MANILA, Philippines - With only two screening days left of the 8th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and a re-run at the University of the Philippines next month, Supreme gives you the legit lowdown on which films blew us away and which ones bombed and should have never been filmed in the first place.
Kalayaan (Wildlife, Adolf Alix, Jr.)
There are strange things in Kalayaan that venture off into jungle fever dreams and suggest our intrinsic place in nature. In the case of Julian (Ananda Everingham) and his two comrades (Zanjoe Marudo and Luis Alandy), the film’s titular islands become a playground for their isolation and eventual hallucinations. Alix stretches time and myth to evoke the paralyzing loneliness and alienation of these soldiers to a maddening breaking point. A
After their extern nuns, Remy (Mylene Dizon) and Lourdes (Jodi Sta. Maria) fall victim to violence, the faith and resolve of the nuns of the Adoration monastery are placed at the brink of collapse. Powered by arresting performances from Sta. Maria, Dizon, Raquel Villavicencio, and Fides Cuygan-Asensio, Aparisyon speaks so eloquently about the dangers of passivity and the misplacement of virtues that straps us into a chain-linked world. A
Cloaked in a thick atmosphere of dread, Diablo exists in the water tank of horror-film physics while slowly peeling off the layers of skin and bones that expose the faults and shortcomings of its characters. Withering alone in her creaking property, it seems that Aling Lusing’s (a stone cold Ama Quiambao) only visitor is the mysterious entity standing at the foot of her bed. But as the film moves along, we discover how this presence acts as a stand in for the neglect of her five sons and the sins of the past that continue to hound her into sleeplessness. A
Beyond the hilarity that buoys the film to grander proportions, Requieme is actually a dark take on small-town politics, familial dynamics, and the very Pinoy need to associate with famous (and in this case, infamous) personalities to achieve some sort of fame for personal gains. Requieme details the circuitous and taxing route of death, especially for the living. It should also be noted that Requieme’s Joana (the superb Anthony Falcon) is one of the most memorable gay characters in any Filipino film. Arcenas is more concerned in fleshing out his personality rather than dwelling on his sexual preference and the jokes that he could cash out from it. A
Operating like a celluloid mixtape, Ang Nawawala’s best moments are bookmarked by songs that make up the greater sum of our lost years and troubled loves. The film concerns itself with its characters’ perilous fixation with the past (which it maps out from the painstaking attention to detail down to the selection of music) and how it becomes a cocoon that encases us in an emotional terrain that is both alienating and liberating. A-
Santa Niña makes a great case for the role of faith in the lives of ordinary Filipinos; a testament as to how religion is the opiate of the masses. Pol (Coco Martin, looking exhausted from teleserye tapings) uses the apparent miraculous powers of his daughter’s well preserved body (found 10 years later) as a path to undo the sins of the past. Palo is pretty blunt about the things he wants to get across and uses the film to raise the essential questions about our primal desires and retribution. B+
Jun Lana proves his mettle as a capable filmmaker in Bwakaw. Equal parts funny and endearing; Eddie Garcia gives another career-defining performance as Rene, an old gay man who wakes up every day to await his death. Lana thankfully doesn’t overplay Rene’s relationship with his askal, Bwakaw, to melodramatic heights and instead uses to flesh out Rene’s fears and frustrations about living a life full of regrets and bitterness. B
Framed from the conyo/privileged kids’s perspective, The Animals earns its place in the festival as the first R-16 film and one of the few films about the upper class. A stilted perspective of poverty exists in the movie which is kind of the point that Santos hones in: these are kids who grew up without the slightest notion of what deprivation really is and it takes one bad night to slam it all in their faces. The Animals wraps up as a parent’s worst nightmare and a harrowing cautionary tale of teenage dysfunction. B
There are great things in Raymond Red’s much awaited Kamera Obskura, particularly how cinema can be an element of social change, but the film shoots off in rather protracted dimensions that drown its more intriguing concepts in a string of political theatrics. Kamera Obskura’s bookends play off as its stronger parts, a showcase of how Red wants to create a discourse about our cinematic heritage and what we can do to prevent it from wilting away. B
Mga Mumunting Lihim gets the tenuous dynamics of friendships right; that there are things kept hidden to keep relationships floating on. The film’s constant shift in tone (from “mainstream gloss” to “indie chic”), editing issues, and inconsistencies may create distractions from the film’s main spectacle but it’s the excellent performances from four of our country’s best actresses (Judy Ann Santos, Janice De Belen, Agot Isidro, and Iza Calzado) that glue the film together. B-
Running in the similar vein of last year’s Amok, Farjardo puts a small-time thief Jess Biag (Nico Antonio) at the center of this world, and follows him as he gets arrested and sinks deeper into the underbelly of police corruption and moral bankruptcy. Posas though becomes a procedural film, guiding us through every detail of prosecution and slow-moving bureaucracy. It does a good job of exposing the blurring of the lines between cops and criminals but Posas never really dives into the deep end. C+
Lem Lorca’s Intoy Syokoy wallows in Calle Marino’s hopelessness, a place where dreams are built and buried with the grime of the sea. The film dwells on the poverty that forces its characters to desperate measures, but it’s the romance between Intoy (JM De Guzman) and Doray (LJ Reyes) that fuels its charm and earnestness. With a strong supporting cast (Joross Gamboa, Arnold Reyes, and Kenneth Salva) and fine performances from its leads, Intoy Syokoy swims just enough to overcome its shortcomings and deliver a competent film. C-
Mga Dayo is an interesting look at the lives of Pinoys who continue to struggle in Guam. They lead lonely lives, but the film doesn’t provide enough backstory to support their despair and helplessness. However, it’s Olga Natividad’s affecting performance as Ella, a housekeeper juggling her role as a mother and a daughter, that showcases the film’s strength and what it really wants to say. C-
Oros treads an interesting concept about people who take advantage of the dead (in this case, unclaimed cadavers in low-end funeral parlors) to earn money and get at least a week’s worth of food on their tables. However grisly and unusual the trade is, it’s undeniable that it’s instrumental in fostering a tighter knit within the community. Paul Sta. Ana fails to capitalize on this milieu and instead plunks us into a murky sea of obviousness and clumsy foreshadowing. The film hardly extends its perspective to deliver something more than Third World deprivation and forced shock tactics. C-
Ang Katiwala doesn’t really know what it wants to be. Whether it ran out of steam towards the end or a rather bloody finale is the only way to make an impression, it’s still a confused mess burdened by its lofty ambitions. The film flourishes as a closer study of history and how it can be a pool of insights and stories to egg us on, but Adlawan has a few other things in mind, and injects other socially relevant issues until it branches out into an overeager claptrap of slow motion gunfights, animated biographies, and a forceful drilling of Quezon’s resounding words. D-
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