Zig Dulay's Huling Halik - Cinematic Meandering

Ili and JM (Joeffrey Javier and Kenjie Garcia) decide to relive their early days as lovers in Baguio City a day before JM packs his stuff and moves to Manila. Though they’ve parted ways, JM somehow believes this would bring closure (and other things as well) to their tempestuous past; one that on several occasions had him cutting himself.

Amidst revelry of a fogbound Panagbenga Festival, the couple retraces sites they used to frequent: the Botanical Garden, Mines View, the Igorot Park, the little shop selling their favorite meal. Along with friends Ace and Brian (Jayjay Jimenez and Patrick Esteban), they even frolic in the woods. But as the hours drag on, Ili gets seemingly clamorous text messages and calls from his new girl friend, while JM gets impatient and intolerant. We soon witness a glimpse into their past – a heavily invidious JM and an inattentive lover in Ili. Couldn’t they enveigle a more amorous and conciliatory goodbye?

Director Zig M. Dulay follows the former lovers around Baguio with his handheld camera as his characters banter and flirt around with laidback demeanor and easy charm. Imbuing its narrative with a documentary feel, the first quarter is a compelling watch as we are roped into the mechanics of their relationship. We sat with due attention. Joeffrey Javier, Crisaldo Pablo's "it" boy, looks relaxed, not to mention watchable. But when JM repeatedly bawls like a scorned wife every time Ili gets a call, the atmosphere briskly evolves into one that irritates and confuses. After all, their relationship as lovers ceased some time ago. Why the nagging resentment? Isn't JM leaving town for good, making his emotional outbursts nothing but misplaced sentiments?

Further on, this green-eyed scenario becomes redundant and mundane. It becomes clear that the story teller has lost his way as he blindly meanders into cluelessness. At this point, what could have been an exposition on the fleeting nature of relationship turns into the realm of desperate affection - aimless, unfocused, rambling.

Kenjie Garcia gives a spirited performance as he displays his enviable acumen to lacrimate from sun up to sun down. Why not? He won a Best actor Plum from some international award giving body, right? So with more than adequate braggadocio, he shows his audience how it is to cry! I was stunned! I've never seen someone cry this much not even in episodes of MMK, he must be going for a world record! Amazing!

We saw "Huling Halik" during its festival run in Greenbelt 3 and seeing Joeffrey Javier do well in two films (the other one was for Eduardo Roy, Jr.'s "Bahay Bata") gave a smile on our face. There is hope for Pink Film habitues!

"Huling Halik" could have soared with a more legible second half. Unfortunately, their last kiss was nothing but clenched teeth. Someone got lost on his way to narrative denouement.


Joeffrey Javier: Comfortable away from Crisaldo Pablo's exploitative and amateurish film works.


Brian and Ace doing a concupiscent version of "Midsummer Night's Dream" in the woods.


JM preps himself up for another round of crying!


"Yun lang ang hinihingi ko sa 'yo, di mo pa maibigay! Isang araw lang!" laments JM. And as earlier forewarned, he cries again like there's no tomorrow! LOL


Kenjie Garcia and Joeffrey Javier


Jayjay Jimenez and Patrick Esteban


Traffic stopping briefs! :)

Brod - The Incongruence of Love and Violence

There's a thin line between love and homophobia.

That's what Ray Gibraltar's "Brod" would have you believe. Tad (Ardie Bascara) and Terence (Kenjie Garcia) navigate this subcommunity of pseudo-scholastic lords and pledgees. Terence, along with his best friend Mico (Paul Jake Paule), are applicants to the Sigma Theta Omega where Tadeo (a law student) is one of the lords.

As fate would have it, Tad and Terence have become roommates. At night, they copulate in wild abandon, but at daytime, they deny their nocturnal relationship altogether. In fact, they might as well be strangers. Terence braves the impassioned brutality and humiliation brought on by fraternity hazings. When one of the Lords find Tad and Terence asleep and in tender embrace, the violence at the initiations escalates. Are these borne out of homophobia (Terence and Mico keep their sexuality at bay from their "masters")? What becomes of Tad and Terence's irrefutable concupiscence? Will Terence weather the incessant physical torment and agony of a pledgee's life?

Bathed in sepia and muted colors, the film bristles with a reverent atmosphere of dread, alternating with prurience. There is no denying Gibraltar's film making aesthetics. Every scene, populated by thespic novices, are comfortable, skillful and graceful; a skip above the awkward staging and performances of many similar artists in the indie genre. Jie Teodoro's poetry is seamlessly and beautifully incorporated in the cinematic canvas; a move that succeeds more than Khavn de la Cruz's "Paalam, Aking Bulalakaw" (Goodbye, My Shooting Star) - a film that we liked though it's littered with self-indulgent moments (and starred Meryll Soriano).

Ardie Bascara impresses with a strong and confident presence, mining his character with insightful tact. The side story alluding to his family's financial woes (his younger brother is in a hospital, and is in dire need of money) is thrusted several times, but there's a level of desultory commitment to this narrative strain, thus it doesn't quite fly. This was to piece a thread interfacing a fraternity's facility to help out financially strapped members (Tad is looking for a part-time researcher job at a "brod's" uncle's law firm).

Kenjie Garcia does well as the abiding pledgee and Tad's - pardon the pun - backdoor lover! In fact, the ensemble is adequately cast. Also note-worthy is Xeno Alejandro who plays the mean lord, though his character is too uni-dimentionally evil to be believed.

I have an adequate degree of trepidation swallowing the premise that frats are strictly for straights. Heaven knows that society has become partially permissive to the pink community, even in frats. This isn't the 18th century, if you haven't noticed. There isn't much in the script either that renders rational explanation what made Tad and Terence hook up - except of course that they are room mates, and that Tad strips to full monty while changing briefs right in front of a gawking Terence. Besides, these days, it's alright to nudge "frat brothers" to say, "Hey, Terence is my room mate. Go easy on him!" This doesn't necessarily imply a sexual relationship. Not every step of kindness or civility is equated to sexual innuendos.

Some of the scenes are consciously exploitative. How else would you explain a supposedly straight Lord gazing at 2 naked men paint each other's penises, just 2 feet away from the lord's face? Are frats really a haven of homo-eroticism? Straight men find other ways to humiliate other guys in the privacy of their rooms. They don't ogle at guys painting each others dicks, do they?

When Terence is stricken with paddle bruises and violaceous discoloration all over his body, running feverish and weak, we find Tad's concern superficial because once Terence is back at the hazing table, Tad won't even hesitate to inflict new wounds and lacerations. That, to me, is a narrative incongruence between love and violence.

Do people really sleep like this? Not even lovers, I surmise.

Oopss!

Handsome with captivating screen presence, Ardie Bascara sometimes resembles singer Jed Madela.

Ardie Bascara and Xeno Alejandro

Xeno Alejandro (photo courtesy of Jeff Yeo's Epoyyeo.multiply.com)

Ardie Bascara - a new screen lead is born! (photo courtesy of mr. ian felix alquiros)