ALL FILM & TV FEATURES
Wood and Water: Stillness and Silence Speak Volumes
There's hardly any narrative to offer with Jonas Bak’s Wood and Water but it doesn’t matter. It is a contemplative piece about the constantly evolving world that we are all faced with in our own distinct ways. It’s about exploring oneself through unfamiliar places, yearning for people, and trying desperately to connect with them through the places that has a great significance to them.
Iginuhit ng Tadhana: A Deep Dive into the First Marcos Propaganda Film
Iginuhit ng Tadhana was the Marcos family’s first propaganda film, a biopic produced to rally support for their 1965 presidential run against Diosdado Macapagal. It was filled with blaring historical inaccuracies that laid the foundations for a mystical mythology around Ferdinand E. Marcos that has persisted to this day.
The blessing in disguise of seeing a wrong film, and some thoughts on Before, Now and Then (2022)
Hopefully more people would see this gem, with the knowledge of actually seeing Before, Now and Then instead of watching this because it was mistakenly projected.
“In the Mood for Love”’s New 4K Restoration is More Tragic as It Replaces Romance with Ambivalence
Wong Kar-Wai’s new 4K restoration of “In the Mood for Love” mutes its ravishing reds and replaces it with a tint of ambivalent green. This shifts the mood from romance to ambivalence, with more of a focus on each character’s individual processing of trauma and less on their warm connection with one another. It also further amplifies its sense of tragedy.
Liway: How cinema archives the people’s struggle
‘Liway’ upholds this tradition of active remembrance and resistance, which is reflective of Philippine cinema that, by hook or by crook, tries to hold and create more space for anti-Martial Law narratives.
What ‘Better Call Saul’ Does Better Than ‘Bad’
In this landscape of unoriginality, Better Call Saul makes it mark by giving fans the benefit of familiarity but also introducing never-before-seen emotional depths to a character that merely served as a comic relief.
Sullivan's Travels: Personal reflections on screenwriters, screwball comedies, Sturges' characters, and shaky critiques from Hollywood
Sullivan's Travels' simplistic final grace note only reminds us of how we've long since strayed from the path of comedy as a means of pathos. And if laughter won't wholly provide us with amnesia from our grim realities, it’ll at least make this exhausting thing we call "life" less strenuous for about 90+ minutes
The cruelty and kindness of time in ‘Sonata’ (2013)
‘Sonata’ balances its lightheartedness and heaviness in a way that is never afraid to shed light on the harsh realities of life, without forgetting to show that kindness is still around in its wretchedness.
Try considering 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' aside from 'Thor: Love and Thunder' this week
‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is lightning in a bottle, a recognizable story of Asian familial love and upheaval. Crucially, it gives cinema-going Filipinos a choice other than deciding between Thor at 3:00 PM, Thor at 6:00 PM, and maybe even Thor at 10:45 PM.
Longing for Love, Pick Me Gay: Understanding Myself and Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s ‘Like Grains of Sand’
The film is full of confessions. Perhaps, the characters think that doing such would heal their “medical” loneliness. To define, confession is a risk. Confessing does not guarantee an answer. Confession does not guarantee a favorable answer. The act of truth-telling entails uncertainty. If that uncertainty remains unresolved, looming anxiety will exist forever.
A Trip to the MET
In light of the Manila Metropolitan Theater’s recent reopening, Jay of the Editorial Board takes a trip to the cultural space and shares his thoughts of being inside and watching a film there.
Taming the Dog in ‘The Power of the Dog’: On the atmospheric illustration of power and manipulation
Slowly, the rabbit becomes Phil, falling into the trap of Peter as he develops an elevated sense of desire. Perhaps, a romantic attachment towards him. Hoping for a parallel situation, between what happened to him and Bronco Henry. An uncomfortable situation due to age differences, a predatory relationship.
Goodbye, Dragon Inn and the elegiac ruminations on cinematic space, time, and the self
'Goodbye, Dragon Inn' is about a movie theatre haunted by ghosts of the past, yet they are relived and celebrated through film.
Let’s talk about the Spider-Man: No Way Home vs. MMFF debacle—constructively.
The latest MMFF issue raises a serious question: Is there still space for local films in cinemas when the demand for the webcrawler is at a record high? Perhaps it’s time to confront this dilemma between foreign and local films once more.
Red Notice (2021) and the Gray Area of Film Marketing Stunts
The latest marketing campaign for Red Notice (2021) recently sparked controversy and a discussion must be done in regards to the implications of film marketing stunts.
