Spoilers ahead Some stories are better left untold. By itself, Four Sisters and a Wedding had been established as a staple in the Philippine entertainment industry, from the meme-worthy lines, the sisters themselves, and the familiar theme of family ties. Regardless of its formulaic and predictable premise, the film managed to balance light-hearted humor with… Continue reading ‘Four Sisters Before the Wedding’: A Spitting Image of the Original
Any onscreen portrayal of a father-child relationship pales in comparison to the nuanced nature of fatherhood. Fathers in the media are often depicted in different ways, ranging from abusive to caring to devoted. However, this varied depiction is few and far in between. Black fatherhood in particular suffers from the stereotype of being absent in… Continue reading ‘Concrete Cowboy’: On Fatherhood and Belonging
There are two ways in which sapphic stories are portrayed on screen. A lot goes into these categories, mind you, but let's simplify them: good sapphic films and bad sapphic films. Ride or Die somehow straddles the line, but it tips over to undesirable at best and downright problematic at worst. Adapted from Gunjou, a… Continue reading ‘Ride or Die’ Isn’t the Sapphic Runaway Film of Our Dreams
Moxie is a 2021 film directed by Amy Poehler based on a 2015 book by Jennifer Mathieu. It's about a young girl named Vivian (played by Hadley Robinson) who decides to start an underground zine in her school as a way of promoting feminist ideals in their extremely sexist school and encouraging her classmates to… Continue reading ‘Moxie’: Same Formula, Same Tools
Contains Spoilers for the Netflix film Malcolm & Marie Malcolm & Marie, the 2021 Netflix film written and directed by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, is the kind of movie that could only be a must-see event during a pandemic. It’s a bare-bones, black-and-white, single-location drama with only two actors on screen, and a script that… Continue reading ‘Malcolm & Marie’ and The Grizzly Business of Inspiration
In media, anti-heroes are usually men, like Don Draper and Walter White. I Care A Lot tries to subvert this by making the anti-hero a woman. While this idea sounds great, the film does not develop its lead beyond being a woman; it does nothing to address the cruelty of the protagonist’s actions, which leaves… Continue reading The Convoluted Messaging of ‘I Care A Lot’
As lockdowns and restrictions persist in most countries, it is no surprise that streaming giants are taking advantage of their accessibility. Renowned directors like Noah Baumbach are having exclusive deals with Netflix; Ryan Coogler just signed a 5-year exclusive deal with Disney. It’s not a far-off prediction that film distribution has changed forever, to the… Continue reading ‘The Dig’: An Idealistic Escape
What does it take to taste freedom? For most of his life, Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) has known nothing but to live in the shackles of the slums of India, with seemingly all facets of his life shackling him down to the pits of poverty and the unceasing cycle of slavery. When young Balram experiences… Continue reading The Life and Death of ‘The White Tiger’
Apocalypse Child is a 2015 film directed and co-written by Mario Cornejo, and it tells the story of Ford (Sid Lucero), a surfing champion from Baler who might be the bastard child of Francis Ford Coppola. This happy-go-lucky surfer goes through a reckoning of his past actions—and inactions—when his childhood friend Rich (RK Bagatsing) comes… Continue reading ‘Apocalypse Child’ and Living Under the Specter of Someone Else’s Identity
This holiday season, critically acclaimed director David Fincher of Gone Girl and The Social Network fame comes out with Mank both on Netflix and in cinemas, further cementing the new dual-release system which is increasingly becoming the norm during this unprecedented era for the film industry. Mank is a biopic centered on Hank Mankiewicz, the… Continue reading ‘Mank’: The Man and the Myth Served Stale
