Author: Wanggo Gallaga

CINEMALAYA 22 FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW: Dustin Celestino’s ‘A.ni.mal’ Is a Comedic Departure From His Previous Cinemalaya Work

If, like me, you are only familiar with Dustin Celestino’s work through his last two Cinemalaya films, Duyan ng Magiting and Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan, then you’d think that his third entry to beanother serious, politically charged drama. But A.ni.mal is nothing like Celestino’s first two critically acclaimed Cinemalaya films. ‘A.ni.mal’ is a funny, dark comedy; a satire that explores one of the many faces of evil; breaking it down to its most mundane form in an almost farcical tragic comedy that strips away the pristine facades of people in the public eye.

The film centers on a leaked stolen cellphone recording of a Governor (Reymund Domingo) being intimate with his dog. The recording was captured by his goddaughter, Lily (Maxine Ignacio), who is the daughter of the mayor (Jojit Lorenzo). Lily, who imagines herself a young progressive, wants to protect the dog. After all, she volunteers at a pet shelter to prove she’s not just another nepo baby. But the video becomes a contentious topic. The Mayor wants it deleted but his wife, Ofel (Frances Makil-Ignacio), sees an opportunity to weaponize the secret and curry favour with the Governor’s wife, Grace (Bituin Escalante). The video’s mere existence and the subject matter of its content thrusts all the characters into a moral dilemma that becomes an exhibition of the worst of human nature.

Cinemalaya 22 A.ni.mal | Photo courtesy of Sine Metu Media Productions

From the onset, A.ni.mal is hilarious, often-times absurd, and a clever and biting in its social commentary. The characters’ political nature and their desperate need to maintain the importance of their public image and branding becomes the focal point of many of the comedic elements. How these characters present themselves to the public are very much the opposite of what lingers in their minds. Shot entirely on iPhone 17 Pro Max, Celestino and Director of Photography Kara Moreno are not afraid to get really up close into the actor’s faces, capturing the nuances of their expressions. A lot about who we are is hidden but when the camera gets that close, everything is revealed.

Cinemalaya 22 A.ni.mal | Photo courtesy of Sine Metu Media Productions

The film’s cinematography generated an almost raw, documentary-like effect. Through handheld camera work, natural lighting, and an intense proximity to the subjects, Celestino and Moreno layer the film with added meaning. The imagery evokes the language of mobile screens, cellphone recordings, dramas, memes, and other viral videos we watch on our mobile phones. It adds a texture of engagement with the material, meant to create a relationship with the audience. What they are seeing onscreen is akin to what they watch all day on their phones.

Cinemalaya 22 A.ni.mal | Photo courtesy of Sine Metu Media Productions

Witty and clever, A.ni.mal is propelled by spectacular performances, most notably from Maxine Ignacio, Bituin Escalante (whose terrifying third-act monologue is absolutely electrifying), and Anthony Falcon, who plays a veterinarian at the pet shelter, who serves as the film’s moral core, to a certain point. All the performances are solid here; another perfectly synergized ensemble in a Dustin Celestino film but certain characters do stand out.

Cinemalaya 22 A.ni.mal | Photo courtesy of Sine Metu Media Productions

At the very center of this is Ignacio’s Lily, who carries most of the outrage at the film’s beginning that pushes this narrative forward and when her character is later fully revealed, do we see the brilliance of Ignacio’s approach. Each of the actors understand the dramatic frequency needed to fully embody this hilarious satire, and they use it for full effect.

Photo courtesy of Sine Metu Media Productions

It is easily the most visually fluid work in Celestino’s filmography. The precise camerawork, thoughtful mise-en-scene, and the framing constantly amplifies and highlights the film’s themes. While just as politically charge as Duyan ng Magiting and Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan, this entry feels far more accessible.

My Rating: 5 Stars

A.ni.mal is now showing on the big screen. Check cinema showtimes near you and grab your tickets today.

This year, don’t miss Cinemalaya 22: Reel Reflections runs this August 6 to 18 at Red Carpet Cinemas (Shangri-La Plaza), Gateway Cineplex 18, and Ayala Malls Cinemas. Witness another stellar lineup of stories that will move you and showcase the brilliance of Philippine cinema. Follow the Cultural Center of the Philippines and Cinemalaya for updates.

August 9, 2026
THEATER REVIEW: An Uneven Triptych of Broken Hearts: A Review of YPC Stage’s ‘Mapanakit’

I’m quite impressed by Eljay Castro Deldoc’s previous works, most recently his translation of Tennessee Williams’ ‘Summer and Smoke’ (El Fuego del Alma) and Tanghalan Pilipino’s Gregoria Lakambini. I came into YPC Stage’s production of ‘Mapanakit: Mga Dulaang Bittersweet’ with much excitement. Deldoc’s writing is vibrant, rich, and lyrical, so I was eager to watch his later production: a triptych of three one-act plays (Ang Liknayang ng Ating Mga Katawan, Ilihan at Kalingaw, and Ganito ang Pangarap Kong Kasal), all directed by BJ Borja.

Mapanakit | Image Source: YPC Stage FB Page

What excited me the most was seeing a collaboration between community theater in Biñan – YPC Stage being the Youth Performance Council based in Biñan, Laguna – and Manila-based actors and theater practitioners. It’s a rare opportunity for us to experience regional theater while giving local artist from the provinces and allows them to collaborate with some of Manila’s finest talent. This king of creative synergy can only help elevate both parties and plays a vital role in enriching national theater in the country.

Ang Liknayang ng Ating Mga Katawan

Mapanakit: Ang Liknayang ng Ating Mga Katawan

The first one-act centers on Mr. Banakon (Ross Pesigan) and his student Hershey (Jury Sanchez), who meet in a chemistry lab under the guise of discussing the whereabouts of Hershey’s classmate who goes missing. But in the process, the conversation quickly pivots when Hershey confronts Mr. Banakon over a research paper, which he did not accept. As their back-and-forth unfolds, the play shifts into the story of a teacher-student relationship that has crossed moral boundaries.

From the get-go, the play had a lot working against it. Jury Sanchez’s performance as Hershey was wildly animated, bordering on anime. She played the character like a villain, a young student who is confessing her love to her teacher, fighting tooth and nail to prove they belong together. When Hershey makes a point, she laughs maniacally; when she says the word “flirt,” her body in sinewy way. It felt very much like she’s indicating, acting out every word that was being said. It felt more directional than an actor’s choice because a lot of the blocking and the back-and-forth between the two characters was played for comedy. It’s a dark comedy for sure; using empirical science – specifically the laws of physics and thermodynamics – to contextualize two people’s feelings for each other.

The play is inherently funny as it is. There is a ridiculousness that counterpoints the deeply inappropriate conflict that is happening in front of us. However, by leaning so heavily into playing the comedy, the play ends up not being taken seriously, which it needs to be because both Hershey and Mr. Banakon are complicit in a very unlawful, boundary-crossing relationship. Had the comic portrayals been toned down, the humor would have emerged naturally on its own, allowing the true strength of the material would have risen more to the front.

While it remains a daring piece, with Pesigan and Sanchez fully committed to their characters but the production’s lighthearted tone ultimately undermines the dark, messy themes at its core.

Ilihan at Kalingaw

Starring Gab Pangilinan and Euden Moje as the title characters, this mythical story follows two members of the Buringkantada tribe whose forbidden love carries deep consequences. Ilihan, the tribe’s poet and historian tasked with recording the stories of people in the tribe whose deeds must be remembered, faces punishment when her private love poems for Kalingaw, a man who is betrothed to another, are revealed. The play centers entirely on the tense final confrontation between Ilihan and Kalingaw before the rest of the tribe arrives for her punishment.

The weakest of the three plays, ‘Ilihan and Kalingaw’ is overburdened by a rich world-building and history that are never fully realized in its 45-minute running time. Pangilinan and Moje do their best with the dense rhetoric of the piece, must deliver the narrative through conversation – a narrative that would have been far stronger had it been actively dramatized rather than discussed. As a result, the play is more like a didactic musing on love and freedom.

Production Designer Carlo Villafuerte Pagunaling does an amazing job transforming the stage into a mythical, pre-colonial Philippines, complete with lush costumes and a striking backdrop of large wooden poles suspended from the ceiling creating an image of a fence from the sky. However, these rich visual elements cannot not keep the play from never really reaching its climax because most of the story happens off-stage. Discoveries about their love and about each other are done prior to the play’s opening, and it’s just mentioned through dialogue rather than witnessed live. This is a love story – and an entire mythical world – that needed to be fully experienced on stage and as a one-act play, it doesn’t quite land as hard as it should.

Ganito ang Pangarap kong Kasal

The most successful of the three one-acts in terms of direction, ‘Ganito ang Pangarap kong Kasal’ follows two best friends, France (Phi Palmos) and Kris (Loudette Barjas), who are both pining for the same classmate, Noel (Kokoy De Santos). But Noel wants to be with France and as they find love – which they prefer to keep secret except Kris – we watch the three friends over the time and how the social pressures of fitting in can tear friendships and relationships apart.

The three actors are incredible here. Palmos, Barjas, and De Santos fire on all cylinders, nailing all of the play’s comedic punchlines to hilarious effect. The first half had the audience in stitches. As the realities of the world kicks in, the trio shifts gears seamlessly and mine the pathos of each character that creates a duality, fully forming their characters and really catching the audience.

My only gripe is the way the story approaches these friendships and how it navigates the play’s ending to once again play to the usual tropes of the gay romance storyline. It offers nothing new about gay love stories that we haven’t seen before and takes a conservative and melodramatic tone for its ending. The actors do an amazing job making it real, emphasizing the hurt and the loss of the choices that they make, but these characters deserve better. I can only hope that this is an older play written many years before, because as a friend stated after the show: “It’s 2026, we deserve better stories and better endings than this.” And I couldn’t agree more.

All the good that the first half of the play was able to dramatize on stage gets lost at the end as the narrative surrenders to cliche.

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Youth Performance Council’s collaborative showcase, Mapanakit runs through August 9 at the KAL-IBG Theater in UP Diliman. Don’t miss this unique exchange between local regional talent and Manila stage veterans, secure your seats now via Ticket2Me.

August 3, 2026
MOVIE REVIEW: On the Right Note: A Review of ‘Tuner’

There is something simple and elegant about director Daniel Roher’s crime thriller Tuner that calls back to mid-to-low-budget crime thrillers of the past. Written by Roher and Robert Ramsey, the film ably balances its independent film tone and aesthetic while still delivering mainstream satisfaction by taking the time to focus on the love story that completes the main character’s arc. The film’s duality (one part crime thriller and one part character study) works very well for the first two-thirds of the film, though its rather clean, neat ending feels more suited to a fully mainstream picture. It’s a satisfying ending, for sure, but it goes against the film’s overall tone, which may not be a bad thing; it just didn’t work for me. I liked it better when the film was messy.

Tuner centers on Niki White (Leo Woodall), a piano tuner with a rare condition that makes him allergic to loud noises. Hyper-sensitive to sound, he is constantly wearing earphones or headphones to drown out the sounds of the city. When his mentor, Harry (Dustin Hoffman), is hospitalized, Niki feels compelled to ally himself with Uri (Lior Raz), a security agency owner who robs from the wealthy, stealing just enough to fly under the radar. Niki’s sensitivity to sound makes him an ideal safecracker and Uri quickly puts his talents to work. As Niki take on jobs to cover for Harry’s hospital bills, he also finds himself forging a relationship with a music composition major, Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu).

Roher stays light on the crime aspect of the film, for the most part, using it as a means to an end for Niki. The illegal work allows him to take care of Harry, who has become his only family in the city. While his condition has kept him from forming real relationships and from having a real life, the money he earns from cracking safes for Uri allows him to finally reach for what he’s always wanted. It builds his confidence, giving him means to provide for Harry and his wife, Marla (Torvah Feldshuh), the only family he’s got. He can take Ruthie on dates and get her expensive gifts. The way the film tracks the apparent changes in Niki from before he started working Uri and after, allows us to see a more nuanced conversation about struggling for survival and having the money one needs to really have a life.

There is even a Robin Hood allegory that Uri makes that creates a justification for what it is that they do. We don’t know what Uri does with his money but we do know what Niki does with his money. It’s an interesting dramatic situation that fully forms the character arc of Niki.

But the film is also very much ready to complicate things. At the end of the day, theft is theft, and stolen money always comes with consequences. By this time, we have gotten to see Niki at his highest, watching him fall to his lowest and it makes for an interesting film. It’s really a character study, especially as the film breaks down Niki’s own past and we see the full extent of what it is he has really lost because of his condition.

The sound design is impeccable and a compelling reason to watch the film in theaters, where the volume itself plays an important aspect in telling the story.

I’ve seen Woodall before in the second season of The White Lotus and the AppleTV series Prime Target, but he never truly owned the screen. But in this film, he manages to mine all of Niki’s pathos to build a deeply engaging character that is so interesting to watch. Havana Rose Liu and Tovah Feldshuh are equally excellent, allowing their characters’ vibrancy to contrast with Niki’s dour view of the world. While the performances are good across the board, these three are the ones that I must discuss.

My Rating: 3 Stars

While you won’t get to experience its sound design in theaters anymore, Tuner is still well worth seeking out when it hits streaming platforms.

July 31, 2026
MOVIE REVIEW: A Hero’s Burden: A Review of ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’

Taking off right after the events of the previous film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, the latest installment, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, follows Peter Parker (Tom Holland) in a world that has forgotten him. Spider-Man is now a tortured hero, who spends all of his time fighting crime as his masked vigilante. He’s no longer juggling school or work. In his spare time, he watches the posts, videos, and live feeds of his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and the love of his life, MJ (Zendaya), who are living their college life at MIT without him. Free from the burden of putting anyone in danger for knowing his secret identity, he is better equipped to fight crime, yet deeply trapped by the choices of his own heroism.

Holland was born to play Peter Parker, it seems. He manages to capture the innocence, the pathos, and the vibrancy of the character, as well as the sheer physicality required for the role. In the past Spider-Man films, there were so many scenes where he was forced to take off his mask, mostly because producers and whatnot worried that audiences couldn’t connect with a masked hero. But not this film. In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a huge chunk of the story has Spider-Man completely masked. Whether or not it’s really Tom Holland underneath the suit at all times is up for grabs, but his unmistakable voice and body language create that connection. It is such a vital part of the story: he is living behind the mask because it’s the only way he knows how to exist in this chapter of his life. The pain and loss of the previous film carry right over into this one.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

The film, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, has an amazing sense of pacing and narrative flow. They quickly speed through time, yet we never feel lost. We see his life in large fragments, coming to understand just how lonely Peter Parker’s world has become by choosing to cut himself off. And all this ties wonderfully to the main villain propelling the story forward: a powerful telepath that can jump into other minds and possess their bodies. Only Spider-Man’s enhanced awareness and senses can detect when the villain jumps from one host to the next, giving him a natural immunity to having his mind controlled.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Photo/Image: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

How does Spider-Man fight someone he cannot see and cannot touch?

As I said before, the pacing is so good because this isn’t just a character study of Peter Parker living with his choices, it’s also a full-scale superhero movie with a whole roster of heroes and villains turning up to complete the story.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

There are the ones from the trailers, like The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Scorpion (Michael Mando), and The Hand; and then there are the surprise cameos that hadthe audience clapping and screaming when they showed up.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

It’s packed with a lot of action and superheroics to ensure it never gets boring. But in a way, it’s also a coming-of-age story. Peter Parker must grow up all over again because the weight of his choices are bearing down on him. And as the trailer suggests, he is entering a whole new stage in his life; and a new stage in his mutation.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

In a way, this is a story about evolution and adaptation. One needs to change to survive, and while the choices Peter has made make him feel safe, they are also destroying him in the process. This is mirrored and contrasted by the choices of Bruce Banner and, in a beautiful and very enjoyable way, by The Punisher. And it is also reflected upon that of the villain.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

Holland has this character down to a tee. He makes no false moves as Peter Parker. Zendaya and Jacob Batalon keep the film grounded in its emotional core, giving Peter something to miss. Bernthal is also such a joy to watch. This is still the Frank Castle we know, but he somehow manages to still fit into a PG film without breaking character. There’s a lightness to him that fits the movie’s tone while still retaining all the darkness of The Punisher.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

And Sadie Sink? I’m not saying a word. But I thought she portrayed her character in the most effective way possible. She appears one hour into the film and completely shifts its course with her arrival and character reveal. She can express so much while staying completely still, letting her eyes do all the heavy lifting. It’s a wonderful performance that will be talked about for days to come.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

I have yet to see a Tom Holland Spider-Man movie that I didn’t like. I hope he’ll want to play this character until he physically can’t do so anymore. I’m no longer a big fan of comic book movies, but this one I’ll still be showing up for an opening day.

My Rating: 5 Stars

Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters TODAY! Anchored by Tom Holland’s finest performance yet, incredible action, and game-changing character reveals, this is a top-tier Spidey entry that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Check showtimes and grab your tickets now before they sell out!

July 29, 2026
DISNEY+ REVIEW: The First Four Episodes of ‘Furious’ Check All the Boxes for a Woman-Centered Cop Show on Female Rage

I really like Emmy Rossum. I’ve been a fan of hers since her performance in the TV series ‘Shameless’ and I find her to be such an arresting onscreen presence. She’s very good at portraying characters that are tough and fragile at the same time. In the new Hulu show on Disney+ Furious, she uses that to full effect to play an FBI agent who is after a serial killer while dealing with her own demons.

Furious, created by Elizabeth Meriwether, is a crime show that follows Alice Black (Rossum), an FBI agent who left the New York Police Department over tensions between herself and a co-worker with whom she was romantically involved. That tension her pushed out of the force, and the people she once called her friends are no longer speaking to her, except for Detective Danny (Scoot McNairy). She’s drawn into the murder of the son of a billionaire, whose death resembles an earlier case that Alice and Danny had worked on together. Now, they are on the hunt for a young woman (Lola Petticrew) who is out to kill more and more people connected to her past as a victim of human trafficking.

There’s an air of darkness and heaviness with each episode – it’s probably a show you’d want to watch once a week – and while the detective work is happening, we are also seeing the killer in action. We watch how she plans, schemes, avoids detection, and leaves no trace.

What the show does is pit these two women against each other; two women who have a lot more in common than they think. Because Alice Black is not some cookie-cutter FBI agent. You wouldn’t get Emmy Rossum for that. She’s a broken woman; traumatized by what her ex (Jake Lacy) has done to her, who uses that trauma to fuel her desire to work in a FBI unit focused on victims of violent crimes, specifically children and women. Alice is neither nice nor kind. Early on in the series, we see that outside work hours, behind closed doors, she prefers her sexual exploits to be violent. She barely sleeps. She’s also not above lying during witness and suspect interrogations to get the responses she needs.

From the first four episodes of the show, we get the feeling that this is a world that is unkind, even cruel, to women and that the most affected have to fight back at full force. Alice, and even her mentor in her new department, Nora (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), are constantly on the offensive. But so is the killer, who steals the identity of Jenny in episode two.

The story of “Jenny” is revealed piece by piece with each episode, both through her own actions and through Alice’s own investigation. By centering the show on these two women who are propelled forward by their trauma, what we get is a dark and heavy procedural drama with a very strong feminist narrative about women’s rage. The title itself is apt, even if the anger is one that is slowly building. Each episode pushes both women further and further to a point of no return, and it’s interesting to see how this eight-episode series will end.

The inclusion of a billionaire along with themes of misogyny and feminine rage all seem so topical that its story can feel like a hard sell. But what keeps it moving and interesting to watch is how insightful the show is in depicting the many ways women have been treated over the years and are still being treated today, especially in male-dominated fields such as this. Rossum and Bernstine are excellent at embodying this, while McNairy provides great support for Rossum’s Alice. Petticrew feels like the weakest link here; she is never quite scary enough to fully sell the character, though she improves by episode four when we see more of who her character is and her backstory. As a mystery, she isn’t interesting enough, but with a past, she’s giving it her all. It’s a dark, heavy show that checks all the boxes – women-centered, police procedural, hard-hitting, unapologetic – anchored by a great cast led by the incredible Emmy Rossum.

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Ready for a hard-hitting mystery led by Emmy Rossum? Catch the premiere of Furious on Disney+. starting July 27!

July 25, 2026
MOVIE REVIEW: The Live-Action Remake of ‘Moana’ Doesn’t Live up to the Original

Moana is one of my favourite Disney cartoons. I have a personal relationship with this movie because I saw it at a time in my life when I needed to get that push to heed the “call of the sea,” so to speak. In my eyes, this is really a perfect film. So it’s hard to imagine why they would want to do a live-action remake of an already perfect animated film, especially when that animated film is only ten years old and all the images you see from the trailer tell you that so much of what you are going to see is made from CGI. What’s live action about that?

Moana shares a lot of the same beats as the original film. Moana (Catherine Laga’aia) is the future chief of her village on the island of Motonui. Because of the antics of the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), who took the heart of the island goddess Te Fiti to give to the people, a darkness has set forth on the land. And despite the order of the chief, Moana’s father, that no one sail into the ocean, Moana has learned of her people’s origins and heeds the call of adventure to find Maui, convince him to return the heart of Te Fiti, and banish the demon Te Ka, who has caused the darkness after Te Fiti went into hiding.

Moana in Disney’s live-action MOANA. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

I found myself having a difficult time entering into this world because of how heavily animated the visuals are. The lighting is overdone, giving the film a very saturated color aesthetic, and many of the backdrops look like they were generated by CGI. It opens with a story of Maui taking the heart of Te Fiti and then shifts into the village of Motonui. We see a young Moana playing with the sea, but the sea plays back, and it’s obviously special effects; the disconnect between the two images seems to clash. Maybe due to the fact that the CGI effects aren’t as clean and seamless as we would want them to be, it means editor Melanie Ann Oliver is constantly cutting away, creating a frenetic energy that can often break a moment from its full effect. It does manage to hide the CGI from being so blatantly disturbing to see against the real people playing in a scene, but it never allows the scenes to linger and be fully absorbed.

Dwayne Johnson as Maui in Disney’s live-action MOANA. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This is an issue that sits with me throughout this film. When Moana finally goes on her journey, there are scenes where Laga’aia is on a boat and it looks like her whole backdrop is one green screen of an empty ocean. There’s a halo effect that usually happens when a bad green screen execution is mounted, and that’s what it looks like. If it’s not green screen, then the lighting and saturated colors make it look like it, so the film never feels grounded or real. Later on, when Moana and Maui finally meet, their bickering doesn’t translate well when played by actual people. Maui throws her off the boat several times and she’s rescued by the ocean, who has chosen her specifically for this mission. In the cartoon, it’s funny, because they are cartoon characters. When The Rock does it to Laga’aia, it looks misogynistic and cruel and mean.

Catherine Laga’aia as Moana in Disney’s MOANA. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Strangely enough, as I’m watching this film and really resisting it because of the way it looks, there is one song number that still manages to get me teary-eyed, and that’s ‘I Am Moana,’ which really resonates with me. Laga’aia is a great singer and sings the hell out of the song (though I am really partial to Auli’i Cravalho’s more full-toned voice), and the context of that song in the story still hits me hard. I cried at this point in the animated film, and I cried again at this part. Later, during the climax as Moana goes toe-to-toe with Te Ka – the only extensively CGI-heavy sequence in the film that I enjoyed watching – I once again found myself in tears when Moana restores the heart of Te Fits. Again, I am a sucker for stories about healing, and Te Fiti’s story always gets me in tears.

Catherine Laga’aia as Moana in Disney’s live-action MOANA. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

So, while I’m not a big fan of the entire movie, the story of Moana still holds in whatever format it is delivered in. But this movie just makes me want to watch the original cartoon all over again. I really question the need for these live-action remakes when the original cartoons are already perfect as they are.

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Ready to experience Motonui on the big screen? Find local showtimes and get your tickets to see Moana in theaters now!

July 22, 2026
MOVIE REVIEW: A Magnificent, Epic Rebuke of War, Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Is Undeniably a Masterpiece

There’s no question that Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker who makes movies for the cinema. His stories are always larger-than-life, even his earlier work before his name became a box office draw – films like ‘Memento’ and ‘Insomnia’ – were best suited on the big screen where the visual breadth of his stories amplified his message when projected at that scale. Success only allowed Nolan to work on even larger-scale movies, and with the dramatic success of ‘Oppenheimer,’ he has now been given full reign to make one of his dreams come true: to film an entire movie completely on IMAX film cameras. He takes Homer’s The Odyssey and uses translations by Emily Wilson, E. V. Rieu, and Robert Fagles as the basis of his screenplay.

With a star-studded cast that includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, and Robert Pattinson in lead roles with a stellar supporting cast that includes Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Samantha Morton, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, and Lupita Nyong’o, ‘The Odyssey’ primarily uses practical effects with as little CGI as possible to create a very tactile, tangible fantastical world where myths, mythology, and legends co-exist and fill up each frame with the themes that Nolan is set to deliver to his audience.

Told from two points of view, ‘The Odyssey’ takes place after the Trojan War. In Ithaca, Penelope (Hathaway) awaits the return of her husband and king, Odysseus (Damon) but his 8-year absence since the fall of Troy has everyone assuming that she is now a widow. Suitors have come to marry her to take Ithaca as their own, among them is Antinous (Pattinson). The suitors grow in number, and Zeus’s law bids that all strangers must be welcomed. Telemachus (Holland), son of Odysseus and Penelope, laments that the suitors have feasted away Ithaca’s resources. Still too young to become king, Ithaca’s future is tenuous and Penelope is losing hope. While far away from Ithaca, Odysseus is on an island with the nymph Calypso (Theron), who is fed lotus flowers, which takes away his memory. Calypso wants Odysseus for herself but there’s a longing in him that the flowers can’t take away. To find his way home, he must recall who he is and how he got to that island, and from this retelling, we discover the adventures Odysseus has taken to return home, which includes battling a cyclops, facing the goddess and witch Circe (Morton), and flashbacks of what happened in the battle of Troy.

Interestingly enough, Nolan employs the use of storytelling to frame his narrative. In Ithaca, we learn about Penelope and Telemachus and of Odysseus through recollections of their time together, and of stories told during the feasts. For the Odysseus portion, it is through remembering his journey that we see his adventures. Almost like a recited epic poem back in the era of Homer and the Greeks, the story is told in story-form, enforcing the myth and myth-making nature of film and this particular approach to the telling of this story.

Nolan, alongside director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema, fully utilizes the IMAX format to create a film of epic proportions. The long shots puts these characters and situates them in these vast expanse of space, visualizing Odysseus’ journey as a challenge of not just physical distance but an emotional one as well (for the film puts into question an existential force that keeps him from getting home quickly) whereas Penelope and Telemachus are constrained and imprisoned by the burden of the castle, of the kingdom, and of its laws. Even in the close-ups, the emotions at the scale are heightened and Nolan is unafraid to point his camera away from the heroics and put into center frame the characters who are suffering from the effects of this war. Slaves, soldiers, and women, amongst others are brought into the composition so that we understand that Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ is not just an adaptation of the Greek myth that we were taught in elementary but a searing rebuke of war and the human cost of it and of Odysseus’ part in the fall of civilization.

What begins as a fantastical journey and a suspenseful political battle at the homefront seamlessly turns into a dissection and cross-examination of where and when and how humanity began to break down and it all returns to the fall of Troy. Taking his cues from the Wilson translation, the usage of contemporary language and straying from the usual portrayals of formal British accents for these ancient Greek mythological characters, the way the film manages to find its connections with current-day issues and discussions about war, destruction, corruption, misogyny, and the loss of human kindness and decency.

I cannot stress how seamlessly and quietly Nolan infuses modern day political discourse in a film that is so visually arresting and so entertaining that when the film’s finale takes place and you realise what this movie is really about; you cannot escape it and it is something you will bring with you as you leave that theater.

This is an incredible piece of work and it is a highlight of an already remarkable filmography by Christopher Nolan, his cast, and his team. A must-watch on IMAX.

My Rating: 5 Stars

Ready for an unforgettable cinematic journey? Experience Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on the biggest screen possible. Get showtimes here.

July 16, 2026
DISNEY+ SEASON 2 REVIEW: ‘X-Men ‘97’ Hits the Ground Running and Keeps Up the Fun

The second season of X-Men ‘97 hits the ground running, finding our lovable band of mutants separated across time. While one team is stranded in the ancient past, the other fights to survive in the future. The first two episodes set the mood up for the rest of the nine-episode season, which seems to center on the X-Men battling it off against the iconic mutant overlord, Apocalypse.

The first episode brings us to a bleak future where Jean Grey and Cyclops finally get a chance to spend time with their son, Nathan, whom they had sent to the future to protect him from a virus that inhabits his body. It may be a chance for Jean Grey and Cyclops to reunite with their son but this is a timeline where Apocalypse is at absolute height of his power. The undying mutant is coming for Nathan, seeking to claim the boy’s unique body as the perfect immortal vessel for his consciousness.

Jean Grey (voiced by Jennifer Hale) and Cyclops (voiced by Ray Chase) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97 Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2026 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

The second episode shifts focus to the modern era, following the grown-up Nathan, now known as Cable, as he recruits Jubilee and Sunspot to hunt down any trace of Apocalypse. Their mission gets in the crosshairs with X-Factor, the government’s mutant task force. What follows is a thrilling, explosive clash between X-Factor versus Cable’s makeshift X-Force.

(L-R): Beast (voiced by George Buza), Bishop (voiced by Isaac Robinson-Smith), Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann), Professor X (voiced by Ross Marquand), Magneto (voiced by Matthew Waterson), and Nightcrawler (voiced by Adrian Hough) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97 Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2026 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

Much like the first season, each episode covers a whole range of comic book condensed into an enjoyable 22-30 minute episode. While narrative beats are quick and the character arcs go through the motions at a record pace, the series maintains its energy going and it gives you everything you could ask for in its roughly 30-minute runtime. A show like this feels better binged than watched episodic so it’s good that the first three episodes will drop in bulk. Fortunately, Disney+ launched the premier with a bulk drop of the first three episodes, followed by weekly releases leading us to the grand finale on August 12.

Wolverine (voiced by Cal Dodd) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97 Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2026 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

Funnily enough, the second episode features a completely different opening sequence. If each episode follows suit, it will be interesting to see how these storylines and rapidly expanding character rosters ultimately converge in the finale. If they plan to finish off the entire Apocalypse storyline in this season – rumours have it that Season 3 and 4 are already in active development – it would need a huge cast to take down this big bad.

Storm (voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97 Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2026 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

With its bite-sized episodes, the series does an admirable job of giving us some meaningful highlights for each character. The premiere grants both Jean Grey and Storm great scenes, while the second episode shines a well-deserved spotlight on Jubilee. Additionally, the darker themes it explores, especially regarding Cable and his methods, are pretty interesting addition to the show.

En Sabah Nur (voiced by Cal Dodd) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97 Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2026 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

A lot of the storylines that I’m aware of have already been tackled in season one so I’m seeing the last few adaptations of the books I read back in the 90s in these episodes. However, the show takes significant liberties with X-Factor. While they were one of my favourite groups in the source material, they seem to have been noticeably rewritten here to simplify the story and avoid overcomplicating things too much.

Having separated the team means that viewers might want to stick around and see how everyone and everything comes together. This feels like a full-on story now, having found success in the first season; they can be more playful with their narrative choices on this one.

If they keep this up, this will be a fun watch.

My Rating: 4 Stars

Ready to see if the team can stop Apocalypse? Watch X-Men ’97 Season 2 now streaming on Disney+.

July 12, 2026
MOVIE REVIEW: Lacking in Active Conflict, ‘First Light’ Is a Reflective Movie About a Crisis of Faith

Beautifully shot, director James J. Robinson’s debut feature film, First Light, is a slow-paced, meditative examination of corruption within idealized institutions. Collaborating with cinematographer Amy Dellar, Robinson presents a world that feels lost in time and space. The narrative unfolds in an unnamed village in the Philippines, near a decaying convent built during the Spanish occupation, a world seemingly unbothered by the modern intrusion of mobile phones or television. Its atmospheric opening, featuring the convent covered in darkness as nuns glide past with candles, initially made me believe that the film might be a period piece. It is toward the end of the first act, when a motorcycle appears on screen, that we realize we are actually grounded in the modern world.

First Light follows Sister Yolanda, played by Ruby Ruiz, whose faith is profoundly shaken following a tragic accident that results in the death of a young man. Driven by her moral compass to find some semblance of peace for the young man’s surviving family, she begins to unearth the complex power dynamics at play between a wealthy local clan, the government, and the church and how it ties to the suppression of the truth regarding the boy’s passing. Consequently, Sister Yolanda’s faith falters, igniting a journey to discovery begins.

First Light | Image Source: Clou Media Productions FB Page

First Light adopts a languid pace, slowly unfolding its world piece by piece with no rush or urgency. The film follows the daily life of Sister Yolanda, illustrating the extraordinary lengths she goes to for the parish, the people in it, her fellow sisters of the habit, and the church she so deeply believes in. Yet, while Dellar’s cinematography remains exquisite, the narrative pacing never truly picks up, even after the tragic death of the young man and her growing realisation about the world around her. This relentless slow-burn makes the film lack the energy it needs to fully delve into the raw emotion of Sister Yolanda’s own crisis of faith.

This slowness also takes the form through the line delivery, where characters take prolonged pauses between lines that has a tendency to kill the organic energy of a scene. This rhythmic hesitation makes the conversations sound noticeably scripted rather than natural, as if the actors are visibly waiting for a cue or a calculated emotional beat. Ultimately, a more naturalistic, free-flowing delivery of the dialogue would have greatly helped the film achieve the grounded mood.

At a certain point, things become a bit too easy; major discoveries are made with very little fanfare. Sister Yolanda’s own dealings, whether with the priest (Soliman Cruz), a fellow sister contemplating leaving the convent (Kare Adea), or Linda (Maricel Soriano), a wealthy matron whose mother is on life support and who Sister Yolanda visits to pray over, usually ends with a discussion but no real argument or debate. While the film constantly searches for an active conflict, it settles instead for a passive one: one of reflection.

Thankfully, Ruiz is exceptional at conveying these abstract thoughts and complex emotions within such a dormant narrative. There’s a lot of nuanced work here that fills in the storytelling gaps, and manages to create a version of Sister Yolanda that is remains consistently fascinating to watch. It’s in the lens of the mundane and the ordinary that we are watching all this unfold and Ruby Ruiz harnesses that effectively.

Ultimately, there are many interesting things that First Light does and tries to tackle. It juxtaposes images of our Spanish colonial history as an opposing, oppressive force over its less fortunate characters, creating links to the corruption upon many hallowed institutions, most especially the church. These are the interrogations I admire but I ultimately wish the film had approached this with a little bit more narrative energy.

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Keep an eye out for First Light on the film festival circuit or look out for its upcoming digital and streaming release. It is a slow-burn narrative worth tracking down just to witness Ruby Ruiz’s powerhouse, quietly powerful performance!

July 6, 2026
MOVIE REVIEW: Milly Alcock’s Portrayal of ‘Supergirl’ Makes the Movie

There is actually a lot of good things that’s going on for Supergirl. I love director Craig Gillespie’s work on I, Tonya and thought he had a really sharp eye here, capturing the deeper pathos of Supergirl. As a character study, I really enjoyed how the film positions Kara as an ultimately powerful superhero, but whose sense of loss is so catastrophic that she feels lost and without purpose. These are the elements that truly resonated with me. However, I felt that the story that surrounded this and the plot that allowed Supergirl’s story to unfold felt incongruent with her personal journey. There were many moments when I felt as though I was watching two completely different films and I was definitely liking one far more than the other.

Kara Zor-El, the cousin of Kal-El (Superman), was born eight years after the fall of Krypton. Her father, the engineer Zor-El, managed to protect a portion of the home planet within a protective force field as its core melted away.

Supergirl | Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

However, as the remaining survivors of Argo, Krypton are slowly dying off and Zor-El’s only recourse to save his daughter was to send her to Earth to join Kal-El. Unlike Superman, Kara did not experience his idealistic and optimistic childhood; instead, she grew up witnessing the slow death and destruction of her entire race.

Supergirl | Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Now turning 23, she copes by hopping between planets with her dog, Krypto, getting drunk and avoiding facing the truth about who she is and who she plans to be. Her celebration gets derailed when she meets Ruthye Marye Knoll, a young girl whose parents were killed by the ruthless brigand leader Krem of the Yellow Hills. She is on a quest to find him to exact her revenge.

Supergirl | Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

When Krem and his crew steal Kara’s shop and shoot Krypto with a fatal poison, the antidote to which only Krem possesses, Kara and Ruthye are forced to band together. For Kara, the stakes transform into a desperate mission to save Krypto, the last living connection to her lost home.

Supergirl | Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

As Kara, Milly Alcock is a wonderful personification of Supergirl’s intense emotional turmoil. She layers her performance with the knowledge that she’s extremely powerful, unapologetic about it, but also uncaring about it. Alcock fully embodies Kara’s deep sense of displacement and purposelessness. There’s a tired way by how she goes about things. She’s dazzling to watch because you know underneath all the walls she has put up is a powerhouse that flattens mountains with a punch or a blast from her eye beams. But her heart isn’t in it. It is such an arresting performance that I could easily watch it all day.

Supergirl | Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

What I did not appreciate, however, was how the plot utilizes this young girl’s quest for vengeance tagging along to somehow mirror or parallel Kara’s own emotional journey. I get it, both characters have suffered greatly and it is through each other that they will find some sort of insight about how to push forward. There is something touching about Ruthye (Eve Ridley), a seemingly hapless child carrying her father’s sword seeking revenge. Yet, her tragic backstory is granted a four-minute prologue, the slaughter of her family ultimately feels more like a convenient plot device than a character-driven storyline. We don’t even get to see the weapons her father died protecting. Instead, Rutheye spends most of the movie wanting revenge and getting into trouble, only to be constantly saved by the more powerful Supergirl, leaving no real room for to see her grow. If she’s mirroring or her journey is to parallel that of Kara-El’s, it doesn’t quite help us gain any new insight into Kara’s deep-seated depression.

Supergirl | Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

There is even a subplot of how the brigands are capturing women as brides because they are an all-male species. This add no real bearing to Kara’s personal journey, or Ruthye’s, for that matter, but its includion feels like a forced, surface-level attempt to show how feminist the film’s story is. You can remove that storyline and the movie would remain still strong and feminist, in just how much more of a burden Kara carries over her more idealistic cousin (still played wonderfully by David Corenswet). Same abilities, same trauma, but different approach; different realities.

Utilmately, the film offers fantastic moments of cinema. This is especially true during the breathtaking sequences in outer space where Supergirl absorbs the energy of the yellow sun and comes into her own, alongside some great, complex fight scenes that allow us to see the full extent of who she is as a superhero and as a character. We get to witness her when at her most vulnerable, completely depowered under the dim light of a red sun, and at her most formidable, super-charged under the radiant rays of the yellow sun. Through it all, she is remains fearless and persistent. What Superman possesses in heart, Supergirl matches in sheer grit.

Supergirl | Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

There is undoubtedly a lot of good materials in this film – some great set pieces, a quick pace, some really great character moments – but I wished the plot had dealt more directly with Kara and her personal emotional journey. I felt Ruthye was not compelling enough as a mirror and it gave no real insight to Kara’s own choices. Meanwhile, Jason Momoa’s appearance as Lobo is exactly how I imagined him to be. It is a highly predictable performance that has no real bearing in the movie other than to put another recognizable DC character into the mix. Ultimately, I really just wanted more of Supergirl herself and I didn’t get nearly enough.

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Supergirl is now playing in theaters nationwide. Check showtimes, grab your tickets today, and see the cosmic powerhouse in action on the biggest screen possible!

July 3, 2026