray Close. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Alvarez takes his time to let us get to know the characters: to imply the possibility that Rain and Tyler may have had a relationship before; the reason why Bjorn (Spike Fearn), one of Tyler’s crew, hates synthetics and treats Andy badly; that Tyler’s sister, Kay (Isabela Merced), has a secret of her own; and the nature of the bond between Rain and Andy and why she calls him her brother.

Isabela Merced as Kay in 20th Century Studios’ ALIEN: ROMULUS. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

In fact, it is Rain and Andy’s relationship that serves as the heart and soul of the film. The moment the xenomorphs are awakened and are out for the kill, the story becomes one big chase sequence, the crew just trying to survive but what keeps it from becoming just shlock is that Rain and Andy’s relationship turns complex as realizations are discovered in the attempts to survive. This becomes the emotional core of the film and by questioning the humanity of an AI and our ability to empathize with it adds another dimension to the film and widens the scope of the film’s genre.

(L-R): Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine and David Jonsson as Andy in 20th Century Studios’ ALIEN: ROMULUS. Photo by Murray Close. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

On the horror side of things, Alvarez knows exactly how to set up a scene, how to use his framing to create tension and fear. He pays wonderful tribute to Ridley Scott’s mise-en-scene in ‘Alien’ with the way he sets up his horror sequences while taking cues from James Cameron’s ‘Aliens’ when the film goes full-on action mode. From David Fincher in ‘Alien 3,’ he manages to adopt the sense of claustrophobia in the setting and the weirdness of Jean-Pierre Jeunet of ‘Alien: Resurrection.’

Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine in 20th Century Studios’ ALIEN: ROMULUS. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

While managing to pay homage to the films prior, Alvarez goes a little crazy in the last twenty minutes of the film, throwing in the kitchen sink and creating dramatic situations that are so big that they feel somewhat ludicrous already but the steady build up to this was so well-paced that it feels earned. The fact that it gets weird, much like Jeunet’s installment in the franchise, bordering on campy, feels right and not out of place.

Xenomorph in 20th Century Studios’ ALIEN: ROMULUS. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R): Xenomorph and Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine in 20th Century Studios’ ALIEN: ROMULUS. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

‘Alien: Romulus’ is an enjoyable addition to the franchise that truly respects and honors the idea of the xenomorph while staying true to its goal to question the ways by which capitalism, in the form of mega corporations, would choose technology and profit over human lives. That is still embedded in the DNA of this film and I’m all for it. If this film manages to get people to watch the older films in the process, then that’s the added bonus. As a sci-fi horror film, ‘Alien: Romulus’ does the job and then some.

My Rating:

Alien: Romulus is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

August 15, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Cinemalaya XX: the mesmerizing ‘An Errand’ is a demanding arthouse cinema piece

I love and hate arthouse movies. I love them because, at their best, they really make you think, and they stay with you for a very long time; your mind comes back to them every now and then as you see vestiges of their truth in your own life every now and then. I remember films like ‘Under the Skin’ by Jonathan Glazer, ‘Upstream Color’ by Shane Caruth, Whammy Alcazaren’s ‘Islands,’ and Timmy Harn’s ‘Dog Days.’ I hate arthouse films because they really try my patience; by deviating heavily from the principles of traditional narratives, the stories of these movies meander aimlessly, implying maybe a thread of a larger tapestry but not really getting there until the end, if at all.

And Dominic Bekaert’s ‘An Errand’ is just such a film. At 83 minutes, the film is shorter than most full-length features these days, but the movie’s narrative sprawls out at a slow pace, much like the protagonist’s eponymous errand to fetch an expensive branded shirt and a can of pills from Manila to bring to his shady boss in Baguio. Moroy (Sid Lucero) is the driver to Art Acuna’s lawyer, an unnamed, hot-tempered man who is having an affair with a younger woman (Elora Espano). ‘An Errand’ zooms in on the tiny world of Moroy as he must deal being in an enclosed space (the lawyer’s car) with his boss and his mistress. When he’s with them, he hears their interactions, must live with it in his head, or if the lawyer is working, he picks up whatever bits and traces of it he (and us, as the audience) can piece together.

In-between, Moroy is hanging out at the driver’s waiting lounge, where he listens to the stories of other drivers and bodyguards, including the urban legend of Rex (Eric Kelly), a driver who makes a harsh realisation of his own boss, as told by Ben (Nanding Josef), a senior driver of an old woman, who seems to gamble a lot and has a lot of court cases.

All of these characters orbit around each other and create a dazzling tale of a world that may or may not be dark and sinister. Bekaert keeps his point-of-view small, only from within the purview of Moroy and Moroy hardly crosses the line. To amplify this, Bekaert keeps his framing tight and cluttered. He either composes each shot with Moroy and the other characters trapped within a confined space (a car, the driver’s waiting lounge) and when he does expand the view, he leaves very little space for the characters to move around (like in one scene when Moroy delivers a bag to the lawyer, he has to walk around a swimming pool that occupies 80% of the frame). This excellent use of mis-en-scene, coupled with Michael Benedicto’s musical score underlines the film’s eerie meditation of the lives of people on the periphery of power.

Images from Cinemalaya – An Errand

There are set ups here for classic tropes – does the driver make a move for the mistress, does the driver turn to the police with what little he knows, is the driver an undercover cop or a man with an axe to grind – but the film never turns there. It plays with our understanding of this dramatic situation, of these characters, of our imagined understanding of this milieu and shakes us up.

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Because as much as we’d like to put meaning behind the mistress’ gift of a branded Mona Lisa shirt to her lawyer boyfriend, as much as we want to believe that Moroy’s errand back to Manila – the very cause of this seemingly abrupt existential crisis – nothing really does, as arthouse films often do.

There’s no catharsis here; no sudden revelations; no grand epiphany about the nature of this sick and twisted world. The audience’s desire for something to happen might be the point to the exercise. And the moment the legend somehow merges with the mundane world of Moroy, it does not give us the ending we are craving for, but it allows our imaginations to spark and dream for change.

And for an arthouse film, this is just what it is supposed to do. It’s exactly the kind of film I was hoping to see in Cinemalaya.

My Rating:

An Errand is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

This year, don’t miss Cinemalaya Bente: Loob, Lalim, Lakas happening from August 2-11, 2024! Witness another stellar lineup of Filipino stories that will move you and showcase the brilliance of Philippine cinema. Follow the Cultural Center of the Philippines and Cinemalaya for updates!

August 6, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Jackman shines again in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ which manages an emotional punch despite more of the same

If you’re a fan of the Deadpool character and Ryan Reynolds’ brand of comedy, then this movie is really right up your alley. Because director Shawn Levy and his pool of writers – there are five of them, including Reynolds himself – makes sure there’s a lot of vulgar jokes, sexual innuendos, blood, gore, unnecessary violence, and, of course, the breaking of the fourth wall, meta commentary that the franchise of ‘Deadpool’ has become synonymous with. With the character finally joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Reynolds, Levy, and the rest of the crew could not wait to take shots at their new studio and openly discuss the gravity of it all.

It’s so in-your-face that it feels like the movie’s plot was just hurriedly made up so that they can set up these gags and moments for the meta jokes to come in. I’m really not the audience for this. It feels more like a comedy sketch show than a movie and I don’t have the sense of humor to enjoy a fully choreographed fight scene where Deadpool fights an army of people and making moves that are all sexually coded while dancing to NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye.’ Yes, we get it, he has a depraved sense of humor. We saw this in the first two movies, what else is there to show?

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ overextends its opening in an exposition-heavy act one, which they try to keep energetic by throwing in as much jokes as they can, to set up a quest for Deadpool to visit alternate timelines to find a Logan, a Wolverine, to save his timeline from fading into nothing. A man from the Time Variant Authority (introduced in the Disney+ show ‘Loki’) called Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) offers him a chance to enter the “sacred timeline” where the Avengers can be found but he would have to let his universe die. In a bid to save the friends he has made in the past two movies, Deadpool takes a machine that allows him to travel dimensions to look for a Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who is a being so important it can hold a universe together. Deadpool’s universe is dying because Logan died during the film of the same name, ‘Logan.’ Without him, that universe is set to become nothing.

In the search for a Wolverine, the film manages to showcase Jackman in multiple versions of the character from different eras of the comics. It’s a fan service moment that actually works – because knowing what we know about the MCU – this may be Jackman’s last time to play that character and it’s nice to see him in all the versions; even though Reynolds keeps teasing that the MCU will have him play the character “until he’s 90.”

When Deadpool finally finds a Logan who he can bring him back with him, he is told that the Wolverine that he brought was “the worst one in all the multiverses.” Mr. Paradox then sends both Deadpool and Wolverine into the Void, a place where all variants find themselves before they are reduced into nothing. Deadpool and Logan then face it off in a long battle that plays for the brutality and the gore that one can conjure up between two characters who regenerate instantaneously. After a while, the pointlessness of the match up becomes very apparent. It’s then the film shows the two protagonists that there is a way-out of The Void.

Here is when the film gets interesting. Because The Void is the place where all the unnecessary variants and storylines have come to be erased and the film subverts its own narrative by being a love letter to all the superhero movies that 20th Century Fox made before the Disney acquisition. Act two of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ finds space for certain characters (and the actors who played them) a chance for one last moment before they completely bow out.

This is what highlights what I didn’t like about the film. Because everything that the subverted narrative does is wonderful. The characters that are brought back – and even some that never made it to production – have a chance to remind us of the potential and the promise that each of these characters had when they first showed up in our screens. It’s an emotional hit that is even amplified by the way by which Jackman navigates his character, playing off a version of the character he immortalized, that is lacking in a narrative that he got to play out in different films. When the camera is on Jackman and the storyline, the film feels important, like it has something to say.

But every time it goes to Deadpool, the film has to stop to give him more time to be what he has been for the past two movies. If it’s your humor, great, but it brings nothing to the table and it is just more of the same.

Luckily, Jackman, Macfadyen, and Emma Corrin as Casandra Nova, give the film the gravitas that it needed to sell the emotional point that makes all the jokes worth telling. There are actually more out there but I don’t want to spoil it.

The issue of irreverence is that the film is only irreverent in the way that it makes fun of itself and comic book movies. But it’s never really irreverent in the ways that matter. Deadpool is still a hero – no matter how many times he tries to say that he’s not – and no number of dirty jokes, sexual innuendos, and gratuitous violence will give the Deadpool franchise any real danger or unpredictability. It can only be as irreverent as Deadpool knowing that Ryan Reynolds is playing him. But to really break from formulaic narrative structures, acceptable moral codes, and capitalist inclinations for nostalgia and sentimentality, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ doesn’t offer much in that department. In fact, the whole franchise never really did.

My Rating:

Deadpool & Wolverine is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

July 31, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Unapologetically mainstream, ‘Twisters’ is still a fun ride

As big-budget mainstream movies go, ‘Twisters’ has everything going for it. A disaster movie that goes bigger than its predecessor, it’s got two engaging leads – Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell – a terrifying natural disaster that lends well to cinema, the budget to make it all work, and a director who knows how to balance the tone so that it delivers just the right amount of cheese while still highlighting the very human element that is at the center of any cataclysm.

‘Twisters’ is about Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who suffers a terrible tragedy while doing research on how to decrease a tornado’s intensity. She’s portrayed as someone who is just naturally gifted with an instinct for the weather, but that tragedy has left her at a desk job in New York as a meteorologist. She’s asked to come back to her home state of Oklahoma when an old friend wants to continue the research with cutting edge technology. He needs her to help them find the tornados.

Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones)

As she returns to Oklahoma, she finds herself in the middle of an unprecedented event: a tornado season that is sprouting twisters almost on a daily basis. Kate is surprised to see that the present day is filled with tornado-chasers, including the self-possessed media celebrity Tyler Owens, who chases after tornados and streams it live on the internet.

Tyler Owens (Glen Powell)

For Tyler, he’s smitten by her and later on, intrigued by her knowledge of the weather. But she’s pegged him as a clout chaser of the worst kind and has nothing to do with him. Their rivalry leads them to clash and then later bond. Revelations are revealed that forces Kate to face her tragic past while a major storm is about to happen that threatens to turn everything upside and inside out.

‘Twisters’ is fast-paced and sometimes in a rush to push characters forward without really taking its time to establish stronger motivations. It’s the rhythm and speed of a commercial film. It wants to get us straight into the action and watch the sparks fly between Kate and Tyler.

What’s great about Lee Isaac Chung’s direction (from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith) is that he never really highlights the blossoming romance between the two lead characters. It’s there but it’s not angling for center stage. Chung is more focused on Kate’s own complex emotions regarding the tornadoes while trying to deconstruct the idea of Tyler Owens’ own interest as a twister-chasing internet celebrity. For the most part, it’s Tyler who is actively chasing Kate, but she has demons to face.

And then, Chung and Smith also manage to bring us to the human side of things: the destruction that’s caused by such a meteorological event. It attempts to bring up the ugliness of capitalism in a predictable manner but doesn’t delve too much into it so as to tip the balance and keeps the film straight into the spectacle of the tornadoes themselves. While Powell and Edgar-Jones are remarkable, watching them work is a joy, but the true stars here are the CGI effects of the twisters and the action sequences that involve them.

The film treats these weather phenomena like Godzilla—they are monstrous and beautiful at the same time. The fascination these characters have with them become clear the moment you see it in your comfortable cinema seats. To watch them throw themselves at it, whether it’s for the likes or for research, the experience is quite enjoyable.

(from left) Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), Javi (Anthony Ramos), and Tyler (Glen Powell), in Twisters directed by Lee Isaac Chung-min

The climax is insane but the science that provides a solution is sketchy, at best (and with further reading on the internet, is quite improbable), but it looks great on screen. And while I’m not expecting a deep story from a movie about tornado-chasers, I am a little frustrated of Hollywood’s fascination of making professional scientists and PhD holders stuffy and boring while untrained professionals with a lot of experience are treated as fun and just as good. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but it adds to a class division that is trite and overused and quite dangerous in this era of anti-intellectualism.

But outside of that, it’s a fun ride. I don’t know if I’ll remember much after weeks have passed but Edgar-Jones and Powell are in my radar and very excited to see what they come up with next.

My Rating:

Twisters is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

July 27, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Frightening in refreshing ways, ‘Longlegs’ suffers from being genuinely scary and nothing else

Elegantly directed, writer and director Osgood Perkins makes full use of his technical prowess to make every frame of the horror film ‘Longlegs’ absolutely panic-inducing. With flashbacks done with a tight aspect ratio, completely cutting our view and trapping the subject of the camera in a tight frame, we feel that whatever is out there is right at the corner. Utilizing an over-dramatic score that punctuates the jump scares (sometimes even leading it), it makes the whole experience watching the movie so frightening that it is fun. When the film goes to present time, he bathes his scenes in darkness and shadows. There’s always a chance something is going to come out, and with the first opening jump scare catching us completely off guard at the start, we really feel vulnerable throughout this movie.

‘Longlegs’ is about a serial killer, who has been killing families for decades. Hunted by the FBI, Lee Harker, who may have psychic abilities, is put on the case as her abilities may open up new leads. She does but because her connection to the case is much stronger than anyone even realizes, even her.

LONGLEGS Maika Monroe Courtesy of NEON

Maika Monroe is excellent as Agent Lee. She’s guarded, extremely stiff, as if she’s about to burst at any time. She’s taciturn and not very good with people, but she does get some supernatural feeling when something is amiss. When put on the case of ‘Longlegs,’ her anxieties double. Her tenuous relationship with her mother (Alicia Witt), whom she has not seen in a long time, grounds her character to some level of humanity but the distance between them also betrays a darker secret that is lying in wait.

LONGLEGS Maika Monroe Courtesy of NEON

Nicolas Cage plays the titular Longlegs and the make-up and prosthetics makes him almost unrecognizable in a quick glance. It’s only later when Perkins finally gives him long close-ups that you realize it’s him underneath. But the glimpses we get tells us that he is fully committed to bringing out whatever frightening symbolisms his Longlegs can take. It’s a virtuoso performance from an unpredictable actor who has used his off-screen infamy to his advantage in these very off-kilter roles.

Playing out like a police procedural, we follow Lee Harker’s investigation into Longlegs while trying to decipher her strange visions and her undetermined connection to the case, though the savvier viewer will have figured it out quickly. The tale it tells is of a world gone crazy, depicting brutal violence committed by husbands to their families.

BTS2 LONGLEGS Osgood Perkins, Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood | Courtesy of NEON

As the film unfolds, it begins to allude heavily into the occult but never really brings religion into the mix. It’s evil for evil’s sake and we hope that Agent Lee Harker has the determination and the strength to see it through.

The film is filled with terrifying moments, when you know that Longlegs is just there, just in the darkness in the back of Osgood Perkins’ frame. When he takes a long shot, he always ensures there’s an open door or frame leading to another room just in the back. It always gives you the feeling something is going to come in. You’re always on your toes. If he does not have these eerie long shots, he gives you really tight shots that prohibits you from seeing an attack if one will come. The effect allows the audience to feel the paranoia Agent Lee is feeling and the effect is amazing.

BTS1 LONGLEGS Osgood Perkins DP Andres Arochi | Courtesy of NEON

But when it reaches its third act, that build-up of tension ends up in a third act exposition that kind of kills the energy before resuming for its big finale, which is good, but doesn’t have the same punch because the energy leading up to it was stalled. And at the end of the film, we’re left with the fun feeling of having been scared out of our wits but with nothing really to hold on to. It makes no commentary of the world around us. The satanistic imagery and symbolism does not outrightly figure in as a metaphor for anything real-world that grounds ‘Longlegs’ to anything significant. Despite its fantastic filmmaking techniques, the material in itself sorts of falls as just entertainment. It’s not a bad thing, but you kind of wish that it could punch up just a little bit since it did everything else right.

My Rating:

Longlegs is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

July 27, 2024