Tag: movie review

MOVIE REVIEW: The Funny Thing About Truth and Lies: A Review of ‘Fly Me to the Moon’

Set in the late 1960s with the focus on America’s rush to put American astronauts on the moon to beat the Russians during the “space race,” ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ is a mainstream comedy starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum and directed by Greg Berlanti. While the film intends to be an inspiring tale about the interconnectedness of marketing and branding with scientific progress (which may not always align ideologically) and the gung-ho attitude of Americans in how they were able to inspire the world to reach for the stars, the film may also unintentionally become an interesting examination of America’s dangerous marriage to capitalism and its own sordid image of itself. If it was intentional, then bravo to the director and Rose Gilroy, the screenwriter, because ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ navigates the advantages and disadvantages of lies, misdirection, and the truth.

Tatum plays Cole Davis, a former astronaut who is head of the NASA program in-charge of sending astronauts into space. He’s a no-nonsense kind of guy who deeply loves his job and the people who work under him. But under then-President Nixon and the growing cost of the Vietnam war, NASA is trying to survive with a diminished budget and with a deadline that is looming perilously closer every day. Enter Kelly Jones, played by Scarlett Johansson, recruited by the mysterious Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) to use her expertise in marketing and PR to rebrand the NASA program and get people excited again for the space program.

Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

The film manages its politics quite well. Jones is depicted as a woman who will always go where the money is but her assistant, played by Anna Garcia, is a progressive feminist who cautions against it, articulating the film’s politics that Nixon was bad, the Vietnam war was bad and that the methods employed by Jones throughout the film are also extremely objectionable.

Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

But as Jones’ methods for building the Apollo mission and NASA brand succeeds – even if she uses actors to play the engineers because they don’t do interviews, or commodifying every aspect of the space mission making statements that are not true – it really puts a question on whether little embellishments and lies are what it really takes to make people care about anything.

Lance (Jim Rash) and Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

The film makes fun of this. We are expected to laugh when Johansson, as Kelly Jones, convinces Tatum’s Cole Davis that the cereal marketing and branding helps even if the astronauts don’t really eat the products in real life; and we do laugh because Johansson is putting out all the charm and it works in this medium and Tatum serves as a wonderful counterpoint to her amoral marketing wiz. We laugh because we have heard and even know about “the truth in advertising” and to see it play out in this comedy where the results are beneficial to the main characters, especially the morally upright Cole Davis, that we forgive them and ride along.

Ruby Martin (Anna Garcia), Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson), Lance Vespertine (Jim Rash) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

In-between the hijinks and the gags, there’s a love story blooming between Kelly and Cole but there’s also a big secret that Kelly is trying to hide and, through this job, hopefully erase; and when the lies get too big to handle, the film leads us towards the filming of a fake lunar landing (which involves the always-funny Jim Rash as the director of this production) to ensure that the Americans will win the space race, whether they really did or not.

Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) and Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) in FLY ME TO THE MOON.

While the film harkens about the power and importance of the truth, of how the truth gives value to any concept or abstract idea, ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ ends up highlighting the way America has always tried to portray itself to the world, where it’s image of being “the greatest nation of the world” is built upon so many wrongs. In this film, it’s the Vietnam War.

Interestingly enough, when the film positions Moe Berkus as the antagonist, the best way to beat him is through deception. The film, while advocating for the power and importance of truth, cannot help but leverage the power of lies in solving so many problems and issues. Despite its moral shortcomings, though, the movie means well and it’s funny and well-paced and its cast does a marvelous job of selling us the fantasy. It’s a completely fictional story that uses historical facts as a basis for some of its plot points, but it is really out there to just give us a good time, and it does that. The music is strong, Johansson and Tatum are wonderful together and it sort of shows us the importance of being able to sell an idea. No great advancement can be done without money and the games behind the scenes are given special attention by the plot points of the film. If anything, the film further proves that STEM is nothing without the humanities and the liberal arts to give it any real value.

My Rating:

Fly Me to the Moon is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

July 10, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Highlighting the Need to Scream: a review of ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’

I really felt that ‘A Quiet Place’ was a complete movie all on its own so when the sequel came out, I was very resistant to it. When I saw it, it was enjoyable but it’s been four years since its release and I barely remember anything about it. I still remember how ‘A Quiet Place’ made me feel, though, and quite a number of sequences from that movie. So, when I saw the trailer for ‘A Quiet Place: Day One,’ I wasn’t sure how to feel. Casting Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn and Alex Wolff definitely help but how does a prequel to the movie really help the lore? What new thing can they say about these aliens and this invasion that the first film didn’t tackle so beautifully already? I was very resistant to this movie.

To my utter surprise, the film directed and written by Michael Sarnoski (on a story by Sarnoski and John Krasinksi) finds completely new ground and takes the setting into a completely different direction. Set in the same universe as ‘A Quiet Place,’ the film happens at the time of when the hearing-dependent aliens arrive on Earth, with the film’s focus on what it calls “one of the noisiest cities in the world,” which is New York City.

Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in A Quiet Place: Day One from Paramount Pictures.

In this movie, we follow Lupita Nyong’o, who plays a cancer patient Sam, who is staying at a hospice. She has a service cat (named Frodo) and she is generally very bitter about life and her condition. She’s constantly lashing out, even at her nurse (Alex Wolff). On a trip to the city with other patients at the hospice, Sam finds herself in the middle of an alien invasion. As the world meets the horrors of this vicious, brutal alien species, the terminally ill Sam decides a different path than that of safety.

Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” and Joseph Quinn as “Eric” in A Quiet Place: Day One from Paramount Pictures.

Surprisingly, ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ ends up becoming a character study. What is a terminally ill person supposed to feel or strive for in an apocalyptic setting? Her outlook in life is already poor, and things just got worse. Nyong’o imbues Sam with a strong determination despite her calm and clear mind about her present reality. It makes her character so compelling, considering she’s not the nicest person in the world. Sam is in so much pain that she struggles even to walk without her medication. Her outlook is dim but now she’s being forced to keep quiet or else she’ll meet a violent end at the gaping maw of the alien species.

Alex Wolff as “Reuben” and Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in A Quiet Place: Day One from Paramount Pictures.

It’s from her perspective and that of Eric (Joseph Quinn), a man with anxiety, who follows her because of his attachment to Frodo. Together, they navigate the ruined city streets of New York – find their way underground and in empty buildings in an effort for Sam to reconnect with the things she’s lost because of her condition. Throughout this odyssey, the film highlights our own need for release, for catharsis. It is so wonderful dramatized in one scene that involves the rain. The ways by which Nyong’o and Quinn manage that scene completely removed all my hesitation for this prequel. Somehow, ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ managed to contextualize the noise and the silence and our very own need for catharsis and release.

Djimon Hounsou as “Henri”, Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” and Alex Wolff as “Reuben” in A Quiet Place: Day One from Paramount Pictures.

While the film has its beautiful, tender moments and a wonderful existential exploration of one’s mortality, the movie isn’t without its thrills and spills. There’s a lot of destruction here as the aliens rampage through the city and ravage most of the people onscreen. Part of the film’s DNA are the scenes when the scene goes completely silent and there’s only live sound of what is happening onscreen and the whole cinema just slips into silent attention. Our breaths are all held hoping that our silence will help the characters on screen. Tension is created as we see potential objects that can cause noise appear in sight. It’s a magical back and forth created by the film for the audience and it’s lovely.

Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in A Quiet Place: Day One from Paramount Pictures.

The film has one unnecessary jump scare, though, but other than that, everything else works marvelously for the narrative.While the film isn’t particularly profound, it is surprisingly touching and heart-warming. ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ carves a space for itself to be a lovely story about one woman’s determination to taking charge of her life in a time of doom. It’s inspiring. It’s hopeful. It’s realistic. It’s a good time in the cinema.

My Rating:

A Quiet Place: Day One is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

June 28, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Focused on the laughs, ‘Fruitcake’ forgets to land its punch

Comedy is a tricky genre to execute. The subjectivity of humor is one thing, but as the joke goes: “the secret to comedy is timing.” Joel Ferrer’s ‘Fruitcake’ is a big ensemble comedy with a great big cast – Joshua Garcia, Ria Atayde, KD Estrada, Victor Anastacio, Alex Diaz, Enchong Dee, Heaven Paralejo, Dominic Ochoa and so much more – and a big story of a group of people whose lives are at the crux of a great big change. There’s some inspiration taken from the three stanzas of the Eraserheads song of the same name (and you can tell because Yeng Constantino sings a cover at some point in the movie), and the film tries to present a myriad of characters who are struggling against the ebb and flow of life and the film tries to find the humor in these stories. And this is where it gets tricky because while some are a laughing matter, others are not, and the ways by which this film unfolds makes it a little difficult to find something that grounds all of this together.

Joshua Garcia plays Cardo, a young man who is going to Manila to work and to reunite with his ex-girlfriend Diane (Heaven Paralejo), who has gone ahead to study. But Diane has moved on and she’s now with an older man, Senator Sam (Dominic Ochoa), who is the target of some student activists Chad and Dax (Alex Diaz and Markus Peterson). Dax sells weed to Jolo and Jagson (KD Estrada and Noel Comia Jr) so that the two boys can get to hang with some rich girls. Jagson is the brother of Ospret (Victor Anastacio, who is working hard to support his brother and his father, who is suffering from dementia (or Alzheimer’s). While Jenny (Ria Atayde) has just discovered she got pregnant with her co-worker Poch (Empoy Marquez) after a one-night stand.

The stories themselves are loosely interconnected and the first trouble they have is finding a thematic line to jump from one story to the other. Since each character’s struggles are thematically different from any other character, there’s no real easy transition from one story to the next. Oftentimes, director Joel Ferrer stays too long on one character before moving to the next that it creates a disjointed rhythm to the movie.

And the way their stories get complicated are uneven but at some point, we are all made to find humor in them and then later, to take them seriously, which is hard balancing act to juggle. Jenny considers abortion and enters a debate with her brother Diego (Enchong Dee), who is a priest and is against it. Jolo freaks out because he’s scared that he’ll be caught with the weed he just bought while Chad and Dax get high, kiss, and freak out that they might be gay. Diane is in a relationship with an older man who is married while Ospret discovers all the work he’s doing has taken a dangerous toll on him.

Source: Cornerstone Studios FB

The film opens topics like abortion, homophobia, drug use, filial obligations, depression but never really gets deep into any of them to really give any satisfying exploration of these topics that are brought up. Some treatments can be a little uncomfortable like the way Chad and Dax deal with discovering that they may be gay. These are rich kids and activists and, if anything, they’d be the first to not sweat the possibility of being queer. As a teacher, most of my students are open to that possibility and they fit the demographic that Chad and Dax fall under. Of course, there are exceptions to the rules, but without any real sufficient backstory, their story ends up portraying gayness as something so awful without intending to.

On the flipside, Cardo’s story is the one with the least heavy stakes. It’s such a shame because Joshua Garcia really shines here as the probinsyano (where I feel that his thick probinsyano accent is used for comedy when a provincial accent isn’t really a funny thing?) with the big dream of getting back with his ex and working in an office in Manila. His charm shines through in every scene but the things they make him do just feels off. He brings a chicken to the MRT and it feels reductive.

The others who end up stealing the show are Victor Anastacio, Ria Atayde, and Enchone Dee. Anastacio manages to infuse Ospret’s world with pathos and the way his story shifts from comedic to dramatic is grounded by Anastacio’s great performance. It’s when he does these subtle jabs at his brother – when he’s not playing for comedy – that he elicits some of the funniest jokes in the movie. Atayde takes the typical story of a woman discovering she’s pregnant and elevates from being a stereotype and she has an interaction with Dee that is so well done and so well performed. It’s a scene in church when Jenny tells her brother she’s pregnant and he shifts from loving brother to strict priest and the interplay between the two cinematic gold.

Unfortunately, the film doesn’t manage to have that for each character and set-up. Sometimes, jokes are drawn out too long and could have ended earlier and snappier. Others don’t seem integrated too well into the story, so it feels like a gag that is out of place in the entirety of the movie. And when all is said and done, the film finds an inorganic way to put everyone in the MRT for a finale that feels forced and contrived. But humor is a tricky thing. Some people in the cinema where I was watching were laughing at jokes that I did not find funny (I even found some problematic) but the jokes I was laughing at were met with silence from the rest. At the end of the day, the film sets out to make us laugh but my biggest issue is that the movie is trying to say something too and it feels like the film was too busy making us laugh that it forgets to show more scenes that supported its ending message.

My Rating:

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

June 18, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Beautifully Familiar: a review of ‘How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies’

There’s a subtle, quiet quality to Pat Boonnitipat’s ‘How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies’ that allows its magic to seep in. It’s about the little details that its lead character, M, played by the exceptionally natural Putthipong Assaratanakul observes about his family while he tries to scam his grandmother for an inheritance. The film never puts the focus on the narrative conflict. It’s not just character-driven; the narrative highlights and amplifies the culture of these characters and puts it on display so that we can judge it the way that M does as his character comes to an awakening about people and family.

M is a college dropout and has failed to earn a living as a game streamer. His mother, Chew (Sarinrat Thomas), nags him about getting a job as he once bragged that he would give his mom an allowance from the earnings he’d make as a content creator. Penniless, he gets an idea from his cousin, Mui (Tontawan Tantivejakul), who has earned a huge house after spending most of her life taking care of her rich grandfather as his nurse. M then goes to his grandmother, Mengju or Amah (Usha Seamkhun) and moves in with her to take care of her after she suffers a fall and hurts her leg.

M discovers that living with his Amah is not easy. She has a rigid work ethic and she’s set in her ways. The generation gap is huge but when he discovers she has a severe medical condition and she might not have long to live, he pours in all he’s got in an effort to win her over and inherit her house.

But M has a lot of obstacles in his path. He has his uncles to contend with: Kiang (Sanya Kunakorn), who is the eldest and clearly Amah’s favourite, but he’s well-off and has a family of his own; and then there’s Soei (Pongsatorn Jongwilas), who is out of his luck, a bit of a drunk, and in-between jobs.

The movie is just a little above two hours, but you don’t feel the time pass because every little moment shared between M and Mengju are full of charm and heart. While M’s intentions are not the best, he’s genuine about taking good care of his Amah. The things that he notices about her and about his family opens up his eyes and the film show us this young man growing right on screen before us.

The film takes its time and builds the world of M and Mengju. As a Chinese-Thai family, they have customs and traditions that can be familiar to us Filipinos. The ways by which they hold family sacred and the way that these bonds have shifted in the younger generation, to which M belongs to, become points-of-interest that the film lets us peek into. We never feel excluded from this culture, from this world, from these characters. We are brought in and we are reminded of our own relationships with our own family members.

Source: SM Cinemas FB Page

The film manages to find humor in the looming death of one of its main characters and Assaratanakul gives a moving performance as a person who seeks to benefit from it but, as the story unfolds and his relationship with his grandmother deepens, he begins to resist it. Suddenly, the cluttered house where the two live loses its monetary value and the film’s narrative imbues all of the visuals with such striking heartwarming sentiment. Director Pat Boonnitipat directs the film with very little fanfare but brings his camera really close when he has to catch his characters in a thought and then brings it out for a full shot to show his characters against the backdrop of their surroundings to situate them in the larger scheme of things. With a beautiful score that allows the emotions to flow, Boonnitipat creates a rhythm to the movie that just lets life unfold. You never feel like anything is scripted or manipulated. The film just feels so real, allowing the familiarity of the story to just get under our skin so that when the film’s resolution hits, it hits us hard.

No one in the cinema I was in had a dry eye. We were all crying, touched by such a charming, heartfelt story about a young man coming to terms with growing up and realising the kind of decisions adults make that are never easy to understand but you do anyway because you love them. The film has such amazing restraint that it never leans into the dramatic. It never goes for histrionics. It keeps things subtle, everything just under the surface unless it absolutely must explode. It’s a touching film that transcends cultural boundaries because it understands that love and family relations is not a thing that needs to be translated.

My Rating:

How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is now showing! Check showtimes here.

June 18, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Inside Out 2’ is unafraid to grow up

It is absolutely incredible to me that Pixar could make an animated film about our emotions and what goes on in our heads that catered to both children and adults alike. ‘Inside Out’ was a monumental feat of imagination and excellent world-building and, to no surprise, the team of director Kelsey Mann and screenwriters Meg LaFauve and Dave Holstein were able to capture lightning once more because ‘Inside Out 2’ is just as powerful and moving as the first without losing any of the laughs and thrills that made the first one so endearing.

Riley is older now, a teenager, and that means puberty is going to hit her and it comes with new emotions. The original crew in Riley’s headquarters – Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger – must make room now for Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui. As a teen, Riley is experiencing great changes and when she and her two best friends, Bree and Grace, are invited to join a hockey camp, all these changes will come to a head as she starts to grow up and face the teenagers first major life hurdle: how to belong and fit in with society.

As Riley is growing up, the creative team behind ‘Inside Out 2’ worked to expand the world building started in the first movie. Now that she’s older, Riley is forming her core personality, which is made up of core memories that her emotions put into her consciousness. All of this comes into play as Joy and Anxiety battle it out for dominance over Riley’s big decisions now that she’s approaching high school and she has a chance to be friends with a cool upperclassman, who is also the best hockey player in her school.

BELIEF SYSTEM – In Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” Riley’s Sense of Self is made up of all of her beliefs, each of which can be heard with the pluck of a string. Sadness (voice of Phyllis Smith) and Joy (voice of Amy Poehler) deliver key memories to this formative land. “Inside Out 2” releases only in theaters June 14, 2024. © 2024 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

There’s an intricate way by which the Mann, LeFauve, and Holstein manage to work out the story that allows us to see how our minds react (or reacted, when we were that age) to the world around us and how these actions have serious repercussions to the way we thought about ourselves. As we see in the trailer, the film dramatizes the ways (and reasons) why Riley would bottle up her emotions, how she develops sarcasm at that age (and what it is used for), and the importance of being able to manage our emotions. The first movie was able to turn our inner world, our innermost thoughts as the setting of a great adventure. This time, that world is made even bigger that includes a huge vault of secrets and the changing landscape of a teenager’s mind.

NEW EMOTIONS — Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as new Emotions show up. Embarrassment (voice of Paul Walter Hauser), Anxiety (voice of Maya Hawke), Envy (voice of Ayo Edebiri) and Ennui (voice of Adèle Exarchopoulos) are ready to take a turn at the console. Directed by Kelsey Mann and produced by Mark Nielsen, “Inside Out 2” releases only in theaters June 14, 2024. © 2024 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

And at the heart of it all, despite all the hilarious gags and jokes that are woven seamlessly into the fabric of this narrative, is a wonderful coming-of-age story for Riley and for each of her emotions, most notably for Joy and the new emotion, Anxiety.

Amy Poehler does a wonderful job at making Joy all that her name embodies but it’s when she reaches her tipping point and finds a moment of vulnerability that everything just clicks for the whole film. Maya Hawke does a spirited job at making Anxiety such a powerhouse and a scene-stealer. While everyone does amazing at bringing their characters to life, it is Liza Lapira as Disgust who managed to shine. Her dialogue and her delivery were so sharp and precise that she managed to stand out.

INSIDE OUT 2 – WHO’S IN CHARGE? — Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley, where her Emotions Anger (voice of Lewis Black), Fear (voice of Tony Hale), Joy (voice of Amy Poehler), Sadness (voice of Phyllis Smith) and Disgust (voice of Liza Lapira) must make room for new Emotions, including Envy (voice of Ayo Edebiri), Anxiety (voice of Maya Hawke) and Embarrassment (voice of Paul Walter Hauser). Directed by Kelsey Mann and produced by Mark Nielsen, “Inside Out 2” releases only in theaters June 14, 2024. © 2024 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

Equally important is the way by which ‘Inside Out 2’ visualizes and dramatizes an anxiety attack. I have friends who have major anxiety attacks and I’ve always wondered what it feels like when they get paralyzed in that manner. This movie managed to show it without being preachy. It comes organically in the story and makes full use of cinematic language and the dynamism of the animated medium to fully realise the effect of it. I’ve always empathized over people suffering from anxiety attacks but now I feel like I have a grasp of what’s happening.

It’s really amazing that a movie can manage to do this, to bring us into something so abstract as an anxiety attack but without sacrificing the writing or the direction of the movie. ‘Inside Out 2’ is an eye-opener but it’s also engaging, funny, thrilling, and heartwarming in all the right places and tone.

In the cinema, all the kids were laughing and enjoying themselves while all the adults were holding back tears. It’s a wonderful balance that they’ve managed to do again.

My Rating:

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

June 14, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Unapologetically celebratory, ‘Glitter and Doom’ is a post-modern romance perfect for Pride Month

I love the Indigo Girls. As a kid of 80s and 90s, I grew up to their music and while ‘The Power of Two’ would be their most famous song in the Philippines, it wasn’t my favourite. I found the song so sweet and sentimental in comparison to Emily Saliers other songs, which are more melodically clever and more profound or any of Amy Ray’s more passionate songs. A jukebox musical of their songs sounds like a complete joy (even if I hate jukebox musicals, on principle), added to the fact that the story features a gay love story makes it even more appealing. I was very intrigued by director Tom Gustafson’s ‘Glitter and Doom.’

What I was not expecting was a post-modern musical that plays out more like a queer fantasy than a traditional, conventional movie. My pretentious classic movie leanings made me resist the movie at the start. Every scene feels like a set – the way Gustafson and director of photography Cristian Solano uses the backdrop of Mexico City to make everything feel so magical and dreamy – and even the character designs of his two protagonists feel completely fictional and unreal. Their names, after all, are Glitter and Doom. Glitter (played by an extremely charming Alex Diaz) is a rich kid, flirtatious, and, of all things, wants to go to Paris to clown school. While filming an audition in the streets of their unnamed city, he meets Doom (Alan Cammish). Doom is a budding singer and songwriter, who is trying to audition to play a regular gig at a bar called The Fountain. They bump into each other and there’s an instant attraction. But while the bubbly, optimistic Glitter comes off too strong, Doom quickly builds his walls as a dark cloud seems to be floating over his head.

I was resisting the film at the beginning. ‘Glitter and Doom’ is unapologetically a musical and takes a more atmospheric and thematic approach to storytelling rather than centering the movie with its plot. The love story of Glitter and Doom doesn’t take the normal story beats to develop. They see each other, Glitter hits on Doom, Doom backs away, they sing a song – a mashup of ‘Shed Your Skin’ and ‘Touch Me Fall’ by Indigo Girls – and all of a sudden a understanding is formed. The film, written by Cory Krueckeberg, prefers to make impressions than to hunker down and tell a cohesive story.

Adding to the fantasy, Glitter’s mom (Ming Na Wen) is a high-powered executive, who wants the same for her son. But she used to be a circus performer (which is where Glitter probably gets the fascination to be a clown) and her home is constantly on party mode with hoop dancers and jugglers and members of the queer community. She’s open about her son’s sexuality (such a breath of fresh air) but she seems less enthusiastic about her son wanting to be a clown (understandable). While Doom is constantly surrounded by drag queens and queer people in full regalia. These supporting will suddenly appear when any of the cast members burst out into song (which is often).

It wasn’t until a good 20 minutes when I finally realised the film was taking a post-modern approach to cinema. The film’s structure and style were in conjunction to the non-traditional world of its characters. The moment I accepted the film for what it is rather than what I wanted it to be, I began to see the moments of beauty this film had to offer.

First of all, the new arrangements and mashups of the Indigo Girls songs used in the film is wonderful. It helps that Cammish and Diaz are excellent singers. They are not just singing, but acting through it so it really adds a depth to the songs. Secondly, Cammish is wonderful at portraying the tortured artist, afraid of not realising his dreams of becoming a singer and falling in love. As the songwriter, he gets to do a lot of the singing and he does it perfectly. But the real star here is Diaz, whose Glitter is so free spirited and spritely but there’s a fear that is hidden underneath that Diaz manages to portray in very subtle ways. Glitter is constantly taking videos and often, Diaz has to look straight into the camera and perform a monologue and he manages to do so with all the emotions both external and internal in full view. It requires a nuanced measure of fragility and verve that he articulates with his whole body. It’s a revelatory performance that’s quite difficult to do in a film that is so tonally whimsical.

And while the story flits from its neurotic romance between Glitter and Doom, it’s also about realising your dreams and facing your demons (in this case, it’s also related to both protagonists’ mothers). By not focusing on narrative beats but instead painting impressions of moods and emotionally charged moments, amplified by the gorgeous music of the Indigo Girls, the film manages to creep in and twist on your heartstrings. I was absolutely gob smacked, while watching this movie and falling in love with it, that at some point when Cammish starts singing a new version of the classic Indigo Girls hit ‘Closer to Fine’ (with a interpolation of ‘Everything in Its Own Time’) I just started crying.

There’s a beautiful way by which this film imagines a world where the biggest problems a queer person would have been whether their dreams can come true and if their own fears and demons won’t get in the way of making a sure play at love. It’s a beautifully shot fantasy world that’s tender and sensitive and, sure, it’s easy and it never sweats the hard stuff. But in the landscape of queer cinema, it’s wonderful for a film to just be so unapologetically celebratory of queer lives. As the film leans into its formalist aesthetics, it revels in its fictional tone and just allows the characters to navigate through the darkness of their lives to try and reach that which makes them happy. And for that, on Pride month of all times, is just what is needed.

My Rating:

Glitter and Doom is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

June 11, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Over-reliant on dialogue, ‘The Watchers’ offers tepid scares and a flat story

Despite the lush Irish forests as its backdrop and a rather cinematic bunker in the middle of the woods as the setting of this horror film, ‘The Watchers‘ quickly loses any of its mystery and appeal because of first-time feature film director and screenwriter Ishana Night Shyamalan’s inability to wrestle with the film’s massive lore. Based on the book by A. M. Shine, ‘The Watchers’ prefers to keep things hidden; allowing the dread to stem from what we don’t know. This only last for as long as the fear is constant, the characters we’re following are engaging, and the film points out to something bigger.

But that’s not what happens here in the film.

‘The Watchers’ is about an American, Mina (played by Dakota Fanning), who is living in Ireland and running from her past. When her boss at the pet store she works in asks her to drive to another city to deliver an expensive bird to the zoo, then she finds herself lost in an enchanted forest where she cannot find her way out. There she discovers what is called “The Coop.” It is a bunker in the middle of the forest where she is taken in by its current inhabitants – Madeline (Olwen Fouere), Ciara (Georgina Campbell), and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) – and they tell her the rules to survive because out in the woods, when the sun goes down, the Watchers come and they will kill her if she’s not in the bunker by sundown.

All the elements are there to create an engaging story. Who are the watchers and what are they? There are rules to stay alive and, of course, Mina tries to break them because she refuses to be stuck there like everybody else. As some rules are broken, the four are put into danger. How will they get out? What do the watchers want? The list goes on.

But the moment the initial curiosity has set in, the film takes on a very by-the-numbers pace that slows everything down. While the rules are explained and while Mina tries to break them to find her way out, there’s no real sense of danger that sticks. Mina’s backstory is kept hidden from us until halfway through the movie, so we don’t feel that connected to her. It doesn’t help that Fanning, as good an actress as she is, is asked to be guarded and reserved. She’s put a distance between her and everybody in the film so she’s not the kind of lead character an audience can easily warm up to.

Madeline plays out as the older, wise woman character-trope, whose backstory I figured out quite quickly as the answers to the questions start pouring out by the third quarter of the film. Ciara and Daniel are functional but don’t have much to do to make you feel for them in any real way.

What makes the film even less scary is that all the important answers to the questions the film inevitably sets up by its premise is answered through a huge info dump in the third quarter of the movie. They learn the lore of the watchers in one big go that the already languid, tepid pace of the film is even stunted further. And regardless of how you feel about the revelation, without the mystery, the narrative starts to fall flat. What else is there to do now?

I can imagine what this narrative might be like in the form of a book. When you’re reading this story in the comfort of your home and taking the pace that you want, the story can work. The prose can cover up the variety of new information that happens near the end of the story. But for a film, as you near the end, you want the film to go faster to start moving towards its climax but instead ‘The Watchers’ ends up slowing down further to explain.

This has always been the problem of what some people call ‘the mystery box’ narrative. This is the trouble Ishana Night Shyamalan is struggling with in this film.

Once the big struggle is done, the film enters its resolution and then another twist is revealed (like father like daughter, because, yes, she is the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan). It is a twist I saw coming the moment the big info dump has occurred and the sad part is, at the film’s final conflict, it is once again done via dialogue. ‘The Watchers’ starts well with an interesting premise, but it does not keep up with all its elements as the film unfolds. If anything, this is a streaming movie for a dead weekend.

My Rating:

The Watchers is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

June 10, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: A vibrant city is uncovered by the films in Set A of The Manila Film Festival

Screening at Robinsons Manila and Robinson Magnolia until June 11, The Manila Film Festival offers two sets of short films, which explores the theme “Manila in Me,” and each set is opened and closed by a young but established filmmaker and in-between are four short films by student filmmakers. The six films in each of the two sets create an interesting tapestry that speaks about the variety and range of stories that are found at the heart of Manila, the seat of our country’s history.

For Set A, the films are prefaced by Dwein Baltazar’s ‘Nananahan,’ a gorgeous meditation on longing and waiting. Shot in black and white, the film is practically a silent film with the most minimal dialogue, if there’s even any. What keeps it from being silent is the exquisite music by Emerzon Tecson and the incredible sound design by Narra studios. The film is shot entirely in a furniture store at the heart of downtown Manila. It’s old and it feels abandoned and the people that hang around here are just waiting while the sounds of the city erupt all around.

It’s still and nothing happens yet a pervasive mood hangs upon the air and it tells the story of a city that is just waiting to be discovered all over again like the furniture in the store and the people that watch over it. Baltazar’s exquisite touch knows exactly how long to hold a scene and when to break it and when the finale comes and the realisation of what it is you’re really seeing hits you, it’s a magical moment that only film can truly capture.

Writer and director Vhan Marco Molacruz follows up after Dwein Baltazar with the road movie ‘Una’t Huling Sakay.’ While the story can be a little contrived, the pacing a little abrupt, what Molacruz does excellently is tell a vivid story about a life on hold. His main character (played by an arresting Gold Aceron) is a habal rider who had to stop his schooling to earn money for his pregnant girlfriend. Molacruz takes beautiful travel shots of Aceron on his bike while using the scenic backdrop of Manila as a means to symbolize the struggles and hopes and disappointment of his protagonist.

Following that is ‘An Kuan’ by writer and director Joyce Ramos. ‘An Kuan’ is tonally exquisite. It’s an absolutely charming film that manages to hit the right comedic tones as it details the struggles of a non-Tagalog speaking mom who is looking for a job in Manila. The film makes use of its rough edges to add a layer of grit that grounds the relationship of the mother (Louielyn Jabien) and her lesbian daughter (Zar Donato) that makes it both endearing and funny. It never takes itself too seriously and by doing so manages to tackles some really interesting themes while taking some very lovely shots of Manila’s coastal areas.

Phi Palmos and Precious Paula Nicole shine with a very nuanced, very powerful performance in Ronnie Ramos’ ‘Happy (M)other’s Day!’. It’s a simple film about a young girl who is navigating the difficulty of finding which parent can come to her school’s Mother’s Day event when she has no mom but two dads. It’s a small, intimate film with a lot of heart and propelled by excellent performances that includes Palmos, Nicole, and Amber Jeshley Gomez, who delivers an excellently matured performance. Unfortunately, Ramos needs to tighten his editing, allowing moments to linger when it should be snappy and manages to downplay the urgency of the story. This would be a stronger film if it had a tighter edit and some more dynamic cinematography that really helps bring you closer into the story.

Finishing off the student films in set A is ‘Pinalakang Tabingi’ by John Pistol Carmen. A lovely little love letter to cinema, Carmen’s short is about two kids who get caught up in a pirated DVD raid in their hometown in the province. The film manages to highlight the issues about accessibility to films while showing the effect a film can have on its young audience. It’s best when it’s playing at the fantasy, with Carmen also doing a really cute interplay between a fictional fantasy movie and the way the kids reenact the scene from this movie. By the latter half, the film dips into a public service announcement tone that can kill the energy built by the film’s first act but it’s charming all throughout.

Rounding up the first set is JP Habac’s ‘Shortest Day Longest Night.’ The film feels very now, very trendy. It has a pulse that belongs to the hip kids and their love for deep conversations and art and pop culture. The film is about safe spaces and how even the safe spaces that are inhabited by the queer community can be violated by members of its own community. Adrian Lindayag and Vaughn Piczon are excellent at embodying two lost souls finding safety in each other’s brokenness. It’s pretty to look at but I’m not a fan of the very didactic and verbose way that Habac approaches this story. So many of the film’s story points are articulated rather than dramatized and I really, really feel that this film is better as a full-length. There’s a world here that should be mined and sifted through and Piczon and Lindayag are excellent vessels for a story like this to unfold. As a short, I felt the story was hemmed in too much by its time constraints and I feel like it would just bloom if it had a full-length feature running time.

Disclaimer: Please note that movie showtimes are subject to change without prior notice. We recommend checking the latest schedules before planning your visit.

My Rating:

The Manila Film Fest 2024 is happening now at Robinson’s Movieworld – Manila and Robinson’s Movieworld – Magnolia (Limited Screening) until June 11! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

June 9, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: The old school 90s action comedy vibe of ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ is very reminiscent of the first film

I completely missed out on the third installment of the ‘Bad Boys’ series of films, the buddy cop action comedy starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. I remember seeing the first two films, but I have completely forgotten most of the details of ‘Bay Boys II’ and as the opening of ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ reveals, there are many major events that happened in ‘Bad Boys for Life’ that are sort of needed in being able to follow this fourth installment in the franchise. The details aren’t that integral to the overall understanding of the movie, but you may be surprised (as I was) about certain things like the characters played by Vanessa Hudgens, Paola Nunez, and Alexander Ludwig and that Smith’s Mike Lowrey has a son (played by Jacob Scipio).

In this installment of the franchise, Will Smith’s Mike Lowrey and Martin Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett are caught in the crossfire as their former captain, Joe Pantoliano’s Captain Howard, now deceased, appears in the film as a video and dream sequence while being set up to take the fall by the cartel. Lowrey and Burnett will have none of it and as they try to uncover who in the Miami police department is working with the cartel to tarnish the name of the captain, they end up being framed as murderers and accomplices, along with Mike’s son Armando Aretas (Scipio). Aretas is key here because he’s the only one who has seen the villain’s face (played by Eric Dane).

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence star in Columbia Pictures BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE. Photo by: Frank Masi

Now fugitives of the law, Lowrey, Burnett, Scipio, and the rest of their team must work to clear their names and stop the cartel from carrying out their plans.

To further complicate things, Burnett suffers a heart attack, an experience that leaves him feeling both immortal and spiritual. On the other hand, the newly married Mike Lowrey must also deal with his own mortality and the fact that his very dangerous life means that his new wife (Melanie Liburd) maybe a widow before the end of the film. These two aspects address the fact that both lead actors are in their 50s. It adds a layer to the proceedings, one that Lawrence mines for all its comedic potential (which is golden if Lawrence’s humor is up your alley) and creates a softness for Smith to chew on for his character.

Will Smith stars in Columbia Pictures BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE. Photo by: Frank Masi

But outside of this added layer for the characters to play with, the film operates like an old-school 90s action film. It has a vibe and morality akin to the original ‘Bad Boys’ from 1995. Smith’s and Lawrence’s antics are loud and explosive. There’s a macho/testosterone-driven comedy that pervades the film’s tone. The opening scene is Mike driving extremely fast as he appears to be late to a wedding (later on we discover it is his). For a policeman, driving this fast is highly unusual, but considering it’s Miami and it’s Will Smith, the comedic tone of the film asks us to forgive their recklessness. It’s America too, so some jokes involve Smith taking out his gun and pointing it to Lawrence’s Marcus, who is annoying the hell out of Mike with his pseudo-spiritual tirades and belief in his own immortality. Some people try to stop him and call him out (thankfully) but Lowrey quickly hushes them down. He’s a cop so he’s allowed.

Martin Lawrence stars in Columbia Pictures BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE. Photo by: Frank Masi

This 90s era morality and humor runs through this film but with the directorial styles of Adil & Bilall, it has a pace and an energy that is fit for the TikTok generation. The film’s editing is fast, leaving very little moments to ponder on mortality or morality. The film is jumping from plot point to plot point, from Martin Lawrence joke to Will Smith action pose. When the guns start blazing, it’s loud and geared for excitement. The best fight scenes, though, are given to the younger actors of the film. Jacob Scipio’s Armando engages in an exquisitely brutal fight scene in a prison involving weights, hitting hard and impressing. Meanwhile, Dennis Greene, who plays Marcus’ son-in-law, gets a really nice fight scene mid-movie that plays off like a video game.

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence star in Columbia Pictures BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE. Photo by: Frank Masi

In fact, aside from social media videos, ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ also takes a lot from video games as it captures a segment of the final face off in the style of a first-person shooter game.

In all honesty, ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ is not my kind of movie. It absolves its heroes of their most toxic traits because they are the good guys as well as it glorifies and romanticizes the violence that the good guys take to solving the problem. But as I was sitting in a packed theater while watching this movie, I also noticed the laughter from the people around me and the electricity in the theater that showed that this dynamic still has a lot of juice left in it. The fact that it takes the old-school route showed that they knew their market and what it took to keep them happy.

For what it was: a traditional, classic action comedy film, ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ checks all the boxes. And just in case people have not forgiven Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, well, that’s referenced in the movie too (and it got the loudest reactions from the audience).

My Rating:

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.

June 6, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ is an epic film but is too deeply connected to its predecessor

It’s been nine years since ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ but the world that George Miller created still lingers as one truly unforgettable onscreen depictions of a brutal post-apocalypse fit for cinema. The stunning visuals of that movie still linger in our minds and returning to this world, this time to explore the backstory of Fury Road’s most magnetic character: Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron) instead of the franchise’s grounding character Mad Max, can be a daunting task. Remember: Furiosa is such a beloved character, and we are coming fresh from the sand dunes of Arrakis from ‘Dune: Part Two.’ How will ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ stand up to that burden?

Fortunately, Miller has come back to the franchise with a lot of his old team: Nico Lathouris returns as his co-writer for this movie, Margaret Sixel returns to the editing chair, accompanied by Eliot Knapman, music scorer Tom Holkenborg and production designer Colin Gibson and a lot more have returned to the wastelands of the Mad Max universe alongside the visionary director. ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ is connected to its narrative sequel, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ so delicately that it’s a film that feels incomplete without it.

© 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

Everything about this new movie is big and explosive. It’s 148-minute running time is filled with impressive fight sequences that feel completely different from that of the previous film. The film opens up the world and explores the inner workings of the broken civilization that is at work. The Citadel that is heavily featured in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ becomes a key location and its inner workings and politics comes under view as well as the economic systems that are at place – Gas Town and The Bullet Farm – that answers any sort of questions like “where do they refill all the gasoline used by their cars” and “how come they never run out of bullets?”

© 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

A lot of the world has opened up now and Furiosa (played in the movie by Alyla Browne as the younger version and Anya Taylor-Joy as the older version) becomes our eyes, the foil by which this world is seen or understood and experienced. The story begins with Furiosa taken from her home, a place of abundance, and she is brought to the roving warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), who holds on to her as she is the only one who knows where the place of abundance is. Along the way, Dementus makes a play for The Citadel and its ruler Immortan Joe (played Lachy Hume). During their battles, the young Furiosa is traded to Immortan Joe, and she manages to find herself working in the garage and armory of The Citadel. Here: she becomes an invaluable crew member to Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) and the key to an opportunity to go home opens up as well as revenge for the horrors that Dementus had put her through.

The movie is cut up into chapters and through this narrative we see the trials and challenges that Furiosa faces that will turn her into the badass we get to see in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road.’ The world building of this movie is immense, and it really widens the scale and scope of the franchise as it has never been done before. It’s no longer a post-apocalyptic nightmare (like the first three movies depicts, though it has been a while since I last saw the films) but it becomes a place where hopes and dreams can somehow take fruit, if the person is strong enough. We know this because we’ve seen the previous film. We know what Furiosa will become and what she will accomplish. Without that knowledge, ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ can feel repetitive and unnecessarily brutal.

© 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

Don’t get me wrong: there’s so much to love and enjoy in ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.’ There’s a kookiness and an irreverence that I can best describe as being very Australian that keeps the imagery a fresh balance of silly and cool. It vacillates effortlessly from epic to comical. This is also best exemplified by Taylor-Joy’s (and Browne’s) ferocity in their portrayal of Furiosa and the way by which Hemsworth embodies the unhinged reckless abandon of Dementus. In fact, Miller manages to emphasize his thesis about the nature of how humanity has broken in its efforts to survive this barren wasteland and one can’t help but feel he’s making a commentary on our world at the same time.There’s even a magnificent 30–35-minute fight sequence that brings Taylor-Joy from the bottom of a war rig all the way above it and inside the driver’s seat and it’s just incredible. It matches anything that was previously done in ‘Fury Road’ (though there is way more generous use of CGI effects, which was not apparent or obvious in the previous film). The film has stunning set pieces and fight choreography. It has gorgeous long shots of motorcycles and other vehicles moving through the sandy dunes of the Australian Outback. In IMAX, the images are absolutely stunning, meeting the high expectations of any George Miller epic.

© 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

But the story itself is deeply connected to its predecessor.

I feel that ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ has a difficult time standing on its own. It’s bleak. It’s obviously a set up and it requires ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ to fully flesh out its narrative ambitions. Without spoiling anything, I think it is telling that after the film ends, the credits are interspersed with scenes from ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ and its effect amplifies the energy and meaning of that first film.

It’s an incredible experience but it feels incomplete on its own. It’s obviously leading to something and without it, it’s just a lovely watch.

My Rating:

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

May 27, 2024