This is a part of Musings on Film Criticism. It is a series about what is discussed in two film criticism classes the writer sits in. Check all installments here, to be updated weekly: Musings on Film Criticism. Film criticism is a responsibility. It may not be an advocacy, but the ability to write and to …
Urban diaspora is a symptom of uneven development, especially in a country as archipelagic and disjointed as the Philippines. Fringe margins inaccessible to basic commodities often get lured to the big cities, hoping to fare well against thousands in a heavily congested space. Since releasing in 1975, Lino Brocka’s Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag set the …
The Spectre of Brocka’s Maynila Still Haunts Us with Gasping for Air Read More »
Picture this: a renowned filmmaker famous for making confusing films releases their newest work. And upon watching, you expectedly don’t know what the hell is going on. Should the work of understanding and the blame of misunderstanding fall upon the viewer, who may lack necessary context of what they are watching? Or would the finger …
Note: There are spoilers in this essay about Little Women (2019). In Greta Gerwig’s sophomore feature Little Women (2019), four sisters forge their own way during the American Civil War in the hopes of reasserting their agency and womanhood in a perilous time. It is an overwhelmingly warm love letter to sisterhood and family, but also a …
NOTE: This article has spoilers. As soon as the Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons stopped playing, I sank into my chair, with tears in my eyes, and knew I had seen it – the kind of film that you will be lucky enough to witness and allow into your life. It reminded me of the time I …
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019): Love, Art, and Continued Emancipation Read More »
What is the point of a documentary? Should it provide basic information to those uninformed or should it deepen the understanding of those informed? Should it stir the emotions of its audience or should it be purely rational in its approach? All documentaries differ in technique – but all serve to realize one goal: to …
Aswang and A Thousand Cuts: Are documentaries enough? Read More »
Note: This essay has spoilers. We open on Balete Drive. If you’ve ever watched Okatokat or Magandang Gabi, Bayan in your childhood, or read at least one entry of Pinoy Ghost Stories, you’ll know this place is the setting of many hauntings. Then, a car parks. In it, two characters sit, waiting, until it’s quiet enough to have sex (‘car fun’). In …
Sila-Sila (2019): Tackling the Gray in Queer Relationships Read More »
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History Have you ever wondered what would happen if men weren’t in the picture? In the absurdity of this absence, what are we left with? In this freedom, what can women discover about themselves and the world around them? Carlo Francisco Manatad‘s three short …
Carlo Manatad’s Filmography: What a Girl Wants, What a Girl Needs Read More »
Is it lifting off or landing? The short film ‘Plano (2004) opens with the familiar sight and sound of an airplane overhead – untouchable in a cloudless sky towards a clear yet unknown destination. Then we cut to: a paper plane, now touching the dirt and gravel, is dragged aimlessly by a little girl. She is dressed …
‘Plano (2004) and Salingpusa (2006): A Little Girl’s Plight Read More »
