Tag: Movie Reviews

REVIEW: While a lot of fun, ‘Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ lacks an emotional punch to make it memorable

Despite the fact that one has to shrink to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Quantum Realm, everything about Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania is large in proportion and scale. The movie throws a relatively simple adventure story at its heroes in the aforementioned location and then proceeds to delve into the backstory of two characters, namely the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) and the film’s villain, Kang (played by Jonathan Majors). If one were to really look into the narrative structure of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,’ while we are following Scott Lang’s perspective (played by Paul Rudd), the ones with any real emotional depth and character work are those played by Pfeiffer and Majors. In fact, the film would have been more honest if it was called ‘Kang and the Wasp: Quantumania.’

The issue is that Scott Lang’s Ant-Man is not a very complex character. All he ever wanted was to go legit after his stint in prison and to have a relationship with his daughter Cassie (played by Kathryn Newton in this movie). Now, in his third movie (fifth if you include his appearances in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’), Lang has gotten all that he could ever want: a family and redemption from his past. After all, he helped save the world as an Avenger.

With nowhere to go character-wise, the movie tries to create a sort of friction between him and Cassie. He has missed out on so much time and they seem to be on opposite ends of things: he wants her to grow up safe and “normal” while she wants to help people. We even begin the film with her in jail for having been at a protest. Their relationship, throughout the movie, is tested by Scott Lang’s preference for a quieter life while Cassie is in a rush to change the world. It’s never strong enough or deep enough to push the story forward, though.

Photo: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania trailer

Instead, as the five protagonists – Scott Lang, Cassie, Hope Van Dyne (played by Evangeline Lilly), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) – find themselves in the Quantum Realm, we learn more about Janet and the mysterious Kang and the story really revolves around the both of them.

Photo: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania trailer

While we discover Kang’s backstory (as a villain) and Janet’s life in the Quantum Realm, which makes up most of the movie, as the film reaches its climax, what is missing are key narrative relationships that are completely left underdeveloped. For the ending to hit with any sort of emotional depth, we needed to see them build more of Scott and Cassie’s storyline (than the surface-level father-daughter disagreement), Hope and Janet (their storyline is left to one or two lines of dialogue and then left at that), and Scott and Hope. ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ relies heavily on these three relationships for the movie to have any sort of emotional weight but they are only lightly explored, if at all. There are choices near the end that hinge on their dynamics but it doesn’t land its punches because the film hardly spends time on it.

In fact, Hope makes a big choice near the end of the film and its crux is her feelings for Scott that are never reinforced in this movie. It is just something we take for granted.

Photo: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania trailer

Instead, we are being brought into the world of the Quantum Realm, a green-screen, CGI-heavy world that needs exploring as well. They introduce new characters from that world as well but none are given enough screen time or story beats to be interesting. The CGI world can be very distracting, and in my opinion, it is only Michelle Pfeiffer who never ever feels swallowed by all that special effects. She’s such a presence that she is unfazed at all by the sheer excessiveness of it all.

Photo: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania trailer

While the story is low on emotional punch, there are moments of pure comic book enjoyment. A whole sequence (hinted at in the trailer) of Ant-Man in the middle of a “probability storm” has him interacting with hundreds and thousands of different Ant-Mans. It is such a huge scene that director Peyton Reed creates marvelous visuals with that imagery. In a way, it resembles an army of ants and the meta-ness of that is quite thrilling,

So while ‘Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ is an enjoyable movie – a good number of action sequences, a big, new world to discover, and a lot of nice thrilling super-hero moments, and funny one-liners – the movie feels hollow by the end of it all. After the movie ended, I felt more interested in Kang and Janet Van Dyne than I did about the two heroes whose names are on the title.

Photo: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania trailer

After the nth comic book movie after the past decade of comic book movies, they really need to do more to keep this interesting. I’m excited for Jonathan Majors as he is such an exciting talent but there’s nothing else to really hold on to. Just another movie in the larger scheme of the MCU.

My Rating:

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Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

February 15, 2023
What Women Want: A Review of ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’

Magic Mike’s Last Dance opens with a narration that immediately sets it up as a modern fairytale. The narration, from the voice of a politically conscious precocious British teenager (Jemelia George), manages to contextualise dance in its function in early civilization and then proceeds to turn it into a punchline that takes us from the history of dance to Mike Lane’s (Channing Tatum) inability to protect himself from financial woes. As it is, Mike is broke at the start of the film, his business didn’t survive the effects of the pandemic and he’s now working as a bartender for a charity event hosted by a rich socialite with marital problems, Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek).

In less than what feels like five minutes, we get that these two people are in the same boat emotionally – though not economically, as Maxandra is filthy rich – and a sort of indecent proposal (though done in the most charming way as only Hollywood can make it seem) leads to the first of many strip tease dances that the franchise is known for. Channing Tatum is in fine form and Salma Hayek matches every hip thrust from him with an expression that reveals her character’s inner ecstasy. She is transformed and Maxandra has an idea.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

She whisks Mike away on the promise of a large amount of money to help her on an endeavor that is personal to her on so many levels. Maxandra is in the midst of a divorce and while the paperwork is being processed, she decides to revolutionize one of the theaters her husband owns, which is under her control by the messy legalities of their prenuptial agreement. The current play is referenced as a traditional (i.e. “boring”) period piece that simplifies the issues of women’s troubles as having to choose between love and money. Bothered by this simple dichotomy of the totality to women’s choices, Maxandra wants Mike to produce, choreograph, and envision a show that can break down this troubling social ill. She wants to produce a strip tease dance show that somehow encapsulates everything that a woman truly desires.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

In the process of coming up with the show – naturally, Mike and Maxandra must navigate the complex (or is it) feelings that are stirring up inside of them – but by articulating what the show is about, they have managed to do what the last two Magic Mike movies were not able to do (for me, anyway). The first two installments of the series put the focus on the men’s bodies and what they can do with it. It was about sex and sexiness. It put men and men’s virility and passion at the forefront. What ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ does is flip the perspective and make each dance about the women and what women want. Surprisingly, in this strip tease dances, it’s not about the men but about the fantasy of women: about how women want more than just what society has given them to choose from.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

I never really understood the appeal of these kinds of shows (and that’s funny as I’m a gay man, so I understood it in my head but it never really hit me in that same way) but because of this movie, I finally understood the appeal. There are lines of dialogue that remark about how something like this can be a sort of expression for female freedom and liberty and at first I thought it was a stretch and then, as Hannah, the actress in the original play who manages to score a role in the new show (and is played with such verve and vibrancy by Juliette Motamed), plays a sort of Master of Ceremonies articulates and contextualise each number, the show goes beyond the cheap thrills of men’s bodies and gyrating movements but manages to touch upon something even more profound: what women really want.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

And with that as the focus of the film, the whole movie hinges on Salma Hayek’s performance and not Channing Tatum’s. Because if this show is about freeing women from the oppressive social constructs the patriarchy has put upon them, then her character is the symbol of this. Hayek manages a rhythm to Maxandra as she jumps back and forth from moments of hysteria to a fierce and confrontational mode. She’s funny but she’s not playing for laughs. Instead, she’s playing a woman untethered by her situation: a rich woman who has all the money in the world but is powerless in her marriage and her social standing. She feels trapped by the things that make her “powerful” in appearance and she wants freedom but it could cost her everything. Salma Hayek taps into this in such a primal way that her work is astounding without being a caricature. It’s unhinged but it feels honest.

Tatum, on the other hand, is in a comfortable space. He’s done amazingly well as the regular joe and he breezes through this character effortlessly. Standing out alongside the two leads is Juliette Motamed, who easily can take the spotlight in her every scene, and the precocious narrator of the story, Jemelia George, who is revealed to be Maxandra’s daughter.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

At its core, this is a love story and, at first, it’s metaphorical: it’s the show the leads are producing, but later it becomes literal but it needs to be mediated and it is done through the dancing. And there’s a lot of it. What Steven Soderbergh does is connect the love story, the need for women’s freedom from societal restraints to dancing, and how dancing communicates this and embodies this. Yes, the last 30 minutes of the movie is one big dance number but each movement, and every choreography has been articulated and contextualised by the film’s narrative that it is part of the story.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy myself in this movie but I did so, and by a whole lot.

My Rating:

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Magic Mike’s Last Dance is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

February 8, 2023
REVIEW: Queer Representation is Front and Center of ‘Knock at the Cabin’

There’s an old-school simplicity to M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin, a film he co-wrote with Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman (and based on the novel of the same name by Paul Tremblay). Even at the opening credits, he uses the old logo of Universal Pictures and uses an old-style font and presentation of the opening credits. With further reading, he even used 90s-era lenses to give the film “an old-school thriller look.” And what you see in the trailer is exactly what this movie is about: a family is taken hostage by four strangers in a cabin in the woods, with the hopes that the family will choose one member to sacrifice to stop the apocalypse.

It’s as simple as it sounds, with a bit of dipping into the psychological thriller genre as it questions the veracity of the four strangers’ claim that the fate of the world rests upon the sacrifice of this one family. Most of the 110-minute running time is spent on that premise. While the film’s plot revolves around this conundrum – does the family believe them or not and can they escape from this situation unharmed or not? – it does go into flashbacks to create an emotional throughline for the family that serves to complicate things.

Because what contrasts that old-school simplicity of this simple narrative is the fact that the family is that of queer parents (two gay dads) and is multi-racial, as their daughter was adopted in Asia.

And it is in this character design setup where the film finds its profundity.

Photo: Knock at the Cabin trailer

It’s not often that we see the main characters of a commercial psychological thriller to be led by gay parents. There was even an impulse that I had to fight back to question the sincerity of the choice. “Was it a checklist for progressive identity politics?” This is what happens when there’s not enough positive representation for the queer community that anything of the sort done in such a mainstream release is met with suspicion. Why can’t gay parents be the protagonists of any movie – regardless of genre?

And that the issues surrounding gay people and gay parents are at the crux of ‘Knock at the Cabin.’ As the film shifts to flashbacks to round out the history of this couple – Andrew and Eric played by Ben Aldridge and Jonathan Groff – we see the cruelty of asking any member of such a persecuted minority like the queer community to sacrifice a member of their chosen family for the sake of the world.

Photo: Knock at the Cabin trailer

What makes it even more cruel is the fact that the apocalypse might not even hinge on their sacrifice and that these four strangers – led by the gentle giant Leonard, played by a transformed Dave Bautista – may just be psychotic or part of some strange and dangerous cult.

The film never goes into the easy scares and all the tension is predicated upon that premise: does the fate of the world hang in their sacrifice? Are these four strangers really telling the truth about their visions or are they crazy and out of their minds? And if it is the former, how does one even begin to make that decision?

Photo: Knock at the Cabin trailer

There’s a lot of earnestness in the performances with incredible performances by Bautista, Groff, Aldridge and Kristen Cui, who plays the young daughter Wen, and Nikki Amuka-Bird, who plays one of Leonard’s associates. Always, there are very human moments presented by the four strangers that push the boundaries of what you can believe and then you must bear witness to what they are able to do for the family to make that choice.

Within this whole narrative, the issues of the queer community are really put into an emotional grinder (pun intended). For all the persecution and hate that they have taken for years, if the fate of the world was left to us having to make another sacrifice, would we do it? Would Andrew and Eric and Wen?

Photo: Knock at the Cabin trailer

Shyamalan is in fine form here with his camera going in really close to his actor’s faces as if their humanity (and maybe even their sanity) is in full view. He focuses on the little details of each moment while at the same time moving the camera away from all the gruesome acts of violence. It’s all implied rather than the focus. It’s as if he doesn’t want us to get distracted by the choice, whether it is real or not.

There are no surprise twists here as one would expect from a Shyamalan film. The story reaches its resolution as best as it could but one thing is certain: it’s so wonderful to see gay parents at the center of this story and how their love is depicted as universal. The film never questions it and this movie is out there.

I hope more movies present queer characters as smoothly as this so that I’ll never have to be suspicious again.

My Rating:

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Knock at the Cabin is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

February 1, 2023
REVIEW: ‘Babylon’ and the wild, crazy, over-the-top love (and hate) letter to Hollywood

Damien Chazelle seems to have directed and co-written a companion piece to his highly celebrated and award-winning movie ‘La La Land’ with his latest offering, Babylon. While ‘La La Land’ explores and navigates through the idealism and hopes of a couple trying to make it big in Hollywood and the music industry in Los Angeles as it comes crashing into reality, ‘Babylon’ feels more like a celebration and a condemnation of that same world. While ‘La La Land’ is tempered and controlled, ‘Babylon’ is wild and excessive, given to moments of grand spectacle and reveling in the chaos of its narrative. While ‘La La Land’ is personal and intimate, ‘Babylon’ brushes with big strokes and can feel very cold and uncaring.

Set during the time in Hollywood when the innovation of sound movies (also known as ‘The Talkies’) had come crashing in on the silent film era, ‘Babylon’ is the story of several characters who try to find their footing in the changing landscape of entertainment. They range from the experienced silent film actor Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), to the self-proclaimed star Nellie LaRoy (a bombastic Margot Robbie), a Mexican film assistant with big dreams named Manny (that arresting Diego Calva), the established gossip columnist Elinor St. John (by a riveting Jean Smart), a jazz trumpet player named Sydney (Jovan Adepo), and a Chinese American cabaret singer and title writer for films, Lady Fay Zhu (played wonderfully by Li Jun Li). These six (and a whole lot more) come crashing into each other in what is supposed to be both a fairy tale and a cautionary one at the same time.

Photo: Paramount Pictures International

Not only is the cast huge, Chazelle goes on overdrive, trying to out-Baz Lurhmann in grand spectacles by filling his camera frames with a mass of people in the throes of chaotic frenzy. The movie is over three hours long (188 minutes, approximately) and the first act alone is a 40-minute party scene where Chazelle introduces all the characters. There’s a huge orgy – graphic nudity, an overabundance of drug taking, and a lot of dancing – which is to set the tone of the film regarding Hollywood’s excesses. The whole sequence is just an exercise in indulgence (both thematically and filmmaking-wise). But amidst this madness, there is a very interesting, very human moment that occurs: when Manny and Nellie meet and in a cocaine-driven scene end up talking about their hopes and dreams and their love for Hollywood and what the movies mean to people. It’s a very strong scene that manages to nicely contrast the wild debauchery outside their room.

Photo: Paramount Pictures International

From that first meeting, we discover Manny and Nellie’s rising through the ranks, we get a full 360-degree view of the madness of movie-making, from Jack Conrad’s multiple marriages and the inevitable decline of his career, we see Sydney find success, and then face the brutal fact of racism (in the most painful of ways), and Lady Fay, a lesbian, meets the pushback of conservative voices in the latter part of Hollywood’s evolution. And in the center of this is the rise and fall of Manny and Nellie, whose love for this world is not enough to surmount the obstacles ahead.

Photo: Paramount Pictures International

Throughout its running time, ‘Babylon’ is excessive and big. It can get exhausting but it is filled with moments of hilarity and large-scale cinematic moments that would wow anybody. It’s so extra in everything that when it does slow down and quiet down, those moments become so golden. These are most noticeable in Manny’s scenes of self-reflection and a brilliantly written and acted scene between Brad Pitt and Jean Smart as the fading actor goes head-to-head with the columnist on the power and price of fame and glory and immortality.

Photo: Paramount Pictures International

Without a doubt, there’s a lot of love about the industry in ‘Babylon’ but there’s also a lot of hate. What the film lacks is some underlying message that can somehow take all this chaos and bring it to a proper catharsis. The ending attempts at a ‘Cinema Paradiso’ sort of poignancy but the madness and the horrible parts of the film tend to float to the surface and overshadow the good. The ending doesn’t feel as cathartic or as powerful as it is intended because, in the process of going hyper-real and crazy throughout the film, the love and the humanity of it are completely stamped out by the finale.

Magnificent performances from the cast and Justin Hurwitz did a brilliant job with the musical score but while Chazelle was filling up his screen with a spectacle, he failed to land the emotional punch. It’s enjoyable but you have to have the stomach for it.

My Rating:

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Babylon opens in cinemas nationwide on February 1. Buy your tickets here.

January 30, 2023
REVIEW: The deceptively poignant ‘A Man Called Otto’ hits all the right emotional notes

There’s something formulaic and expected from A Man Called Otto. The Tom Hanks-led movie operates in that arena of awards-bait feel-good dramas that put the very likable actor into the role of a lovable, angry old man. It’s based on a Swedish film, the 2015 film ‘A Man Called Ove,’ which was based on the Swedish novel of the same name by Fredrick Backman. It’s the story of a grumpy old man, Otto, who oversees the cleanliness and order of his community with a gruff and hostile exterior. He’s strict with everybody and he doesn’t have the time nor the patience to be warm.

But what Otto is hiding is an overwhelming sense of grief. Early on in the film, it is established that Otto is grieving over the loss of his wife Sonya. So deep are these feelings that he makes an attempt at killing himself but he gets distracted by things that need his attention, and by the appearance of new neighbours: Marisol (the charming Mariana Trevino) and her family.

From that premise alone, you can already tell where the film is going to move towards and it doesn’t disappoint. Otto’s community is filled with vibrant and distinct people who annoy him at every turn (though, they are just being themselves) and while everyone has grown accustomed to Otto’s curmudgeon persona, Marisol is not so easily deterred. The Hispanic Marisol must’ve grown up in a large family and close relations with her neighbors from where she’s from and she carries that with her. She carves a space for herself in Otto’s life and both characters change and grow due to this.

By all accounts, ‘A Man Called Otto’ unfolds and feels like Oscar-bait. Tom Hanks shakes off his nice guy image to play the gruff old man and it doesn’t have the magic of any of his older work. Much like his character from his last film ‘Elvis,’ it feels put on, every grunt feels rehearsed or placed. It’s a performance rather than a lived experience. I was so resistant to the whole thing until halfway through the film, I started to feel things about these people and these characters.

There’s an insidious way by which director Marc Forster turns this little community into something so wonderfully universal that it gets under your skin. There are wonderful moments of cinematography and editing where Otto interacts with the memories he has of his wife – Forster manages to show how grief is such a present thing – and how all the little things about Otto’s day-to-day, his routine, and his daily rounds betrays his need to hold on to something. It’s in the little things; the little moments that happen every day that add up into a life and the film presents this in such a subtle and undramatic way.

Halfway through the film, I was surprised at how I was reacting. I was getting goosebumps and I was getting invested in the story and, at several important story beats, I found myself fighting back tears. The film doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t, but it is done with such love and tenderness and it is filled with such beautiful humanity that it really got me tender and vulnerable.

‘A Man Called Otto’ is a lot of things. It’s about grief and pain and trying to find a reason to continue on after you’ve lost your original reason for living. It’s about community and how we really have to take care of each other. It’s about family – the ones we choose for ourselves – and it’s about growing up and growing old and realising that you are never, ever really alone.

There is nothing that happens in this movie that I wasn’t expecting but it still hit me so hard. The way it was unapologetically what it was as a film; I let my guard down thinking it was just one of the same usual feel-good movies that I was not prepared by how hard I would be hit by the film’s third act.

‘A Man Called Otto’ is a deceptively beautiful movie blossoming with humanity. Bring tissues.

My Rating:

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A Man Called Otto opens in cinemas nationwide on January 25. Buy your tickets here.

January 18, 2023
REVIEW: Irish horror meets Filipino mysticism in ‘Nocebo’

Not reliant on jump scares or bombarding you with frightening images, the Irish and Filipino co-produced psychological horror film Nocebo settles comfortably as a mood piece and a supernatural mystery. It’s an intimate movie revolving around four characters, really, but it is unafraid to play around with the audience’s expectations. Interestingly enough, the presence of Chai Fonacier – not as a support but as a lead character as written – threatens to upend the narrative in interesting ways.

As a horror film, the tension comes from what the audiences assume. There’s danger, for sure, but from what? ‘Nocebo’ follows, at first, Christine (played by Eva Green). She’s a children’s fashion designer, who receives a call one day with some disturbing news (that is left hidden from the audience), and then she is visited by a mangy dog filled with scabs and large ticks. The dog shakes vigorously in front of her and, bombarded by the ticks, Christine begins to deteriorate physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Eight months later and she’s a broken woman. Her marriage with her husband Felix (played by Mark Strong) is strained by her new condition and her relationship with her daughter Bobs (Billie Gadson) is hanging by a thread. She has fits, cramps, shakes, and delusional episodes and she is suffering from memory loss. She has even forgotten that she has called Diana (Chai Fonacier) to come to their house as a helper, and worse, she forgot to tell her family.

Felix and Bobs are not pleased but Diana quickly proves her worth, cooking a delicious Filipino meal and proving to be helpful in calming Christine during one of her episodes, and completely unfazed by Felix and Bobs’ low-key attempts to make her feel unwelcomed. Christine, on the other hand, is entranced by her and is willing to try Diana’s folk remedies to cure her from her illness.

Maybe intended for a Western, global audience that is more attuned to seeing a white protagonist and an exotic, Asian character as an other, ‘Nocebo’ sets the stage for a little mystery game. For those unaware of the Filipino culture of shamans, witch doctors (mangkukulams and albularyo) they would immediately connect Diana with the strange occurrences of Chrstine’s affliction. The film leans into Diana’s otherness and presents all her actions as suspicious.

But as a Filipino, who grew up with these folklores and tales (like there’s no way that dog at the opening with the ticks isn’t some reference or allusion to the Visayan sigbin), there was a part of me that saw Diana, who even admits that she had taken the power of an elemental, that maybe the film is leading the audience on a red herring. After all, Christine is getting better and their growing bond has become a point of increased tension between Felix and his wife. My mind began to race: is the man at fault here?

At a compact 96-minutes, the film focuses on Christine and Diana and how their attempts to cure Christine from her ailments lead us to a shocking discovery that turns the whole film on its head, narratively – after all, as the story unfolds, we begin to see more and more of Diana’s backstory back home in the Philippines – and by three-fourths of the film, it becomes clear that Diana’s role in the film is more than just that of support. It is her motivations and intentions that carry the film through. Fonacier stands on equal footing with Green in carrying this movie. While Eva Green is no stranger to these desperate and broken characters, it is Fonacier who surprises at every turn. There’s a maturity in her approach to Diana and every creative choice she makes becomes clear as the film’s mystery is cleared up at the end.

If you are keen and quick, it is not hard to guess the mystery behind this story and the way it unfolds at the end, while over dramatic, is done in such a static way – it is an inevitable resolution so the moment it reaches its climax, the urgency of the film is lost. The moment the final act plays out, there’s no way that the film can end in any other way and that sort of takes away from the overall enjoyment of the film.

It’s great, though, to see Filipino culture and folklore play so prominently in a Western setting and done so with so much respect and authenticity. It is done on equal terms with that of the English and that made the film that much more rewarding. In a year where Filipinos are being featured prominently in films from all over the world – from ‘Triangle of Sadness’ to ‘Plan 75’ to ‘To the North’ – it feels really good to be seen on equal footing in the landscape of international cinema.

My Rating:

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Nocebo opens in cinemas nationwide on January 18.

January 13, 2023
MOVIE REVIEW: What makes ‘M3GAN’ scary is how it depicts our relationship with technology

There is an unmistakable campy tone to ‘M3GAN’ that I didn’t pick up from the trailer and I should have. It made the experience quite jolting (which is a good thing) that even if the film does go by-the-numbers in terms of the progression of the story, there was a thrill about seeing how the film wasn’t afraid to be silly or weird. It’s very aware of its genre and is not afraid to play around (such as two musical interludes that come out of nowhere, which got me laughing so loud but it sort of made all the sense in this film). I was expecting a straight-up slasher film and instead, I was experiencing a polished, refined satire that was equally as funny as it was scary.

But what made the film scary, more than the idea of an artificially intelligent robot companion for children going homicidal is the fact that the film manages to really present the dilemma of the youth’s attachment to technology on how they deal with their issues and trauma. The film is about Gemma, a roboticist who is working on AI toys, whose sister dies in a car accident leaving her niece to live with her. Unprepared to raise a child, she uses technology as a means to connect and introduces her niece Cady to M3GAN, an android that is built to learn from their user to become the perfect companion.

Photo: M3GAN Trailer

While it is in the complexities of AI technology plus the company’s rush to produce a working prototype to sell to the market that pushes M3GAN into her killing spree, the film illustrates so cleverly the way by which Cady prefers to connect with the machine rather than another human being. Yes, there’s something creepy about the way M3GAN resembles a human but doesn’t and how dangerous it is due to its robotic features but the real scare that is found in this film is the way with which Cady retreats into her relationship with the android and opts for distraction rather than the confrontation of her true feelings.

Photo: M3GAN Trailer

This is something that I’m witnessing now among a younger generation that is more keen on connecting online through social media than on face-to-face interactions. While the film is set in a futuristic time (robots and AI technology seem to be easily acquired), the way with which it harkens to present-day issues is so apparent that it is what actually sent a chill down my spine.

And while we are at it, the whole discussion on AI art online is reflected as well in this film. How quickly the corporations are ready to jump into AI technology because of the profits that it can bring them, how much they’ll push to sell M3GAN before any proper testing has been done is a plot point in the film but it mirrors the way we continue to embrace AI technology today without regards to films like ‘Terminator’ and ‘A.I.’ that discusses the dangers of this since as far back as the history of the genre of science fiction. The movie, though not new in discussing the dangers of AI, is still relevant because it seems no one is listening.

Photo: M3GAN Trailer

And so ‘M3GAN’ as a film is both scary and funny at the same time. It is scary because director Gerard Johnstone and screenwriter Akela Cooper (from a story by Akela Cooper and James Wan) are both aware of the themes that push against present-day issues but also because it’s scary when a robot goes on a murdering spree. It’s technology-based and much stronger, faster, and processes information faster than a human being. But it is also funny because it’s not afraid to be silly (again, there are two musical numbers that is a highlight for me and was so unexpected) but it is also making fun of us, for how dependent we’ve become to technology: in the way that we use it to help us through our day-to-day lives to the way we use it to distract ourselves from ourselves and our humanity.

Photo: M3GAN Trailer

I would have wanted it to be sillier. I would have wanted to care more about Cady and Gemma or the other characters in the film but as it is, it’s an enjoyable film that’s great for the thrills and the laughs. The CGI and effects are brilliant and while it does have a few jump scares, the film relies more on the imagery of M3GAN as its focal point of fear. We laugh or dismiss it as something fictional now but this is where we are going. At some point, ‘M3GAN’ won’t be a fictional story. And that’s scary.

My Rating:

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M3GAN is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

January 9, 2023
What To Do With Old Things: a review of ‘Plan 75’

Absolutely quiet and still, ‘Plan 75’ is a chilling look into a dystopian world where Japan has found a startling way to handle its growing elderly population: a government program that offers assisted suicide to all citizens aged 75 and above. The program itself, the titular Plan 75, offers a cash handout for the volunteers to do with as they please and are assisted all the way through cremation services to make everything easy and tidy. By all means, this film falls under the realm of science fiction but first-time feature film director Chie Hayakawa is not interested in the macro view of this imagined bleak future. Instead, she focuses her camera on three characters: at its center is Michi (played by the arresting Chieko Baisho), a 78-year-old woman with no family, who is struggling to keep her independence in a society that sees no value in someone of her age; Himoru Okabe (played by Hayato Isomura), a sales agent for Plan 75, who truly believes in the cause until he meets an estranged aged family member who signs up for the program; and rounding out the cast is Maria (played by Stefanie Arianne), a Filipina caregiver, who is working in Japan to pay for her daughter’s expensive life-saving surgery, who accepts work from Plan 75.

As a film, ‘Plan 75’ is a character study. The film’s central premise pushes these three characters towards their own crisis of faith and in the process, we watch as this world normalizes death and the discarding of anything that is no longer deemed as valuable. Hayakawa, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jason Gray, covers this deterioration of society with almost no fanfare, as if this was ordinary and normal and it’s a chilling reminder of how bureaucracy and keeping the status quo seems more important on a larger scale for civilizations than the slow degradation of our humanity.

Photo courtesy of TBA Studios

‘Plan 75’ poses its questions and arguments through Michi, Himoru, and Maria. The film is never loud with its objections or statements. We are invested in Michi’s desire to remain “useful,” At 78, she’s struggling to find work to support herself as all her friends are succumbing to old age. Without a family, she is completely on her own and society is pushing her towards volunteering for Plan 75 as there are no opportunities available for her to keep on living.

This is all done without drama, without highlighting the emotions involved. It’s a quiet film that basks in the silences of heavy thought and meditation. Even when Himoru wavers from his own convictions and takes a more personal approach to assisting his uncle with his plans, the film never judges him nor pities him. It is what it is. When Maria discovers, through her work in the Plan 75 facility, what happens to the things left behind by the seniors who have passed on, the film never underlines the sadness or the horror of the insights that are gleaned from this.

Photo courtesy of TBA Studios

What the film manages to do is show us how society and the world is slowly just accepting these questionable changes happening around us. How, in the name of efficiency and the common good, we are allowing people to be left behind and pushed away in favour of those who can contribute more. There’s a hierarchy that is proposed in this film that mirrors what’s happening in real life and ‘Plan 75’ manages to highlight the impact this can have on the people intrinsically linked to it.

Photo courtesy of TBA Studios

This is not an easy film to watch but it is an important one. It skillfully manages to ask important questions over a hypothetical situation and by putting front and center Michi, an elderly woman with no family, no one to vouch for her or fight for her and defend her, the film asks us to make a decision about her. While Hayakawa manages a burst of hope, a moment of urgency at the film’s third act, it still leaves the final verdict to us. Are we as powerless as Maria, victims of our own circumstances or will we have a crisis of conviction such as Himoru, or will we have the strength to stand up against the forces that dictate our worth?

This is not an easy film to watch but you have to watch it.

My Rating:

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Plan 75 opens in cinemas nationwide on December 7. Buy your tickets here.

December 6, 2022
MOVIE REVIEW: The Unflinching ‘An Inconvenient Love’ Showcases the Power of Belle Mariano and Donny Pangilinan’s Love Team

There are three things that the film ‘An Inconvenient Love’ wants you to know within the first act of the film’s narrative. First, that this is a good old-fashion Star Cinema/ABS-CBN Films rom-com with all the magic that those qualifiers imply. Second, that the world is tough (with images of a rally and protest staged by workers against their employers juxtaposed by the struggles of the working class just getting to work everyday) and that in the hustle and bustle of daily living, really, love is such an inconvenience. It can derail everything. And thirdly, that the chemistry of lead stars Belle Mariano and Donny Pangilinan is electric and can light up a whole theater with their onscreen sparks.

There’s so much to enjoy in director Petersen Vargas’ ‘An Inconvenient Love.’ From the way it opens with real-world challenges (such as the aforementioned strike) and a revisiting of the typical rich boy-poor girl rom-com dynamic to the way with which the film pushes all that aside to make way for the romantic thrills that comes with the movie and how it all manages to get all these narrative points intertwined again for its dramatic ending. This film is a healing salve to these troubled times as it is not afraid to juxtapose pressing issues of labor and economic struggle with the highs and lows of romantic love. There is an escapism that is formed in the second act of the film when all the social awareness issues head to the background to focus on the kilig moments – when the film embraces its rom-com tone and atmosphere head on – but easily brings it back for its satisfying resolution.

It’s the story of a rich boy, Manny (Donny Pangilinan), who is a shop owner and is rebelling against his dad by supporting the workers of his dad’s company, who are on strike. Manny meets Ayef (Belle Mariano), a working student, whose dream is to finish school and work in Singapore. They meet on a bridge, with Manny running away from a protest gone violent and he asks for Ayef’s help to get away. It’s love at first sight for the two as the adrenaline from the situation heightens each other’s senses and they become fully aware of each other.

Both Manny and Ayef are attracted to each other but there are more practical concerns that need their more immediate attention. At this point in time, love really is an inconvenience and the film really finds interesting ways to highlight this.

But love is such a tempting escape and both decide to make a contract for a love that is convenient and practical; a contract that would not hinder both parties – Ayef most especially as she wants to continue her dreams of flying off to Singapore – from living their lives.

But that’s not how these things go and the film manages to explore the consequences wonderfully.

This is my first time watching Mariano and Pangilinan and I get it now. The chemistry is palpable. Pangilinan does have moments (usually his scenes without Mariano) where he’s not in the moment as I would like him to be but when he’s working a scene with Mariano, it’s pure magic. She, on the other hand, has a very un-self-conscious way about her that makes her feel so real and grounded. She doesn’t rely on pretty to make her character work and she’s so enjoyable to watch.

Amongst the ensemble, Teresa Loyzaga and Matet De Leon are the ones who truly stand out and don’t feel at all like supporting characters. They inhabit their characters so fully that you feel like you can make a separate film on just their characters alone.

Vargas does an incredible job at juggling the elements he’s working with and knows the strengths and weaknesses of the film. He even playfully plays around with some Kdrama tropes at the beginning of the film – the umbrella sequence, someone falling and someone catching the other, even mentions of Kpop fandom – but is quick to let it go once his movie is in full swing.

Overall, ‘An Inconvenient Love’ is such a return to form for ABS-CBN and Star Cinema. It’s vibrant and playful and unflinching to both its genre and its story’s own message.

My Rating:

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An Inconvenient Love is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

December 1, 2022
Power and Struggle: a review of ‘Triangle of Sadness’

Bold and in-your-face, Ruben Ostlund’s satirical black comedy ‘Triangle of Sadness’ goes all out in depicting the absurdity of the excesses of the rich and affluent while building a biting commentary on class inequality and the distribution of wealth and power. The film is not afraid to get didactic as characters have extended dialogues (and monologues) regarding gender norms and a drunken battle of words between a Marxist captain of a 250 million dollar yacht (played by Woody Harrelson) and a Russian capitalist oligarch (played by Zlatco Buric) while the aforementioned yacht is being bombarded by a storm and threatens to capsize. Everything is then turned on its head by its revelatory third act that binds everything together. It’s a tonal challenge to maintain the dark and (oftentimes vulgar) satire for its 149-minute running time, but the imagery along with the excellent performances keep you on your seats and eyes transfixed to the screen.

‘Triangle of Sadness’ is not a conventional movie by any sense of the word. From the get-go, the satire hits hard as the film explores and pokes fun at all its characters. To ground us to a storyline, we follow the model and influencer couple Carl and Yaya (played by Harris Dickinson and the late Charlbi Dean, respectively), as they navigate the power struggles within their own relationship as they are invited to join a cruise (for free) on a yacht for the extremely wealthy. Through Carl and Yaya, we are introduced to the other guests onboard like Russian capitalist oligarch Dimitry; Therese (Iris Berben), a woman who suffered a stroke and can only utter one phrase in German; Jarmo (Henrik Dorsin), a lonely tech millionaire; an old couple, who made their fortune selling weapons; and the rest.

Photo from ‘Triangle of Sadness’ trailer

On the yacht, the rich engage in their most indulgent of whims and the hapless crew must cater to their every desire. Led by Paula (Vicki Berlin), the crew and staff work tirelessly to ensure the guests get everything they want and desire, even if those desires run contrary to the rules or the safety of the ship.

For over an hour and a half, we are presented with a vast display of absurd requests and acts of great entitlement and privilege from the wealthy class. It’s writer and director Ruben Ostlund’s way for us to set a moral line before he turns everything over its head.

Past the halfway point of the film, the narrative finally reaches its inciting incident and a storm crashes into the ship sending the whole yacht into a frenzy. It’s a well-executed scene as the whole ship tosses and turns. People get sick. They vomit and defecate everywhere. They lose their balance and stumble and fall. Visually, it’s a reprisal of what we just saw unfold in the first hour and a half. It’s brutal and grotesque but also weirdly humorous.

Photo from ‘Triangle of Sadness’ trailer

But the movie doesn’t end there. The third act is an entirely different movie altogether where the structures in place have been overturned and the rules of the game have changed. This is when Abigail (played with great power and nuance by Dolly De Leon), a toilet manager on the yacht, finds her footing in the circumstances that follow and puts her in a position of power that continues Ostlund’s criticism of society and the way things are.

Throughout the storm sequence, Harrelson’s captain and Buric’s Dimitry drunkenly argue over the ideologies of Marxism and capitalism and all of this now is evidently played out in the third act. Everything that was deemed important in the first two acts have been stripped away. It is in the way people change and how relationships shift and turn in the third act that we can see what it is that Ostlund is trying to do and what he is commenting on.

Photo from ‘Triangle of Sadness’ trailer

Almost invisible in the first two acts, Dolly De Leon’s Abigail takes center stage and the Marxist ideologies start to come to the fore. This movie is all about power and the struggles that come with navigating its complexities. It begins first with Carl and Yaya’s relationships and the expectations of gender roles then branches out to the yacht with all the excesses of the extremely wealthy and their absurd whims. Finally, when you take away all the frills and the luxuries that don’t really matter in the day-to-day of things, priorities shift and new power structures are formed.

Photo from ‘Triangle of Sadness’ trailer

Ostlund’s ‘Triangle of Sadness’ has a way of demonizing and villainizing all the characters who have power. With an ending that is filled to the brim with irony and a final insult to the characters in the film, ‘Triangle of Sadness’ offers us no real solution or catharsis for what we just witnessed because we are being asked how complicit we are to the systems that are in place that makes these inequalities so blatant. To laugh at this (and it is funny) is to recognise the truth of what the film is saying. And we have done nothing.

My Rating:

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Triangle of Sadness is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

November 30, 2022