Percival Intalan's "Dementia" - Deafening versus Horrifying

After 37 years, Mara (Nora Aunor) makes an unexpected homecoming to a remote town in Batanes. She’s suffering from Dementia, a clinical condition where cognitive and intellectual functions are sufficiently impaired, thus requiring close supervision and care. She’s mostly in the fog, forgets people and things, and is unable to function productively. Her cousin Elaine (Bing Loyzaga), along with husband Rommel (Yul Servo) and daughter Rachel (Jasmine Curtis-Smith), has flown back from the U.S. for a 7-week sabbatical to facilitate Mara’s discharge from the hospital as well as her transport to the tempestuous islands (Batan, Sabtang). Rommel is understandably peeved, and Rachel is mostly indifferent. But Elaine, the only person Mara remembers, grew up under Mara’s care, and owes her elder cousin a great deal.

In a somnolent town where electricity shuts off at 9 PM, Mara is left to meander this vaguely familiar house made of stone and thatched roof. 

Hopefully, this would steer her to remember things from her past. But in a creaky old house incessantly fanned by strong winds from the Pacific, there’s more to Mara’s abandoned memories, encapsulated in a journal she’s been keeping.

Mara starts seeing visions of a girl wearing vakul (a traditional Ivatan head gear made of straws used for protection against the sun, wind and rain) and a ghoulish maiden wearing a wedding gown. Mara also gets hold of a mysterious amulet with a hole in the middle. Then flashbacks start rushing by.

As a young girl, orphaned Mara was taken in by the Fabre couple who, unknown to the young girl (Althea Vega), has been keeping an intellectually challenged daughter named Olivia (Chynna Ortaleza) away from the prying eyes of the public. Mara soon realizes how she would figure in the household - as Olivia’s guardian and friend. The girls grew up affectionate of each other until Mara falls in love with a young man who then proposes to marry the dusky lass. In a fit of jealousy, Olivia stabs Mara’s beau. The situation briskly escalates into one of morbid consequences.

There’s much promise in Jun Lana’s story. Unfortunately, megman Percival Intalan’s directions leave much to be desired. Laid out as a psychological suspense thriller, the sluggishly told narrative soon falls prey to the wornout Asian horror cliché that makes use of sudden – and excruciatingly loud! – music/sound that eventually annoys more than it terrorizes. 

A door opens then a loud noise suddenly plays, and so on. Effective horror plays to our psyche, not bullyrag our auditory senses. And a story teller creates an atmosphere of impending doom. Lesser equipped film makers resort, on the other hand, to cheaper artifice, by creating “sudden noises” – the ones that actually break eardrums! Becoming deaf from movie watching isn't my idea of entertainment. I want to get pissing-in-my-knickers petrified, not deaf. This is why Von de Guzman's’ music and Addiss Tabiong's sound design contribute to Dementia’s faux pas as a cinematic chiller. Music and sound should enhance cinematic atmosphere, NOT call attention upon themselves. They shouldn't drown out the visual canvas. Of course, Intalan will be grateful to De Guzman and Tabiong because the pair was able to “jolt” the audience out of their ennui when this should have been the job of the story teller.

Plot crawls in dilatory fashion. Even as an atmospheric drama, Renei Dimla’s script should be circumspect. Instead it was nothing but patchy. One scene tries to explain Olivia’s relative “anonymity” through a sound byte from one of the characters, “Batang bata pa kasi sila nung namatay si Olivia” (thus most barrio folks weren’t made aware of Olivia’s presence). But even if you doze off between Mackie Galvez’s confoundingly underlit scenes, you would know that Mara and Olivia both grew up into adults. How else would Mara find romance? Was Olivia really kept behind the stone walls of the Fabre abode? Highly unlikely. You see the girls playing around the vast wind-swept landscape of Batanes. In a small town with a population less than a hundred, can you really keep a moving, breathing, living being under wraps?         

Bing Loyzaga unexpectedly keeps the story together as much as her character strings her otherwise divisive family. Loyzaga’s portrayal is so consistent you feel her strength amid internal strife. Jasmine Curtis-Smith is a joy to watch. Unlike her older sister, Jasmine never “overbakes” her characters. She’s temperate; and she steers clear from dramatic indulgences even when she’s already “possessed”. Truth be told, she is a gifted actress, managing to hold her ground and shine even in under-the-radar roles (Nika in Mike Alcazaren’s “Puti”; Yael in Hannah Espia’s “Transit”). Yul Servo, on the other hand, suffers from a one-note performance, making his presence disposable and forgettable. In fact, when Olivia’s ghost finally stabs Yul with a knife, Bing immediately abandons and forgets him. She instead runs after Jasmine and the wandering Nora. Bing was inconsolable when she realizes that Nora’s “gone”. Meanwhile, she forgets her husband Yul altogether. Didn't I say “disposable”?   

Perci Intalan's directorial debut is one blustery noise and blundering ambition. I was more horrified watching the video of a young Indian man being attacked by a white Bengal tiger in a Delhi Zoo. That didn't require sudden loud noises, blood spurting out of stones or crawling anophthalmic brides. What's better, I didn't have to pay a dime for it to scare me.  

Nora Aunor's grasp of the clinical condition seems dicey. Cognition, which refers to the "quality" of knowing, perceiving, recognizing, sensing, reasoning or imagining, isn't the equivalent of "amnesia" or "Alzheimer's Disease". Nora, on the other hand, refuses to interact with her surroundings, unless they're fueled by visual or aural hallucinations. She doesn't listen to people talking to her and sees way past them even when she's directly facing them. You'd somehow suspect she was "deaf and mute" more than demented. Or just maybe she's revisiting her role in Lamangan's "Sidhi"? She would occasionally look at their faces, smile a half-second grin, then it would disappear as fast as it came. Now that was scary. I heard someone whisper, "Ay, parang baliw!" This doesn't bode well for a narrative that necessitates a glimpse of familial articulation. More than her illness, Mara is too disconnected not just from her relationship with her family or her environment, but with the whole story as well.

  

UNFLATTERING

La Aunor has had a spate of movie roles that showcase her thespic chops to unflattering light. Yes, the Superstar is Philippine show business’ most intuitive actress, and the capacity of her eyes to highlight man's nethermost empathy is stuff made of legends. Her acumen is mostly based on instinct. She takes to the vision of her director then she brilliantly expounds and creates from it. But her instinctual proclivity also places her at a disadvantage when her director has but a mere incipient grasp of his vision.

This year, Nora Aunor has appeared in Joel Lamangan’s “Hustisya” where she inhabits the persona of a foul-mouthed Biring who facilitates the human trafficking business of childhood friend Divina (Rosanna Roces). In the movie, Nora navigates the backwaters of an intricate underground syndicate while constantly worrying about her missing son Michael (Jeric Gonzales, who's also in "Dementia" playing the helpful trike driver Vincent). 

Though Nora may have won her Balanghai trophy for "Hustisya" as Best Actress for the Director’s Showcase, this was mostly due to the dearth of female lead parts in the showcase category. In fact, the film was dubious all the way through. At best, La Aunor was a fish out of water. If you believed her characterization in it, you’d be the most impressionable dingbat this side of Lala-land. I kept wincing on how acutely awkward she was with her half-baked profanities. One couldn't help but consider Gina Pareno (playing Amy) who essayed a character congruent to Biring's in Jeffrey Jeturian’s “Kubrador”.

NORA VERSUS VILMA

Now imagine Vilma Santos donning Biring’s shoes. Wouldn't that create gargantuan sparks – no, make it fireworks! - where Aunor was only able to spew fumes off a dying chimney. Get my drift? So much has been written about those legendary eyes but when Lamangan chose to end his convoluted story with a close-up of a severely wrinkly protagonist laughing away until screen “freezes over”, I was transported into a maelstrom of epiphany. Some extreme close-ups aren't meant to be. There's just too much of them even here in "Dementia". 

Nora Aunor, in all her legendary glory, has limitations. Wasn't she miscast in Leroy Salvador’s 1985 ouvre “Beloved” while portraying the rich and sophisticated heroine? In Jun Lana’s “Barber’s Tale”, did anyone smoothly swallow Aunor’s character as a guerrilla leader “hook, line and sinker”? I didn't. She was (again) miscast. The “special role” was so fallacious it would have benefitted the film if it ended up in the cutting room floor. Truth is, you can’t just place Nora Aunor on an apple box and let her transform herself into someone else she’s not. Not everything in cinelandia is applicable to her smoldering pair of Laura Mars eyes.

My point here is, while it is true that Nora Aunor is a brilliant actress, she isn't the most versatile. Comparisons are inevitable with Vilma Santos who, of late, has been overshadowed by Aunor’s spate of lifetime achievement awards and National Artist ascriptions. But while Aunor has “Dementia”, Santos appeared in the better-crafted “The Healing” which raked in P110 million, 2012’s 3^rd Filipino film to gross over the P100-million mark. Which film was Cinemalaya 2013’s “box office champion” – Santos’ “Ekstra”.

As I was challenged and asked by a bungling idiot: How much did "Ekstra" earn during its commercial run? Insiders place it at P67.3 million. Let's conservatively round that up to P60 million. Surely that's way, way over what "Thy Womb" earned at the MMFF where it was unceremoniously and heartbreakingly pulled out from majority of the cinemas just 3 days after it opened on Christmas Day. Director Brillante Mendoza had to "beg" the cinema owners in public, on TV news and on print to retain it in cinemas. The 7-day haul amounted to an embarrassing P13 million, a far cry from the second "kulelat" (tailender), "El Presidente" which earned P33 million. And if you aren't "demented", you'd readily remember that both "Thy Womb" and "El Presidente" had Nora Aunor in the cast! Even their cumulative earnings of P46 million could hardly compare to "Ekstra's" P67.3 million.

BLIND PATRONAGE

Those irascible, irrational and blindly loyal Noranians could ride on their cumulative P46 million vehicle, "sumakay pa silang lahat" , it's really a no-brainer. How much did  "Ang Kuwento ni Mabuti" earn when it had its one week run at the Gateway last year? Drum roll, please! You bet, they were ecstatic to earn less than P50,000 - for ONE WHOLE WEEK screening! Divide that with the ticket price of P200, that's a mere 250 people occupying a 500-seater cinema hall that has 4 screenings a day for 7 days! Makes you wonder - how many die-hard Noranians are existing today - 250? How miniscule. Even if each of them would watch the film 3x in one week, they couldn't recoup expenses for the use of cinema, electricity, payment of ushers and projectionist, and airconditioning. Do they know how to count? The Philippines has a population of 100 million. And Nora can only coax 250 to watch her movie? It just makes me cry. Cinema, after all, is still business. People making films and screening movies should also earn. Otherwise, the cinema as we know it would die a natural death. That's a sad reality that people who love movies would have to cogitate on.

DEMENTIA'S PULL OUT: NORA VS DOLLS

Just mere two days after its opening, Dementia has already been pulled out from majority of its theaters, including places where you'd expect bigger Aunor patrons, like SM San Lazaro, SM Fairview and SM North Edsa. One guy wrote about his movie watching today and he shared, "There were just seven of us in the cinema," then corrected himself, "Ay, anim pala." On a busy Saturday? Maybe it was a block screening? LOL. If you say you're a Noranian, watch it now while it's still available in few cinemas in Metro Manila. Otherwise, you'd have to fly to Misamis Oriental, Pangasinan, Baguio, or worse, South Cotabato just to catch a sleep-inducing, closeup-rich movie. Ironically, even in Aunor's hometown of Albay, they choose not to screen it anymore (Bichara Silverscreens and Pacific Mall) preferring to show the comedic "Maria Leonora Teresa" (on its 3rd week), the name of the doll given by Nora's erstwhile boyfriend Pip to the then-phenomenal singer sometime in the 70's. Yes, Virginia, even three ugly dolls do better than La Aunor at the box office. Ouch.

Now, which other actress from the 70’s has the same mainstream-drawing power 5 decades later? But we’re not talking about box office clout, right? It's an exquisitely sensitive matter for some. (wink wink) On record, Santos is believable playing rich, poor, middle class, prostitute, nun, half-fish, superhero, bit player. Let's add governor to that varied resume. Aunor is believable playing pauper, abused or the down trodden and... errr, Super Gee? (Of course there's a few more colorful real-life "resume" worth adding here, but let me refrain from doing that for now. Tee hee.)

Nora Aunor may have made herself relevant in the contemporary independent film scene, but she should be careful when picking projects that gravely compromise her strength as an actress. Not every indie film maker has the aptitude of Brillante Mendoza (“Thy Womb”) and Mes de Guzman (“Ang Kuwento ni Mabuti”). Remember Mark Meilly’s “El Presidente”? Remind me again who looked laughably ridiculous playing Aguinaldo's aging wife? Or maybe the interchangeable indies no one came to watch prior to La Aunor’s jubilant  homecoming: Suzette Ranillo’s “Home Care” and Joey Romero’s “Ingrata”? Bad films don’t exactly contribute to becoming a “National Artist”.  I hope Adolf Alix’s “Padre de Pamilia” and “Whistle Blower” do better.    

Topel Lee's "Basement" - Defying Logic

On a tempestuous night when the rains have incessantly poured down from the swollen skies, and the rising waters have clogged up the pavements, a dank parking basement becomes an unlikely setting for a night that brings together people of different persuasions. Angela (Chynna Ortaleza), a pregnant woman is driving her two young children home. A couple of thugs (Dex Quindoza, Alvin Aragon) arrive to retrieve an illegal substance from an abandoned car, with the help of Mendoza (Dion Ignacio), one of the basement’s security guards. Eliza (Sarah Lahbati) has had enough of her clandestine rendezvous with Jules (Enzo Pineda), the husband of her best friend. A group of drugged out teenagers (Louise de los Reyes, Kristofer Martin, RJ Padilla, Teejay Marquez) hang out inside their car. Migs, a nurse (Jan Manual) is taking Lola Meding, his geriatric patient (Pilita Corrales) home.  Mario and his assistant Bernard (Kevin Santos and Albert “Betong” Sumaya) are about to leave when their delivery truck gets a flat tire. What’s worse, the only exit door in the basement is locked in. As if that isn’t enough, there’s power outage.

Can you spell “derivative” in 5 seconds? Director Topel Lee’s “Basement” re-creates his small screen efforts (TV5’s series “Third Eye”) by expanding his yarn and relocating his “manananggal” inside a claustrophobic, contained environment brimming with some of the most agonizingly irritating characters this side of celluloid. Lee populates his narrative with flawed individuals that it’s hard to pick a single character you’d want to root for. This spells disaster. After all, an audience doesn’t get into a singular experience totally detached from it. It’s like watching a ball game; we sit as spectators rooting for a team. Otherwise, we might as well go home and sleep.

Questions abound. Why does Ellen Adarna’s character sleep inside the trunk of a car? How does she get out from it? The backseat obviously is a more comfortable place seeing that it’s unoccupied. Or she could find a lot of empty nooks in the huge basement which, bafflingly, doesn't seem to have stairs leading to it from the department store/supermarket above it. I've never heard of a basement without stairs, have you? What architect has such moronic design? Of course, this gives the story its “cabin fever” setting, conveniently generating simulated anxiety. If you take this premise hook, line and sinker, you’d probably fall for this narrative fabrication.

But it’s the little things that repel you from this sham. Every character acts like some high strung individual who needs a dose of Diazepam. Let’s take the case of the exceedingly good looking Dex Quindoza who plays one of the drug dealers. After being hounded by his predator, he runs away in the most cringe-worthy artifice: he shrieks and falls like a school girl, finds a room, opens a door and gets inside, but wait. Someone’s after him, why won’t he close the darn door behind him? A creature is after him, debah? 

Same problem ensues with Louise de los Reyes’ character Roxy who exhibits her inane brand of heroism by getting out of the car to challenge the monster, leaving the car door open! “Sandali, may plano ako,” she belatedly tells the others, as the camera pans to the pair of drum sticks she’s carrying. When the winged monster finally arrives, we learn that Roxy doesn't have a plan after all. She falls and scampers to get the fire extinguisher; hoses the fume around in a futile attempt to do something. Will the fume extinguish a monster as much as it extinguishes fire? I'll give you a good guess. In Topel Lee’s world, it probably does. Instead of hitting the monster with the tank, she just stands there waiting to be devoured or eviscerated. Talk about stupid heroines, right? But wait, all her heroism isn't for naught. After all, she’s had an epiphany while rescuing the newborn child: “Meron palang silbi ang buhay ko.” Huh? If you've never heard of spurious fortitude... Sigh. 

In the story, you’ll find the monster stalking her prey. She’d either grab them with her hands decapitating their heads or dismembering their extremities. In a couple of scenes, you’ll see her long and slithering tongue easily hooking up her victim. But while pursuing Anna (Mona Louise Rey), who’s protecting her little sibling, the manananggal conveniently forgot to use her vine-like tongue! (The monster wouldn't fit in the hole.) Otherwise, it would have been a very easy pursuit. Nakalimutan, kuya?

The film makes use of silly sound effects. We get a monster who flies with a loud choo-choo train sound, you’d think the Philippine National Railways was nearby. This ill-advised “locomotive” sound is too laughable, albeit distracting, to be associated with the flapping of wings. Yet during the requisite “habulan”, the characters couldn't seem to hear this plangent sound that’s coming towards them. Hearing defects? What’s worse, they stumble around shouting: “Wag kayong maingay!” Who shouts while trying to hide? Only in Philippine horror films, that’s for sure.

In a couple of scenes, vehicles refuse to start! While a minor detail, this underlines the exceedingly limited narrative mulch that our storyteller is working with. In Topel Lee’s horror flicks, vehicles won’t start (twice!) – or would have flat tires. Wala na bang iba? Ho-hum! 

This redundant artifice is prevalent in “Basement”: a security guard inspects a room, flashes a light on what’s in front of him, yet he doesn't see the dead body on the floor until he stumbles on it. Same scene with Betong! The human eye, unless suffering from scotomas or glaucoma, is actually capable of seeing a visual range that includes the ceiling and the floor – and 180 degrees from left to right! Once again, in Lee’s film, his characters are so inept to find anything with a flashlight unless they physically stumble on it. It just doesn't make sense – but it sure sets a scene that would feign morbid fear. Kunyari takot… then let’s add a dash of fake blood while we’re at it. Despite all the shouting involved, “Basement” is in dire need of a sense of urgency.

When Betong finds the lower half of the manananggal’s body, instead of running away from it (he knew already that they were being stalked by a monster), he instead walks towards it and even pokes it with his radio. This coming from a guy who supposedly easily frightens. Moreover, you will never find a manananggal’s half body impeccably navigating itself without bumping into things. Here’s one with an inherent GPS, I almost wet myself laughing. Jan Manual plays gay nurse Migs. In one scene, he openly flirts with – hold your breath! – Betong! I almost regurgitated my last 3 meals! Ewww…..

Atrocious, over-the-top histrionics characterize the performances. There’s Chynna Ortaleza, Teejay Marquez, Albert Sumaya, Pilita Corrales and Dex Quindoza who mistake enthusiasm for great acting. Ellen Adarna plays the half naked sinister soul who walks around with a sullen, dour and morose expression. If she thinks this was her ticket to greater thespic heights, she’s in for a rough ride in this business. Good thing she seems to have moved to ABS-CBN! Smart girl!

Sarah Lahbati does better, but that’s not saying much really. Dion Ignacio, the errant security guard, registers well on screen. Like the rest of the characters, he isn't tasked to do much but to look "concerned". Louise de los Reyes and Kristofer Martin are, well, uninteresting so that when the former finally gets crushed by Lahbati’s car, we didn't even flinch. But aren't we supposed to care? Aljur Abrenica sleepwalks through his security guard role and only re-appears for the movie's anticlimactic finish. Since we don’t exactly look forward to his Machete’ish acting chops, we’re just too glad not to see more of him – unless he dons his “bahag” again! Tee-hee. 

If GMA Films thought they had a sleeper in “Basement” against Star Cinema’s “Staring Over Again”, then they could learn a lesson here. In fact, the operative word should be “clobbered”, if I am disallowed to use “massacred”. While the Toni Gonzaga-Piolo Pascual flick is running away with lots of dough, “Basement” is playing to near-empty cinemas. In fact in Cebu’s SM Cinema 2, they had to cancel the last 3 screenings of “Basement” on two consecutive days to accommodate the bursting SRO crowd of “Starting Over Again”. This is really a case of deserving your audience.    

Topel Lee used to be the promising and innovative indie film maker, but that’s almost a decade ago. His promise wavered and waned into trite and gimmicky drudgery that defy logic. If his intent was to entertain, this was ultimately weakened by his predilection for cinematic retreads and incoherent stories. I read an article on Enzo Pineda who said that he feels privileged to be working with Topel Lee. How on earth did he arrive to that conclusion, you wonder. Or does Pineda, who looked vacuous all the way through, know what he’s talking about? This much is true: Topel Lee makes gag-worthy horror flicks. Unless you believe that "Amorosa" was a masterpiece. (Well, those doofus behind Star Awards nominated it for best film, didn't they?) Topel Lee puts a premium on visuals alone, otherwise forgetting that salient aspect of film making, i.e. telling a tangible story. Unfortunately, cinema isn't visuals alone.

Teejay Marquez (left) plays sexually starved Ryan while Dion Ignacio (right) plays drug-dealing security guard Mendoza.

Dex Quindoza

Aljur Abrenica

While absolutely adorable as Julie in the recent MMFF indie, "Island Dreams" - and as Marilyn in her hit teleserye "Mundo Mo'y Akin", Louise de los Reyes appears as charmless Roxy in "Basement".

Pretty Sarah Lahbati plays guilt-ridden Eliza. Have you noticed how GMA's prodigal artists (Lahbati, Adarna) get roles in the film outfit's very very few cinematic outings? That's a tip to current GMA artists who has never appeared in a GMA movie yet.

Ellen Adarna

Could Adarna don the "Darna" costume now that she's in ABS-CBN? Be very scared, Angel Locsin. :)

Joel Lamangan's Menor de Edad - A Discordant Tragedy

At 15, Jenica (Meg Imperial) is a pallet of quandaries. She doesn’t do well in school where she doesn't have friends. Her boyfriend Jimboy (Arvic Rivero) is seeing another girl after she gets cold feet and turns away from a sexual dalliance. On the home front, Jen is constantly embarrassed by her mother Edna’s (Ara Mina) relationship with Jaggz (Jaycee Parker), a lesbian security guard, who lives with them. Bemo (Jim Pebanco), a bothersome neighbor, dogs her around while street thugs (Mico Aytona, et.al.) plague her with innuendos. Her anxieties push her way into a hiphopping girl gang called Sosy who empower themselves with a lot of attitude, vandalizing innocent civilians at every turn.  Ariel Basco (Wendell Ramos), Jen’s Pilipino teacher, provides succor in her miserable existence.

Meanwhile, Ariel is his school’s Most Outstanding Teacher. Students flock to him and his fellow teachers (Jef Gaitan) are drawn to his benevolent demeanor; this despite being relatively new in the institution. He even offers free tutorial sessions with students who need help – like Jenica! But Ariel skirts from a tenebrous past. In a previous school where he taught, he barely got off a sexual harassment case filed by a student. What’s worse, Ariel couldn't shake off his penchant for gambling. In fact, their household finances are a shamble, what with his wife Layda’s (Almira Muhlach) pregnancy and “illness”.

One day, Jen comes home distraught, claiming she was molested by her favorite teacher, Mr. Basco. Is Ariel’s past finally catching up with him?

Joel Lamangan’s “Menor de Edad” reeks with a heavy handed exposition and an exasperatingly obstreperous plotting. Like most of Lamangan’s ouvre, social ilks are brandished without heed for narrative restraint. What transpires is a story that feels inordinately overdone, you end up throwing away any form of empathy that the film builds early on. How do you relate to a miserable girl who rebuffs the sexual advances of a boy he loves, yet she throws herself to her sympathetic teacher? Then she accuses and takes to court the only soul who’s ever given attention and understanding?

Moreover, why would you commiserate with an individual like Ariel who throws away his salary to chance? He navigates the dark alleys of his neighborhood as though he isn't a respected high school teacher, comes home late to a sleeping wife, reports to class wrapped with tattoos and bruises? So much for building a character, right? While Wendell Ramos isn't a lamentable actor, his performance is as confused as his dubiously written character.

Jenica and boyfriend Jimboy

Meg Imperial, on the other hand, coasts on incongruous direction.  She never quite got the grasp of the material though she wasn’t awkward in it. The culprit could be the dated writing of Raquel Villavicencio whose treatment of her protagonist is that of an ungrateful daughter. You see, Jenica’s mother Edna was not the nagging kind; Jen was neither physically abused, and her lesbian “stepparent” seemed to care for her. Other than cloaked in the mediocrity of poverty, why all the worthless angst of a seemingly lost teener? She’s not the only one who hasn’t come to know of her biological father who, as events unraveled, was the sniveling, whimpering, spine-tingling, and more importantly, stalking neighbor Bemo, played by Jim Pebanco. Like most of his previous performances, Pebanco disgracefully depicts his character with stagey flourish. In all of Pebanco’s years in the business (he was in Bernal’s “Himala”, for crying out loud), he is yet to learn how to relax his thespic muscle (Cinemalaya Best Supporting Actor trophy not withstanding). Heavens help DJ Durano (wink wink) for we see a pattern in their situation!

The nail in the coffin for this messy tripe is a quasi-journalist named Nancy Molina, played by Chynna Ortaleza. Molina editorializes her report when they should be delivered objectively, making her segments contentious at best. Or do we have to lecture about journalism? She gropes for words, a dastardly performance for one whose supposed to be a veteran tele-journalist; kinda like a Ricky Lo without his netherworld accent. Take note that in more than three of Molina’s episodes, she only covers a single set of subjects, a charmless gang of publicity hungry girls called Sosy. Metro Manila, with its population of 12 million, is bereft of more interesting subjects that a journalist would linger on a single group of personality for one whole month? Go figure. Ortaleza desperately ought to practice her reportorial spiels to be decently believable.

In one scene, Reporter Molina sees Jenica with the Sosy Gang. “Bago siya?" She asked, yet two interviews ago, Jenica was already seen with the group. How can one journalist not notice this? They’re supposed to be a very observant lot! Or just maybe she probably suffers from Attention-Deficit Disorder? At any rate, this doesn't make her a competent media practitioner, does it? From out of the baffling blue, Molina quipped, “Iba na s’ya ano? Astig na!” Huh? Didn't she just say Jen was a newbie? Ano ba talaga, ate? Then like ray of sunshine, a bulb flickers and she suddenly associates Jen with the case of the revered high school teacher who allegedly sexually assaulted his student. How convenient.

Jaycee Parker & Chynna Ortaleza

There are more bewildering strains in this flick. Here’s a girl who got gang raped by her neighbors. What do we expect from her? Stay at home and recuperate from her genital abrasions and crushed self worth, right? She’s instead seen practicing her karate chops with the rest of the girls who looked like they haven’t seen the bathroom in, say, five-hundred-twenty-five-thousand-six-hundred minutes. A message of self empowerment? Go go go, feminists!

During the court proceedings, no one remembered that a medical report (i.e. an internal examination) of the victim is parcel to trying a rape case.

But – did you know that, if you were to follow Reporter Molina’s story, these fierce girls peddle their flesh for cash? What then do we have here? Tough teenage street urchins who immerse in gang wars – and prostitution? Huh? If you've never used “incoherence” and “incongruence” in a sentence before, this is the golden moment for that. Otherwise, you might as well go home, plant camote, grow letsugas in your backyard, braid your labandera’s hair, decapitate a spider; grow bed bugs in your lolo's bed, anything but watch this horrifying tripe. Sanity alert!

Meg Imperial plays Jenica. She'd rather take the only person who has shown her respect, mercy and understanding to prison than get the bedeviled thugs who actually raped her. Now, children, let's do this in unison: "Why?"

Wendell Ramos plays award-winning teacher Ariel Basco. This exemplary person also gambles until he's blue. Err I mean "red"?.  ;->