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No Cheap Thrill
Nonoy Lauzon Most likely inspired by Needful Things, a Stephen King’s 1992 novel (eventually adapted into a major motion picture in the United States), Randolph Longjas’ Buy Now, Die Later emerges as...
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Skilty Labastilla’s Top Filipino Movies of 2015
Skilty Labastilla In 2015, even if the popular Cinemalaya Film Festival took a leave of absence, other independent film festivals, both old and new, came up with quality offerings: Sinag Maynila, World...
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Noy Lauzon’s Top Filipino Films of 2015
Nonoy L. Lauzon As one looks back at the country’s films in 2015, a handful of releases may be deemed truly outstanding and noteworthy. In random or no particular order, the ten best Filipino films of...
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Skilty Labastilla’s top Filipino short films of 2015
Skilty Labastilla While many Filipino film buffs agree that we are witnessing the third golden age of Philippine cinema courtesy of the thriving independent film scene brought about by the digital...
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Silong, Game of the Sexes (Review)
Nonoy L. Lauzon What began as a waltz between a man and a woman slowly drawn to each other dissolves to a dark tango between battling sexes engaged in some bizarre and twisted game. One would not guess...
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Everything About Her: Studio Fare as Feminist Manifesto (Film Review)
Nonoy L. Lauzon There are many great things that can be said about Star Cinema’s major motion picture release Everything About Her. It is suffused with the acting prowess that has made Vilma Santos the...
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Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis: Revolutions eat their own children
Nonoy L. Lauzon Lav Diaz’s latest epic of cinematic grandiosity should have been several separate movies. But as if by some twist of fate and sleight of hand, the genius in Diaz has managed to squeeze...
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Kung Makikipagtuos sa Ugali ng Panahunan: Sipat sa “Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis”...
J. Pilapil Jacobo Kakatwa ang ibinubungad na panukalang ugali ng pelikula ni Lav Diaz sa harap ng “hiwagang hapis,” salin sa Tagalog ng isa sa mga tatlong mysterium na uusalin sa ulunan ng bawat...
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Young Critics Circle names Da Dog Show best film of 2015
Da Dog Show, Ralston Jover’s film about a struggling dog trainer living with his two children inside a mausoleum in a public cemetery in Manila, is cited by the Young Critics Circle as 2015’s Best...
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Dyamper: The Leap of the Desperate
Nonoy L. Lauzon Sinag Maynila, the indie filmfest founded by Cannes-winning director Brillante Mendoza and big-league producer Wilson Tieng, has just opened its edition for the year. Sure to stand out...
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Ang Hindi Nakikita
Aristotle J. Atienza Maaaring maipaalala ng pelikulang Bambanti ni Zig Dulay ang iba pang sineng ibinababad ang manonood sa mga natatagpuang kuwento sa isang partikular na panahon at espasyo sa labas...
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Bloodthirst for Bloodhounds
J. Pilapil Jacobo The anatomy of corruption that is exposed in Bor Ocampo’s Dayang Asu is nothing new, but it does sound novel enough, as Kapampangan argument. The trope of a dogged life in...
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Three Theorems on the Axiom of a Film-Event: A Critique of “Pagdating sa...
J. Pilapil Jacobo I. Apotheosis The felicity of “pagdating sa dulo” as an axiomatic phrase that parses out the sense of limit careerist ambition must contend with in Ishmael Bernal’s debut film is...
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Raymond Red: Master Machinist
J. Pilapil Jacobo Mga Rebeldeng May Kaso is Raymond Red’s lovesong to that bygone era when independent cinema in the country could only be uncompromising in the pursuit of a movement apart from the...
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Tropical Things
J. Pilapil Jacobo Alvin Yapan’s An Kubo sa Kawayanan tackles the domicile as site, equipment, being. Mercedes Cabral plays Michelle, an embroiderer who lives in a bamboo hut by the Bicol River. Cabral...
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Matalik na Kasaysayan
Aristotle J. Atienza Sisimulan ng Balikbayan # 1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III ni Kidlat Tahimik ang pelikula sa mga nadiskubreng rolyo ng pelikula sa isang palayan sa Ifugao. Sa pagbubukas...
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Nostalgia Deferred
Lisa Ito Raymond Red’s contribution to the Cinema One Originals of 2015, Mga Rebeldeng May Kaso is not only a novel throwback project but also an exploration into the self-reflexive potential of...
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Welcome to the Jungle
Skilty C. Labastilla One of the first scenes in Sherad Anthony Sanchez’s Salvage (2015) shows military men and village watchmen about to lift from a bamboo raft the body of a young man found on a lake...
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Against Alteration
Jaime Oscar Salazar Equipped with sewing skills honed from childhood, under the tutelage of her mother, and with a college education, Michelle could not have failed to grasp that the opportunities...
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A Doggone World
JPaul S. Manzanilla Arresting in its simplicity, Ralston Jover’s Da Dog Show confounds as it mesmerizes, proving that an austerity in form can offer the richest of subjects. We begin on the street with...
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