Tag: movie review

MOVIE REVIEW: Too Close and Too Familiar: a review of ‘Under Parallel Skies’

There’s a lot of misfiring happening in what should be a sure-fire success that is the international co-production ‘Under Parallel Skies’ with Thai superstar Metawin Opas-iamkajorn and Janella Salvador, under the direction of Sigrid Andrea Bernardo. By all means, this should be good. Shot in Hong Kong, Bernardo is quite adept at capturing love amidst the backdrop of a foreign lang. She did it is so capably in ‘Kita Kita,’ presenting us with the surprising kilig-worthy pairing of Alessandra de Rossi and Empoy with great success. But in ‘Under Parallel Skies,’ things are not coming together, and the movie feels disjointed and confused with what story it is trying to tell.

Metawin Opas-iamkajorn is playing Parin, a very wealthy Thai young businessman who heads to Hong Kong in search of his mother. There he runs into Iris, played by Janella Salvador. She’s working at the hotel he is staying in and as his wealthy father has left instructions for the staff to take care of him, Iris ends up working overtime to address all Parin’s needs, including helping him find his mother. In the process, they get close and discover that their feelings have grown from purely professional to something much more.

The first misfire in this film is its lack of a cohesive story. The first act revolves all around Parin’s search for his mom. While he employs the help of Iris, which lays the foundation for the love story to happen after, the goal and direction is finding the mom. Surprisingly, this is resolved faster than expected, switching the entire movie’s direction on the second act to the sudden twist of Parin and Iris dropping everything to start working together as business partners running a small cafe in a provincial, coastal area of Hong Kong while living together. But the third act is a completely different movie altogether that involves one of the character’s hidden secrets that is unconvincingly set up in act one but is never any visible motivating factor until it is revealed in the final act that turns the movie over its head again.

These multiple directions made the film feel like three different movies and never gave us any chance to really get to know the characters well or see their relationship grow into the love story that the second act wanted us to fall in love with. Bernardo fills the first act with Parin’s desperation to find his mother but also peppers the scenes with comedic moments of Iris and Parin verbally sparring or Iris taking care of a drunk Parin to set us up for the love story. Unfortunately, there’s no real chemistry happening between the two leads and the moment Parin meets his mom, the lessons he learns there holds no real learning for the character as it makes no real visible change to his life.

After an hour, as Parin and Iris start to build their little business together, I realise I didn’t know these characters at all. Parin left home to find his mom and it is implied that he ran a business in Thailand (and that it failed) and that he is the youngest son of a wealthy family, but we return to none of that. We do not know what he likes or what drives him and it’s the same with Iris. I don’t know what drives her either. She has a sister back home in the Philippines that she is estranged from, but we don’t know why. So, when the two suddenly realise they fell in love, we don’t see what connects them other than the time they have spent together. The love doesn’t come from any sense of connection other than shared time.

It doesn’t’ help that Bernardo’s directing choices are also quite puzzling. It felt like 90% of the film was shot in extreme close ups of the actor’s faces. It capitalizes a lot on the good looks and star power of its two leads. Except that it makes the film feel very small and confined and claustrophobic. There are barely any establishing shots. The hustle and bustle of Hong Kong is never emphasized and the grandeur of the backdrop of any of the locations end up carrying no consequence for the narrative. Adding to this is Bernardo’s choice to direct the dialogue scenes (of which there are too much of) as cut-to-cut. There are very few moments that Metawin and Janella speak to each other in the same shot. Parin says a line, cut to Iris, who says a line, cut, and then Parin says a line. The characters feel distant and never actually get close when the film should be putting them together.

Homestream images from 28 Squared Studios FB Page

And this is strange coming from Bernardo who manages to use the full backdrop of Sapporo in ‘Kita Kita’ to help amplify the growing love story between her two leads, or in ‘Untrue,’ where she situates her romance/drama-turned-suspense/thriller in the gorgeous Georgian landscape. Bernardo situates her characters in a vast world and knows how to use the location to amplify her themes and create stunning imagery that elevates the work. None of this skill set is at work in ‘Under Parallel Skies.’ Very little of Hong Kong is scene and it never really fully plays out in the story – it could have been set in Thailand or the Philippines and nothing essentially changes in the story.

There are a lot of cliches that fill up the rest of the film to help fill in the gaps of the underdeveloped characters or storylines. All the elements are presents for a hit – a strong writer/director with a great track record for producing groundbreaking work, two big stars from different countries and cultures, a popular genre, an exotic location – but none of these things come into alignment and the film is way too close for comfort (cinematographically) that it leaves no room to breathe or to gain scope while the story is so thin that it resorts to familiar cliches to fill in the gaps.

My Rating:

Under Parallel Skies is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 20, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: The Dis-united States of America; a review of ‘Civil war’

No stranger to the genre of science fiction, novelist, screenwriter, and director Alex Garland has been imagining the dark side of humanity in extreme conditions. In his screenplays for ‘28 Days Later’ and ‘Sunshine’ as well as his second directorial outing ‘Annihilation’ his movies have always raised a mirror to humanity and showed it for its ugliness when the pressure starts to kick in.

While his latest film is a dystopian science fiction imagining of an America in the midst of the second civil war, some articles quote him as saying it will be his last directorial effort as he plans to concentrate solely on writing. Despite this, the film operates very much in the contemporary mode. There are no zombies here like in ‘28 Days Later’ or aliens like in ‘Annihilation’ or AI like in the excellent ‘Ex Machina.’ No, this film is set in a future where America is at war with itself, a third term president-turned-dictator is battling the military might of secessionist states. There is no hi-tech equipment here. This is just a prediction of things to come based on an artist’s interpretation of where the United States of America is going if it does not fix itself any time soon.

‘Civil War’ follows four journalists as they make the trip from a war-torn New York down to Washington DC where they hope to interview the President. The group is led by Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a renowned war photojournalist, followed by the journalist Joel (Wagner Moura). They are joined by the senior journalist Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), a sort of mentor for the two. Rounding up the cast is Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a young photojournalist who looks up to Lee as her “hero.”

The trip to the nation’s capital is wrought with danger and against her better judgment, Lee becomes a sort of mentor to the inexperienced Jessie. The weariness and jadedness that Dunst encapsulates into her portrayal of Lee Smith really sells the rich and vivid imagery that Garland adorns his film. ‘Civil War’ is wonderfully shot and the ways by which he imagines a ruined America – open air stadiums filled with graffiti, the highways filled with broken cars and families walking along the road moving their things with shopping carts, set pieces that look like universities used as a war zone – it’s such striking imagery because these are the same images used to depict wars in other countries with American soldiers coming in as heroes. In ‘Civil War,’ the tables have been turned. The majority of Hollywood movies have always positioned America as the heroes in any war story. Here, they are at war with themselves.

The film is extremely political yet, as some critics have pointed out, this is not some commentary on Trump or wokeism or any specific political issue in the United States now. Without any real backstory as to how this narrative has reached this point – that the film begins right at the zenith of the civil war – it’s a snapshot of how horrible things are going to be if the things that are tearing up the United States now isn’t fixed, this film looks more like a primer than a fictional depiction.

It’s an anti-war film even though it has long sequences of really riveting battle scenes. But none of it is glamorized or romanticized. It’s bloody. It’s ugly. People get hurt. People die. It’s merciless and there’s no joy in any of it. Regardless of how meticulously it is done. Through the eyes of Dunst, Spaeny, Moura, and Henderson, we see it how it really is – senseless and devastating.

But as journalists, they have to remain detached. They need to get the story so that they can get it out there so that the people can be moved to action. And that’s where the film finds its second layer because as Spaeny’s Jessie starts to find the means to detach, Dunst’s Lee Smith begins to show signs of the cracks splitting open, years of exposure to this sort of imagery tearing her up inside. It’s fantastic counterpoint performance for both actresses.

This is a brave and demanding film. It subverts years and years of Hollywood propaganda in depicting the United States as “the greatest country in the world.” It’s a fictional setting but it is pointed in the ways that it highlights all that is wrong in America today. Much like the journalists in the movie, we are being made to move, to act, to feel. If it’s true that Garland is done with directing movies, then it’s a powerful way to end his directing career. It’s a triumph in every aspect.

My Rating:

Civil War is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 11, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘The First Omen’ starts strong with excellent use of horror imagery until its cliched finale

Setting itself up as the sequel to the 1976 horror classic ‘The Omen’ by Richard Donner, ‘The First Omen’ surprises by being more than just a franchise cash-grab. Director Arkasha Stevenson is not above using jump scares, but she never relies on it (I was counting and only counted three, and all of them were organic to the scene and not gratuitous at all). Instead, she layers her horror with intricate camera shots that takes full advantage of the mise-en-scene and context of the narrative. The horror is born out of understanding the sheer malevolence that is happening within the story and juxtaposes this with terrifying imagery to remind us that there are forces out there who will do anything to bind us to their will.

Set in Rome in 1971 during a large-scale protest and rally against the police, the government, and even the church, an American novitiate Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) goes to an orphanage run by Father Lawrence (Bill Nighy) and a cloister of nuns. Here, Margaret will serve to care for the young girls while awaiting to take her vows. The older nuns, led by Sister Silvia (Sonia Braga), are a dynamic group of women, who have lives before and after taking on the habit (which is a welcome change). Margaret is enticed by her roommate Luz (Maria Caballero) to go out and enjoy the night life so that she understands what it is she is sacrificing as Margaret has lived with nuns her whole life having been raised in an orphanage herself.

(Left): María Caballero as Luz in 20th Century Studios’ THE FIRST OMEN. Photo by Moris Puccio. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

But nothing is right here in the orphanage. There is a young girl, Carlita, who draws strange pictures and is frequently punished and put into “the bad room” and has strange interactions with Sister Angelica (Ishtar Currie-Wilson), a nun who seems not all there in the head. Margaret takes to Carlita, as she reminds her of herself but when a priest from a different cloister, Father Brennan (Ralph Inneson) corners Margaret and tells her that there is a sect of priests and nuns who believe that the church is losing its power over the people and have conspired to bring the antichrist into the world as a means to bring the people closer to god, Margaret must find it within herself to battle her own demons and discover the truth behind the secrets hidden in the orphanage.

(L-R): Nell Tiger Free as Margaret and Nicole Sorace as Carlita in 20th Century Studios’ THE FIRST OMEN. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

What Stevenson does well in setting up her world is that she takes the time for us to really get to know Margaret and how she feels about the world around her. While she is laying down the groundwork for the story, she finds the most horrifying means of showing us that the devil is just at the periphery and that for all its religious adornments, there is such a close link between good and evil. One cannot believe in God without believing in the devil and Stevenson wonderfully intersects all the religious paraphernalia and rituals within the film and subverts it and turns it into something insidious and scary.

Nell Tiger Free as Margaret in 20th Century Studios’ THE FIRST OMEN. Photo credit: Moris Puccio/20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

There are the usual tricks – using darkness and the silhouette of a nun’s habit hanging on the wall to create a scary moment or bring about a moment of tension – but it is in the way that Stevenson creates a narrative that allows Margaret to question what it is that she is seeing (a story point that is related to her own past) and the way that it twists and turns in her mind and how we are able to see it on screen.

The scariest things in ‘The First Omen’ are the things that the characters are imagining and seeing – a demonic hand coming out of a human body at the most inopportune moment is one of the most striking horrific images of the film – as the darkness and the evil of the conspiracy is closing in on Margaret.

Nell Tiger Free as Margaret in 20th Century Studios’ THE FIRST OMEN. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

And it is here that the film finds its strongest piece because Nell Tiger Free manages to keep it all together and give us a person we are interested in and invested in. She brings a certain everyman quality to Margaret that brings us to her side but when the film hits its third act and the film makes physical demands from her performance, she is way more than capable of delivering a fully fleshed out performance. As the conspiracy reaches full swing and she is caught into it, there’s a scene that is both physical and transformative and she does an excellent job at physicalizing it.

The first hour and a half of ‘The First Omen’ is actually terrific horror. It only loses its strength when it shifts from indie horror to a mainstream narrative where the main character must find a way to “defeat the beast.” It is a narrative trap that is often used by Hollywood to keep the protagonist active but in the face of what they are having to contend with in this story, it makes no sense for them to be so gung-ho. It becomes prosaic and loses its magic by the third act. Its finale undermines the first two acts that have so carefully created this world of horror amidst the backdrop of faith and revolution.

My Rating:

The First Omen is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 10, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Big Laughs, Bigger Heart: a review of the Chinese blockbuster film ‘YOLO’

The first thirty minutes of ‘YOLO’ was a little difficult to jump into – the first act takes its time to establish the world of its main character Leying (performed by Jia Ling, who is also the director and co-writer of the movie), an overweight bum, who lives with her parents and does not have a job. In the first half-hour, the film is filled with jokes and jabs that are meant to shame Leying for being overweight and lazy, oftentimes bordering on jokes that are insensitive and in the general area of fat-shaming. She gets into a fight with her sister while also discovering her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend. While some jokes are funny – the ones not centering around her weight or laziness – it’s mostly a difficult first half hour to stomach.

When Leying finally leaves home, sets out on her own, to get a job and distance herself from her family and friends who have treated her with so much disdain does the film find its footing and begins to soar. Lying meets up with a boxing coach just across her place of work and a series of hilarious mishaps puts them together and she finds herself motivated to get her life in order. The remaining three-fourths of the film is a hilarious, inspiring story about a woman taking charge of her life having felt like a loser for the past decade.

‘YOLO’ is Jia Ling’s sophomore directorial effort after the popular and successful debut outing ‘Hi, Mom.’ In preparation for this film, Jia Ling gained 20 kilograms to play Leying and then lost just so much more in the film. The film took over a year to shoot because it included Leying’s incredible transformation in setting her life straight. If all stories are centered around a change, this is the most cinematic of changes that happens in ‘YOLO’ because it does not involve any sort of camera tricks or special effects. It’s all practical real-world transformation that goes in step with the film’s story beats for its full effect.

Jia Ling’s directing is quite sophisticated and underscores her training as a comedian. She knows how to set up the camera and edit to maximize the comedy. There’s a subversive way that she uses the conventions of the romantic comedy to land a punchline and really set up the story that really pushes Leying to the wall and force her to make the necessary changes that would improve her life. There’s an excellent use of music, of mise-en-scene, and an unpredictable way the narrative shifts and turns that keeps ‘YOLO’ from being run-of-the-mill or predictable.

At its core, the film is an underdog story that takes its time to really amplify Leying’s lot in life. It never takes the time to underscore how she got into the rut in the first place. It’s not the point of the film. It does not judge her for it. What the film is interested in are the factors that motivated her to make the change. Despite its brutal first thirty-minutes, the last hour and a half really turns around, much like Leying, and delivers the comedy while creating an emotional investment with the character and then allowing it to reach a satisfying ending that feels earned and offers some catharsis.

Jia Ling is captivating as Leying. She is unafraid to make her so bereft of charm at the beginning of the film but manages to pull it out mid-movie as she plays off the equally wonderful Lei Jiayin, who plays her boxing coach Hao Kun. The way they play off each other as a very unsuspecting rom-com couple is used for all its comedic magic and it works very well in establishing the film’s rather triumphant second act. But the way by which the film keeps shifting and turning and moving to unexpected places is what keeps ‘YOLO’ from being what you would think it is. This is what makes Jia Ling so exciting. This is her sophomore directorial effort and she already is exercising such precision and control of her craft. I’m very much excited to see what else she sets out to do. There’s no question as to why ‘YOLO’ is the biggest blockbuster film in China for this year. It has all the laughs but still manages to present a tender heart beneath all that comedy.

My Rating:

YOLO opens in PH cinemas April 17 with sneak previews on April 8 and 9. Check screening times and buy tickets in advance here.

April 5, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘White Bird: A Wonder Story’ is a feel-good film that doesn’t stray too far from the formula

I knew nothing of the 2017 hit film ‘Wonder’ or the graphic novel of the same name that it was based on, so I was coming into the sequel/prequel ‘White Bird: A Wonder Story’ with a clean slate. I didn’t know the context as to why the Julian (Bryce Gheisar, who reprises his role from the first movie) has moved to a new school due to, what we later find out, is an incident of bullying from his previous one. To my surprise, they never expounded on Julian’s past. Apparently, that was done in ‘Wonder.’ For ‘White Bird: A Wonder Story,’ the story revolves around Julian’s grandmother (Helen Mirren), an artist from Paris, who has come to New York as a gallery is giving her a retrospective exhibit. She takes the time to bond with her grandson and shares her story with him, to help him understand what he did that was so wrong.

The grandmother’s story is one set in World War II, a young Sara (Ariella Glasser) witnesses her town slowly change as the Nazi presence gets stronger and stronger within her peaceful, picturesque town in the French countryside. When the Nazis come in full force and try to roundup all the Jews, her teacher and principal try to help her, and the other Jewish kids escape. The boy she likes, Vincent (Jem Matthews) gives them up and while all the other kids are taken, she manages to escape and with the help of the school outcast, the polio-stricken Julien (Orlando Schwerdt), she manages to flee and hide in his barn with the help of Julien’s parents.

As the Nazi occupation in France tightens, Sara’s world becomes extremely small. Her whole life revolves around the empty barn and the regular visits from Julien, who has become her lifeline. To pass the time, Julien shares his schoolwork with her, and they both engage in make-believe games that opens up both their worlds in fantastic ways that cinema can exploit so wonderfully through special effects, camerawork, and great acting.

Gillian Anderson as Vivienne and Ariella Glaser as Sara in White Bird: A Wonder Story. Photo Credit: Larry Horricks

‘White Bird: A Wonder Story’ benefits from strong performances by its young cast. Glasser and Schwerdt are the grounding force that keeps the film charming and engaging. The way their friendship blossoms into love was portrayed with youthful innocence amidst the tension-filled backdrop of Nazi-occupied France. Mirren is always a solid performer, bringing charm to an otherwise standard characterization of the French artist-grandmother figure. Despite the role being that of a narrator to the main story told in flashback, there are hints of a loving, concerned grandmother in the way she relates to Gheisar that adds a little something to the mix. Gillian Anderson doesn’t get to do much as Julien’s mother other than the standard fare of a film of this tone and subject matter.

Gillian Anderson as Vivienne and Ariella Glaser as Sara in White Bird: A Wonder Story. Photo Credit: Larry Horricks

There’s a timeliness to the story about the kindness that bloomed in the face of the Nazi fascist regime. The way people went out of their way to help the Jews during this time of brutal persecution. I can see how the story relates to Julian’s own story from ‘Wonder,’ which I only read about after seeing ‘White Bird: A Wonder Story’ but the way it echoes the current global climate regarding the destruction of Palestinian lives and way of life does not go unnoticed. The film is a straight-up, standard feel-good film that director Marc Foster has quite some success in with films like ‘Finding Neverland’ and ‘A Man Called Otto.’ He manages to take these almost formulaic plot lines and mines them for all its cinematic potential and delivers a film that can be quite predictable but still hits the right buttons.

Orlando Schwerdt as Julien and Ariella Glaser as Sara in White Bird: A Wonder Story. Photo Credit: Larry Horricks

Orlando Schwerdt as Julien and Ariella Glaser as Sara in White Bird: A Wonder Story. Photo Credit: Larry Horricks

This is not a subtle movie with its cheesy lines about kindness and how light can conquer the darkness. It even ends with Mirren’s grandmother character making a speech at the exhibition of her retrospective that allows her to underscore the core message of the film just in case anyone may have missed it. The timing of this film’s released is suspect but for anyone looking for something hopeful, something magical to watch during these dark times, ‘White Bird: A Wonder Story’ is offering itself fully to the audience to address this lack.

My Rating:

White Bird: A Wonder Story is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

March 26, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Exhuma’ is an intelligent well-crafted horror film steeped in Korean culture and history

As horror films go, Jang Jae-hyun’s ‘Exhuma’ takes a different approach to frightening its audience. At a 134 minutes, director and screenwriter Jang Jae-hyun takes his time to unravel his rather simple story of an exorcism gone horribly wrong. He presents his characters – the charming and very competent young shamans Hwa-rim (Kim Go Eun) and Bong-gil (Lee Do Hyun) – as confident, maybe even cocky, as they take a case involving a rich Korean-American client living in Los Angeles, whose baby seems haunted by an evil spirit. In their initial inspection, they discover that the haunting spirit is an old one, one that is passed from generation to generation and that the ancestral spirit may be back in Korea. This powerful spirit, one they call ‘A Grave’s Call,’ requires a bigger team and they employ a veteran geomancer, Sang-duk (Choi Min-sik) and his partner Yeong Geun (Yoo Hae Jin) to join the ritual. It’s only when the four spiritualists arrive at an unmarked grave atop a deserted mountain that they realize this is far more sinister and evil than they could have imagined.

This whole set up takes over half an hour to put things in motion. What makes it so riveting and fascinating to watch is the way that tension and dread pervades each scene without spilling out into cheesy cheap scares. Director Jang allows his characters – Hwa-rim and company – to be so serious about the work and yet calm and casual outside of it. It shows off their familiarity with each other and uses their relationship dynamics to establish them as human beings that we come to like as an audience. We know something bad is coming and now, 40 minutes into the movie, we like these characters a lot that we don’t want anything bad to happen to them.

Without any huge frightening scenes, director Jang builds the tension using very detailed, very precise dramatization of the shamanistic rituals for cleansing spirits and for exhuming the buried dead to transfer to more auspicious grave sites. Those familiar with these rituals from watching Kdrama will know there’s a lot of music, chanting, and dancing and the film isn’t shy of showing the whole process and captures it for its full cinematic appeal. Kim Go Eun and Lee Do Hyun are exquisite and all they are doing is dancing or dancing with knives (Kim) or drumming and chanting (Lee) but they do it with such conviction and the camera work, quick editing, and exquisite sound designs turns each into such a spectacle that you are overwhelmed by the severity of the rite. It underscores the seriousness of the undertaking. Without showing a single scary image, the ritual alone in full display is enough to create this feeling of dread and fear. Somehow it manages to impress upon you that “damn, I hope it works” and you are actually more attuned to the outcome of all of this.

And when things go south, it takes an unexpected turn. Past the one-hour mark, you realise the story is much deeper, much richer in its exploration of South Korea’s history. This is not just some simple exorcism movie. It’s about past trauma that has yet to be resolved.

It is in the simplicity and the straightforward execution of the narrative that makes ‘Exhuma’ such a joy to watch. It is frightening but it does not rely on jump scares for it. It does so by creating set ups, allowing us to recognize the danger and see it unfold within the story. It does not try to surprise us. Instead, it allows us to follow it as it compounds and compounds.

Unfortunately, the final act feels drawn out and over-extended. Everything leading up to it is so strong, so exciting. When the grand finale happens, there’s a lot of unnecessary talking, actions are repeated, and the pacing suffers immensely. It could have been fast and quick but Jang Jae-hyun is having too much fun with his elements all coming together. But the final image still makes it landing and does not undermine all the fantastic work that set everything up.

‘Exhuma’ is an intelligent horror film that takes its time to build its horror and dresses it up in the full effects of Korean shamanism. It’s culturally and historically rich and steeped in its folklore. The cast, especially Kim Go Eun, is terrific and it can be surprising in its narrative turns.

My Rating:

Exhuma premieres this March 20. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

March 16, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: The unreality of ‘A Glimpse of Forever’

There is an in-your-face manner by which prolific director and screenwriter Jason Paul Laxamana uses his filmmaking in his latest movie, ‘A Glimpse of Forever,’ so that he can talk about mental health, most specifically social anxiety disorder. It’s a style that comes off very literal, very straight-forward, and very unlike Laxamana’s older works. His past films like ‘Between Maybes,’ ‘To Love Some Buddy,’ or ‘The Day After Valentine’s’ tackled trendy subject matters but did them in an organic manner with a fully fleshed-out world and a solid dramatic premise. The thought that Laxamana would be directing his lens towards the concept of virtual dating and the prospect of dual lives in ‘A Glimpse of Forever’ is quite intriguing but the first ten minutes of the film, things just don’t feel like one of Laxamana’s stronger works.

https://youtu.be/oHFG7YE3jLI?si=HXgBcnUazr51TbVN

It opens in a very bare, brick themed office. Charles (TJ Valderrama) is asking his boss played by Andrea Del Rosario to let his friend Dante (Jerome Ponce) to take his place in the virtual dating company, ForeVR. So as to not be undermanned, Charles offers Dante, a trained theater actor, who unfortunately suffers from a severe case of social anxiety disorder. He has to cover his face (with a mask, and maybe a cap or a beanie) if he tries to socialize with others. But, at ForeVR, Dante would be working as a motion capture actor, acting alone in a green screen room, bringing to life virtual characters on a live “date” with their clients. It would be a perfect job for someone suffering from his condition.

What makes all this feel so inorganic and so unlike Laxamana’s stronger works in his filmography is how blatant the exposition is in this movie. The film begins in medias res and just as Charles mentions that Dante has a mental condition, Dante walks in and it’s in slow motion and the music becomes dramatic and it feels a little heavy-handed because nothing has happened yet. This happens a lot in the movie. The camera work gets dramatic as does the music for scenes that haven’t quite earned it just yet.

Dante proves himself to be great at playing any of the four characters that ForeVR offers their clientele – a bad boy, a classy and rich gentleman, a salt-of-the-earth laborer, and a bikini-wearing gigolo – and he slowly becomes a threat to the other motion capture actors already at the company. All of this unfolds in a straight-forward manner where all the ins-and-outs of the process is explained in an elementary manner. Immediately, you can see the subplot of Dante’s new co-worker’s jealousy comes to play and that – for someone who has no social capacity due to his condition – he seems to have a complete understanding of what women want.

And this is where the film is at its weakest. A quick montage shows the four characters in action, and the effect that it has on its clients. There’s no profound thought or understanding of what it seems that women want by this whole exercise. They come to a room to have a virtual date with a man that addresses archetypal, cliched ideas of what women want from men.

It’s not until twenty minutes have passed when Jasmine Curtis-Smith walks in (again with the slow motion and dramatic music) and breaks all the rules to book a virtual date with a character that is not on the menu: the boy next door called Kokoy (Diego Loyzaga).

Strangely enough, the staff assign Dante to take the role of Kokoy. None of the current roster can seem to get Kokoy right but in one try, Dante seems to have it down pat. So, even if it’s not on the menu, they allow Jasmine’s Glenda to book the date and the real story begins.

Glenda and Dante (as Kokoy) go through their first date, and it is hostile and violent. Glenda treats Kokoy mean but Dante handles it without missing a beat. He understands the boy next door as someone the client has known for a long time, there’s no pretension here so his approach to the character is not to baby her or flatter. Glenda gets so mad she storms off not finishing the session. Dante is about to lose his job except Glenda gives him the highest rating possible and a huge tip. And then she comes again.

Image Source: Viva Films FB Page

What’s strange is that the film’s idea of a boy-next-door seems to be that of a slob (his room is a mess) and he seems to be a lazy slacker. What makes it work is that Diego Loyzaga plays him with such natural charm that I haven’t seen in any of his previous works that I’ve seen. As Kokoy, Loyzaga is attentive and oozes with natural charm. The way he confronts Jasmine Curtis-Smith’s hostility as Glenda creates very interesting sparks.

So interesting that Dante begins to fall for her. But Glenda is another curiosity as well. When the camera moves in to show her side of life, we can see that she’s in an unhappy marriage but she’s extremely wealthy (someone says she’s the daughter of an extremely wealthy family) but she sells tie-dyed t-shirts in an open store in a plaza. There’s a sort of disconnect by the world that she supposedly comes from and how it operates.

While the story tries to play out a love story/love triangle narrative complicated by the idea of fake and surrogate identities, as the story rounds up towards the third act, it reveals itself to really be a story about dealing with and trying to overcome extreme mental disorders – the social anxiety disorder of Dante and that of another character that plays off of Dante’s own struggles – it’s a bait and switch that doesn’t exactly transition well. Unlike Laxamana’s other works, ‘A Glimpse of Forever’ has no clever storytelling style that allows the story to play out organically. For Dante, his struggle is mediated by scenes with a psychiatrist (played by Katya Santos) that is so literal and prosaic that it feels like a public service announcement or a product placement.

And unlike his other movies, ‘A Glimpse of Forever’ has quite a number of one-dimensional characters. Even the leads can be quite monotone except that Ponce and Curtis-Smith are good enough to add a layer of humanity underneath them. Loyzaga is also quite strong but as Kokoy, for he plays another character (they try to keep it secret but it’s so obvious on its first appearance because Loyzaga’s physique is so evident) and that one he seems to struggle with.

There’s a way by which Laxamana trains his camera on all the dramatic moments of suffering from the condition. It’s effects and how it makes the characters suffer because of it is front-and-center and feels exploitative. Everything feels directed towards the struggles and not towards building a believable world where all these things come into collision – why women go into virtual dates, how people with these conditions live (we don’t see them in everyday normal situations, we only see them struggling with their disorder as if nothing else happens but that), or how the economics of a company like ForeVR exists. It’s an intriguing premise and it has all the elements needed to make it work. Unfortunately, ‘A Glimpse of Forever’ comes off as fantastical and as unrealistic as the virtual dates that was at the center at the start of the film and kind of disappeared by the second act.

My Rating:

A Glimpse of Forever is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

March 8, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ stands on its own and opens new possibilities for future sequels

Funnily enough, I have a soft spot for both ‘Kung Fu Panda’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda 2.’ I am a fan of Jack Black and his humor and I’m a sucker for the world of kung fu and martial arts. I’ve come to appreciate the characters from both films so it’s so funny to me that I remember watching ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ but as I was stepping into the cinema to watch the latest installment, I could not for the life of me remember a single detail of ‘Kung Fu Panda 3.’ I don’t remember the villain. I don’t remember any fight scenes. I just know that Po (voiced by Jack Black) meets up with his family.

Luckily, I didn’t need to see the third movie to understand the fourth. Po is still the Dragon Warrior and he has not lost any of his fighting skills, his humor, his down-to-earth character, nor his appetite. He now has two dads – Mr. Ping, his adoptive goose father (James Hong), and Li Shan, his biological father (Bryan Cranston) – while Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) is still frustrated with him despite not questioning or diminishing Po’s stature and position. It’s a welcome dynamic that is familiar and yet honest. There is growth in Po and he has risen to the task of becoming the Dragon Warrior.

Po (Jack Black) in DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4, directed by Mike Mitchell.

But as ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ opens, we discover that he must now find a suitable successor to the role while stepping up as a spiritual leader for the Valley of Peace. This is a role Po does not feel ready for, especially since he loves being the Dragon Warrior. He’s not ready for change and this becomes the central theme of this movie.

(Center) Chameleon (Viola Davis) in Kung Fu Panda 4 directed by Mike Mitchell.

Ironically, the villain that comes to threaten peace and order is The Chameleon (voiced by the formidable Viola Davis). A sorceress with the ability to shape-shift, The Chameleon has climbed up the ranks to become a powerful criminal force and seeks to rule and plunder with an iron hand. Po must venture out of the Valley of Peace to the city where The Chameleon has her stronghold to stop her. Leading him to the fortress is a fox called Zhen (voiced by Awkwafina). Zhen is a petty thief and is the type to get under your skin and push buttons. Zhen constantly questions Po’s intentions and moral center and effectively becomes a foil for Po. Both are orphans and yet Po turned out moral because he was adopted by Mr. Ping while Zhen grew up amoral because she was raised in the streets and had to fend for herself.

(from left) Po (Jack Black) and Zhen (Awkwafina) in Kung Fu Panda 4 directed by Mike Mitchell.

As the story unfolds, it’s very clear what is transpiring in the film. Narratively, it’s pretty predictable if you’ve seen enough fantasy and adventure stories. The twists and turns are nothing new. There’s a lot of physical and visual comedy, though, and some rambunctious fight scenes spread out through the film to keep it enjoyable and fast-paced.

There’s a really funny fight scene in a bar situated precariously at the edge of a cliff. The physical comedy on this fight alone is quite entertaining. The banter between Black and Awkwafina as Po and Zhen can get dry and overdrawn sometimes, but there’s a purpose to it as the film slowly sets up its pieces to create dynamics that are reminiscent to the first film. You can see the set-up miles away but there’s an earnestness and sincerity that carries it through.

(from left) The Chameleon (Viola Davis), (right) Tai Lung (Ian McShane) in Kung Fu Panda 4 directed by Mike Mitchell.

Interestingly enough, when Po and The Chameleon finally face off, we discover another layer of comparisons that are made – this time between the hero and the villain – and the theme of change and growth are finally fully realized. Like Zhen, Po and the Chameleon also have similar backgrounds and we see how the two are the opposite sides of the same coin.

Three bunnies in DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4, directed by Mike Mitchell.

Po (Jack Black) in Kung Fu Panda 4 directed by Mike Mitchell.

There are some very interesting new developments in the story and in the characters that it makes ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ not feel like a tired franchise trying to go for a quick cash grab. While there is a glimpse (the description is apt) of the Furious Five in the movie, their absence is really felt (they were in other missions). A lot of the jokes land, there are a good deal of fight scenes that are fun to watch, and the story is set to push the franchise to new possibilities (as the producers have said they can extend the characters and narratives by two more films, completing the whole set at six). It’s a solid release that can stand on its own – I don’t remember the third film at all, but it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this one – though it isn’t a grand slam and reinvents the wheel.

My Rating:

Kung Fu Panda 4 is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

March 7, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Great premise, unrealised potential: a review of ‘Baghead’

The premise of ‘Baghead,’ the horror film by director Alberto Corredor and written by Christina Pamies, Bryce McGuire, and Lorcan Reilly, is actually quite promising. A young woman, Iris (Freya Allan), inherits a pub in Germany from her estranged father. When she signs the deed, she also ends up inheriting the entity that lives in the basement: the shapeshifting Baghead, who can turn into the dead. As the custodian of this malevolent being, Iris must keep Baghead in the basement but the temptation to speak with the dead – and make money while others communicate with the deceased – puts everything at risk.

It’s a great set-up for a horror film except Corredor and his creative team never take the time to really establish the aspects of the film that would give it its emotional weight. At the start of the film, Iris is seen breaking into her apartment, which she has been evicted from. Taking her things, she considers accepting her friend Katie’s (Ruby Barker) proposal to stay with her but then she receives the call about her father. We quickly learn that she hasn’t spoken to him since he had abandoned her, and she has been living in foster care after her mother passed away. With no attachments except for Katie and no money, she quickly flies off to Berlin and decides to keep the broken-down ruin of a pub. The film makes no effort to really show us Iris’ life before this story takes flight and she meets Baghead. Except for Katie’s offer to let her stay at her place “until she gets back on her feet” and the fact that Katie would drop everything and fly off to Berlin to help Iris out, we don’t actually see the bonds of the two girls for real.

In fact, the pub itself, situated in a dark, seemingly abandoned area of Berlin doesn’t even feel like Berlin at all. Throughout the film, there are several trips made from England to Berlin but it feels like no time has passed. The narrative never even really leaves the confines of the pub so you never actually feel the world of Berlin. It could be a pub in the outskirts of London or maybe in Wales or Scotland and it wouldn’t matter. It changes nothing on the DNA of the story and the script.

It is extra jarring because the way by which Iris and Katie discover Baghead is when a man, Neil (Jeremy Irvine) breaks into the pub and asks Iris to let him see Baghead. When he offers the broke Iris 2000 (they never even say euros or pounds, no denomination) to allow Baghead to let him speak to his wife, she instantly accepts.

This is where ‘Baghead’ manages some emotional heavy lifting. From the basement, Baghead can send visions and spells out of her prison. She tempts Iris with knowledge and information about her father (Peter Mullan) and it allows her to reconsider the reason for why he may have abandoned her. If he was responsible for Baghead then, maybe had no choice? The film explores the complexity of this quite well while the rest of the film flounders with a relatively weak investigation scene (from Katie’s perspective) of Baghead’s origins and a predictable subplot involving Neil.

When the plot starts to put everything together, forcing the characters to collide and Baghead’s machinations to come to fruition, the only relationship that is truly fleshed out is the one of Iris and her father, which has already pretty much resolved somewhere within the second act. The rest feels pretty much formulaic and by the numbers. There are some good moments of tension and fright but because you don’t really feel that invested in the characters, it’s hard for the film to muster up any real sense of fear or dread.

It’s also indicative of a very western approach to these supernatural premises. The lure of money and the fearlessness of such an entity feels so far removed from an Asian perspective. While the younger generation now do not believe in the supernatural, they do have the better sense to stay cautious when presented with it. Iris jumps straight into the fray without question after she realises the economic opportunities Baghead presents. Any Asian character would immediately find an exorcist or try and find a way out as soon as possible with as little interaction with the being as possible.

While floundering as a horror film, ‘Baghead’ presents quite an interesting discussion point about western approaches to the supernatural. It’s why – in my opinion – Asian supernatural horror always feels more grounded and more frightening. It’s because Asians fear and respect the supernatural. We grew up with it. We believe in spirits and ancestors and ghosts, to some degree. We know the dangers that lurk just around the corner when these beings are near. Westerners are sure they can overcome anything as long as they fight hard enough. They feel invincible in their own beliefs of the self. It is why a lot of the third acts of many western horror films – like ‘Baghead’ – don’t always work.

My Rating:

Baghead is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

March 4, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘The Holdovers’ is an instant classic and a surprising tearjerker of a film

There are a host of films about the relationships between students and their teachers. Films that are of a mold about the true nature of education, which goes beyond what is taught in books. There were a lot of them in the 90s, like ‘Dead Poets Society,’ ‘Dangerous Minds,’ and ‘With Honors’ (though the teacher there is a homeless man played by Joe Pesci). In the mid-2000s, we had films like ‘The History Boys.’ They are coming of age stories set in school, that says a lot about the importance of a good teacher in the molding of young minds.

Writer and director Alexander Payne, who has struck gold with movies like ‘Sideways’ and ‘The Descendants’ has a gift for building stories of seemingly ordinary occurrences or relationships and turning them into these profound human moments of beauty and grace. He has a knack for finding the extraordinary in the most mundane of things and people.

He does it again with ‘The Holdovers,’ a movie set in the 1970s, at the tail-end of the Vietnam war about a schoolteacher in an all-male boarding school who has to watch over the students who have nowhere to go during the holidays. This teacher, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), is a teacher of the classics and is hated by everyone, not just the students, but by some co-faculty too. He’s a cranky, old man with a strict sense of decorum and manners. It’s the perfect antithesis for any young male high schooler with the urge to rebel against authority.

Paul Giamatti stars as Paul Hunham and Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully in director Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Seacia Pavao / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

In this case, the teen in question is Angus Tully (a breakthrough debut performance by newcomer Dominic Sessa), an intelligent but troubled kid, whose issues with his parents have caused him to move from school to school. He is enrolled in Paul Hunham’s classics class and is the only one amongst his classmates who gets a decent enough grade but, like his classmates, he cannot stand the unflinching Hunham.

© 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

Rounding up the cast is Da’vine Joy Randolph, who plays Mary Lamb. She’s the school’s cafeteria manager, and whose son was an alumnus of the school. Unfortunately, at the start of the film, she’s grieving the loss of her son who was part of the Vietnam war. As the only service staff left, she is allowed to grieve in peace, and she becomes a grounding force between the bickering of the two men left behind.

Dominic Sessa stars as Angus Tully and Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham in director Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Seacia Pavao / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

What makes ‘The Holdovers’ so enjoyable is that it’s intelligent and well-crafted. Paul and Angus are both articulate and witty. Their back and forth are clever but are also loaded with the stuff that these two characters need. Paul needs to practice his empathy, needs to be reminded he is part of a larger world, of society whereas Angus needs a guiding hand, an authoritative figure who actually cares about him. These two characters are exactly what each other need but can they break through their own first impressions of each other to get what they need?

The story is so simple. Being away from family (or disconnected from them like Mary is) during the holidays has put an emotional pressure on these three characters and they find themselves hanging on to each other, albeit unwillingly for some, to feel a little more human, to feel a little less alone.

© 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

And in the process of all of this, the three find themselves going out of their shells, breaking free from the expectations of others and the expectations they have put upon themselves and find themselves on a road to healing.

Payne manages to present such simple ideas in a simple story but has the artistry to amplify the human elements of this story to create a profound sense of goodness that just springs forth from the tension between these characters. I was laughing all the way through the two-hour movie, laughing at all the verbal witticisms and the displays of humanity, both the strengths and weaknesses, that it made me feel good about myself. And, in a surprising twist, found myself sobbing at the end with the way the film finds a heartwarming resolution.

It’s not a flashy film, even the cinematography tries to capture the grainy quality of classic movies of the time period. But it’s so full of heart and so funny and so real in its presentation of emotions that it feels like a film I’ll be coming back to again and again and more so on Christmas. It’s no wonder that Paul Giamatti and Da’vine Joy Randolph are gearing up to the winners of the Oscars in their category. Giamatti is in his wheelhouse and may be the strongest contender to take the award out of Cillian Murphy’s hands. It would be deserving with this role in this movie.

My Rating:

The Holdovers is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

February 21, 2024