Are we ready ka na ba Pinas?

O ano mga teh, MMFF 2012 season na naman soon. Magkakaltas ka ba ng pera para manood ng pelikula o aabangan mo na lang ang mga ito sa dibidi next year? Naaliw ako sa tallying ng Wikipedia kasi andito sa page nila ang list of entries, na impressive naman kahit papaano. A far cry from …

Film whiz whizzing wishes

Not that I haven't been watching films -- I have been watching lots, actually -- but I have been reluctant to say things about them. I don't know why. Must be the weather. But you can take a peek at the film-related articles I have been writing for Philippine Online Chronicles' Pinoy LGBT channel where …

Unrealistically yours, officially

So much hype on a film that's supposed to present "taboo" subjects in local cinema. Ang tanong: define taboo. Baka tabo - tumabo ng konseptong di naman talaga bago sa kultura natin pero dahil konserbatibo (read: takot) ang ating media gatekeepers, wow, hype it up yo! Wasup wasup! Lech. But I'm getting ahead of myself. …

Cinemalaya 2011: Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank

Since I'm currently in the state of straddling the line between the poverty of creativity (poverty of creativity talaga!) of other people, I should add, and walking out of their spheres of influence (don't wanna be affected/infected/deflected on) wala lang, let's review this film. And maybe later, I'll decode for you that cryptic opening haha. …

Philippine history X-ed

Hm, they say that the folly of Filipinos right now is that we don't know our history or we don't really learn from it that much so we repeat our mistakes over and over and over and over again... Yeah, just look at our government right now. But hey, let's talk about films... my friend. …

Iyo na! Iyong-iyo na!

Or in short, my review of SA 'YO LAMANG. Sa 'yo na talaga! Iyong-iyo na! Baunin mo na, iuwi mo na! Chos. SA 'YO LAMANG d. Laurice Guillen p. Star Cinema-ABS-CBN story by five people, script by three people dop. Lee Meily c. Lorna Tolentino, Christopher de Leon, Bea Alonzo, Coco Martin and a bunch …

Blindsided: sa mata ng pitik

Or in short, my reviews of two current Philippine cinema releases: IN YOUR EYES and MAMARAZZI. Sabi nga ng isang Carlo J. Caparas film -- God, save us! Chos. Teka, siya nga ba iyon? Whatevssss! IN YOUR EYES d. Mac Alejandre p. GMA Films-Viva Films s. Keiko Aquino c. Claudine Barretto, Richard Gutierrez, Anne Curtis …

why, oh why, delilaaaah! why make such films?

I don't know. I am bothered. Last Friday, I watched the latest mainstream-produced film that came out in Metro Manila theaters and I was wondering if I was transported like 20 years earlier. Parang retro na hindi, vintage na hindi. Pero hindi dapat ganun ang pelikula! Hay... Sige na nga, let's just do this! Give …

MMFF09: Nobody Nobody But Juan… but huway?

And I thought my internet connection will already be smooth and working the rest of this week. I thought wrong. I shouldn't really keep my hopes up about Philippine telcos anymore, but aah, that's for another blog's post. Anyway, let's to back to the MMFF '09 entries. Oh yes, I'm not yet through with them. …

My MMFF: ’96, ’97 and ’09

To start this blog rolling, what better way than to scrutinize  the yearly festival which mainstream film industry practitioners peg as the festival that saves the nearly dying / dying / at its deathbed (choose your own era or who to believe) Philippine cinema -- the Yuletide season Metro Manila Film Festival or MMFF. This …