TM Malones' Salvi - Abundance of Vision

In the not too distant future, civilization, as we know it, has ceased to exist. The world reels from over population. To control this dilemma, women are sequestered in concentration camps. Meanwhile, a wandering soul navigates the hostile surroundings, with a hood that shields her identity. Sabel (Brittany Marie Baldoza) tries to stay under the radar to avoid the fate of other women. Then she finds Abet being attacked by gay thugs. Will she lend a hand at the risk of revealing her identity?

Director TM Malones' post apocalyptic tale is a delectable cinematic concoction that judiciously re-imagines an uncertain future ravaged by the excesses and follies of humanity. Told with brisk pacing and a well-assembled set, this Cinema One entry, one of the eight short films shown this year, showcases what Regional Cinema is capable of doing. With more than competent camera work, the film also underlines the fact that you don't need 2 hours - or 12 hours - to make a diverting narrative! My quibble: the absence of subtitles. As a viewer, you end up wondering what their Ilonggo dialect was saying. This distracts and diverts for a truly immersive viewing. Wa ko kasabot gid!

Now, imagine this story in its expanded form.
 

Sabel navigates in the shadows.

Khavn dela Cruz's Edsa XXX - Five Star Awful

In the year 2029, the world looks like an abandoned war town bathed by surreal psychedelia. In the struggling nation of Ek-ek-ek, a reluctant leader Tatlong Mata (Epy Quizon) is shoved into the political maelstrom of a newly installed government sinisterly maneuvered by self-serving benefactors called Hukbalaka who linger with ulterior motives. 

The aforementioned clandestine group, of course, want national domination. A flurry of odd characters further influence Tatlong Mata’s every action: his sexy girl friend Ana Mari (Sheree), as well as an Amazonian movement headed by Mariana Mariano (Althea Vega) who plots to foil the ministrations of Hukbalaka.

I came into the film looking forward to enjoying what promised to be a brilliant satire; a superior film. After all, this had glowing reviews all over the worldwideweb. I rarely read reviews prior to watching a film, but I felt I had to make heads and tail about its plot before diving into a film from one of the mavericks of the Independent Philippine Cinema. Besides, this was among a dead critic’s bucket list – a musical from director Khavn de la Cruz. The film maker is known for infusing mixed media in his films. Meryll Soriano’s “Paalam Aking Bulalakaw” (2006), for example, had delectable poetry and dreamy music framing the inherent narrative. He’s had a lot of “music” in his works even before “Edsa XXX” came about. This should be a treat, right?

Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the case. While several critics have given it their highest marks, a sophisticated action of gargantuan mystery, the film is one egregious mistake. To add some flair into its otherworldliness, Director Dela Cruz employs the fisheye lens to further skew its message, delivered in harrowing pages of what he fashioned was a mixed bag of humor, satire, rock musical, dance revue, and whatever it was that he set his mind to. The result is one alienating tripe that’s more rubbish than alternative.

This makes their associated labelings: “The first movie filmed entirely in Corregidor Island” and “shot in fisheye lens” – utterly unnecessary and dubious. I can in fact make a film using the “bottom of a coke bottle” and it won’t amount to much without valid storytelling. The songs are loud (as rock anthems should be), dissonant and melodically spare, you’d wish you were crapping in a toilet than summoning hypertension in your seat. And true enough, someone was filmed taking a crap in one of the crannies of the Malinta Tunnel. If you don’t believe this, try googling for its theatrical trailer. The film in its entirety felt like a desecration of a historical site. They had jokes that no one found amusing. Otherwise, I would have heard even a single chuckle during its screening. Of course, I probably saw the film on a different day than when any of the amused critics watched it. There was so much irritable ugliness in the amateurish blocking and dance sequences, they seemed like random parts of a long dress rehearsal. By curtain call, it was clear that someone needed to be burned at the stakes.

Tatlong Mata (Epy Quizon) and Ana Mari (Sheree)

My whole Cinema One movie viewing was relatively pleasant, but “Edsa XXX” inspired suicidal tendencies. This was painful; a major irritant. Iyaya, my BFF, excused herself to go shoe shopping instead, refusing to do her cinematic penance. “Life is too short to suffer like that,” she whispered before leaving me. And she had every right to do so. After all, she was a paying consumer and thought this was money down the latrine. Why then were there glowing reviews all over, she later asked? There was obviously a term for this affliction, and I couldn’t help but laugh despite my frustration.

During this festival, I kept seeing this Caucasian guy who watched most of the films screened during the festival. I must have met him almost a dozen times, missing him only in 4 films. He always carried a backpack with him. I overheard him say that he would usually travel to Manila to watch our tourist-trapping film festivals. This is good news, if a tad surprising, right? When I saw him outside, after “Edsa XXX’s” screening, he was telling his friend, “That was quite awful.” Five-star awful, and I couldn't agree more.  

Althea Vega dances the tango.

Crapland. Yes, someone actually crapped!

Historical ruins and the figurative cinematic structures.

Sheree as Ek-ek-ek's First Girl Friend Ana Mari, a former prostitute.

Kevin Dayrit's Catnip - Rampage in Alternative Storytelling

Liv (Lauren Young) and Cieca (Maxene Magalona) are kindred souls, enjoying an affinity akin to blood relatives, or aren’t they? But the two girls are poles apart in manner or temperament. While Liv is volatile and socially dismissive, Cieca is calm and well put together.

But there’s more to that where Liv comes from. She eternally whimpers about her father (Rommel Luna) whose temperament is mercurial and whose deportment is violent. Breaking a 3 PM curfew, for example, inspires a slew of endless curses and the occasional gun point, “He actually pulled the trigger,” adds Liv. Cieca thinks that Liv exaggerates, but she endures Liv’s erratic demeanor with restraint. In fact, she doesn’t mind her midnight calls: “Hindi ako naiinis.” This is Cieca’s closest rendering of family life because her “Dad’s a refrigerator and mom is underground!” (Read: He’s cool. She’s dead.) 

Cieca’s father is constantly absent, but she’s well provided for. Liv’s dad, on the other hand, runs a despotic household, employing brute force at every opportunity he gets. The two girls find balance in their friendship. One day, Liv discovers that she actually shares more than just friendship with her best friend. They have the same father. This situation suddenly downspirals into rampage; one that Olivia is all too familiar with.

Director Kevin Dayrit’s “Catnip” takes an alternative approach to storytelling, sprucing his cinematic palette with a non-linear, albeit chimeral presentation. He frames his scenes with a visual cacophony that seems part documentary, part music video and part hallucination. Having said this, the film is not for everyone, thus Dayrit felt the need to point a disclaimer during one of the screenings: “You will find the film as either the simplest (sic) or most complicated. None of it is literal.” Then he goes further with, “If you don’t get it, maiinis kayo.” It isn’t amusing that someone would adumbrate his audience’s expected reaction and lace it with “you will hate it if you don’t get it”. The statement is self serving and indulgent at best. After all, whatever he says, the audience will experience the film in their own terms and no amount of repudiation can sway a thinking crowd. Unless he thinks he’s the only one with a brain, debah?

I was of course ready to hate it. No one’s gonna temper my viewing experience with contrary manipulation. When the narrative twist finally unravels, I realized there was more to the seemingly harmless banter and random aimlessness of Cieca and Liv (clowning around a busy overpass, entertaining an eager and excessively generous suitor played by Ramon Bautista, etc.) All these set the cinematic  tableau for a “thickening of the plot” that shall rankle with enough pathos to last you a month. "Catnip" turns out as one of the pleasant surprises of Cinema One 2012. Any disclaimer is unnecessary.

Lauren Young is luminous and whimsical as Liv. Maxene Magalona, who plays the less showy character, provides the perfect antidote to Young’s unpredictable volatility. I have always thought of Young as an insightful actress and it’s hard to dislike her even in godawful flicks like Krizzie Syfu’s “Tahanan”. There are cameos: Megan Young plays a geeky professor; Elmo Magalona also appears in a hilarious Skype scene where he serenades Liv who treats him with grave disinterest.

I am still trying to get through the title: “Catnip” is a flowering mint plant that attracts cats. It has volatile oils that cats react to: they get stimulated, anxious, relaxed or contemplative. There are “no known ill effects” from catnips which, if you consider the film’s eventual denouement, should be clearly contradictory. But then we were forewarned: none of it is literal. How convenient.

Lauren Young is Olivia

Maxene Magalona is Cieca.

Seemingly harmless movie marathon.

Rommel Luna is a mercurial father.

Cat's affiliation to the catnip aka catmint.