All the best to Direk Quark

The directorial debut of a filmmaker is very important because it is from this work that we determine his future in the movie business. This was true with the likes of Ishmael Bernal (Pagdating sa Dulo), Maryo de los Reyes (High School Circa ’65) and even Jeffrey Jeturian (Sana’y Pag-ibig Na).

Last year, Viva Films gave Quark Henares his first directorial job in Gamitan, which turned out to be both a critical and commercial success.

The way Gamitan was put together was quite impressive – especially if you consider the fact that Quark was only 21 years old then. He has an edge over the rest because 1) He knows film language and 2) He loves the film medium deep in his heart.

It was also easy to understand why Gamitan became a big box office hit: Being so young himself, he knows the pulse of the youth sector, which is a big market among moviegoers.

Tomorrow, Quark Henares’ second movie opens in Metro Manila theaters. The film’s title is Keka, a combination of action, romance and comedy.

Quark writes the screenplay himself and swears that he likes this project even better than Gamitan. Keka is actually the story of a call center operator named Keka Jose (Katya Santos) who takes the law into her own hands and eliminates one by one the fraternity boys who killed her boyfriend half a decade ago. In the process, her path crosses with that of Jason Sanchez (Wendell Ramos), a detective still recovering from a broken heart.

Meanwhile, the leader of the frat group that killed our heroine’s boyfriend is still on the loose (and has even become a celebrity) and Keka’s determined to get him.

I have yet to watch Keka and am very excited to see it because I am quite confident that Quark can do wonders with a plot like this one. I am saying this because I really liked his Gamitan and, if we go by tradition, you can easily judge a director’s caliber with his debut film. Here’s wishing Quark all the best with Keka!

Holes, A Wholesome Movie

A movie that earned $70-M when it opened in the United States last spring but was seen only by a handful of people here in Metro Manila is Holes, a film for both kids and adult from the Disney company.

Based on the 1998 Louis Sachar novel, the story of Holes is set basically in a work camp for juvenile delinquents. Situated in the middle of a desert, the place is a living hell. Food is bad and drinking water is rationed.

During the day, the kids are made to dig holes – in keeping with the camp’s philosophy as explained by the cranky supervisor, played by Jon Voight: "Take a bad boy, have him dig holes all day in the hot sun – that turns him into a good boy!"

Of course, you don’t believe everything he tells you. Digging holes under the sun will not turn a bad kid into a child of outstanding behavior. It only gives him calloused hands and burnt skin.

Surely, there is a deep, dark ulterior motive to this and everything is revealed in the numerous flashbacks that take the story back to over a hundred years ago.

And so we go back to the Old West and are introduced to a new set of characters – led by a schoolteacher (Patricia Arquette) who falls in love with a black handyman (Dule Hill), which was taboo because this was not very long after the Civil War. The bad white people frown on this – especially since the teacher has a spurned suitor. The schoolhouse (which means the world to the school teacher) is torched and the black man is killed.

With all these tragic events, the schoolteacher switches to her dark side and becomes a bandit. She becomes known in the Wild West as Kissin’ Kate Barlow because she kisses her victims and leaves them with a red lip print.

Another subplot brings us even further into the past in Latvia where the juvenile lead (played by Disney Channel regular Shia LaBeouf) traces his roots. Here, the peasant ancestor (Damien Luvara) is encouraged to try his luck in America by a fortune-teller (Eartha Kitt), who also puts a curse on his descendants.

These subplots aren’t just there to confuse the viewers, but to challenge them into piecing all these together to figure out the main plot that occurs in the present time. It is also in one of these subplots where we finally see the reason why the camp authorities (led by Sigourney Weaver) require the kids to dig holes in the desert.

Holes actually opens to a slow start, but the action speeds up in the subplots that are told in flashback. The film is intelligently put together and requires viewers to think and assemble in their minds like a mental jigsaw puzzle the various subplots. In spite of its complex material, I have to say that the screenplay of Holes is whole with nary a hole in it.