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.

Tahanan - Sappy and Shallow in Crapland

As part of her class assignment, Samantha Benitez (Lauren Young), a 22 year old student, must undertake a two-month immersion at an orphanage. In the program, she has to live and help out in the activities of the orphanage called Bahay Kanlungan. Though initially cautious of her acquaintances, Sam gradually warms up to the motley characters that populate this subcommunity of disavowed children. Sam is also introduced to the dedicated Mama Precy (Angelina Kanapi), one of the foster mothers. Precy stays with the children 4x a week. But unknown to the children, Sam’s earlier animosity roots from a domestic issue: her mother abandoned the family for another man. She hasn’t heard from her mother since.

The orphanage is home to 12 children, but she is drawn to three of the kids: there’s Kyla (Sabrina Man) who treats her like a big sister; Rey (Miguell Tanfelix) whose father is preoccupied attending to his bed-ridden mother; and sprightly Efren (Khen Aldovino) who has trouble staying in school. Sam would eventually get emotionally attached to the children. One day, she receives word from her dad (Mark Gil) that her mother has returned, but the latter lies comatose at the hospital. Why should Sam care? She abandoned her, didn’t she?

Among the three entries from this year’s Big Shot Filmfest, Krizzie Syfu’s “Tahanan” was the most messy. It is blotchy in presentation, not to mention exceedingly zealous where emotionality is concerned. Everything is loud and unfettered. Not only were the characters reflective of overdrawn depictions, they were also excessively overeager in temperament. In short, “OA na OA!” Angelina Kanapi, for example, keeps forgetting that this isn’t a comic material where she could just ham it up and resort to her scene stealing afflictions – as she does in every single film she’s in. Listen to her prayer, you’d think she's a stand-up comic standing before an Apollo Theater crowd. She would speak in high sing-song pitches, then suddenly latch into clipped giggles, as though an orgasm is briskly underway while she was serving lunch. It’s unnerving. If she’s out of the frame, their other foster mother Myrna takes the “stage” with her high strung demeanor. And you wonder why the children are so effed up?

Lauren Young delivers a perfunctory performance from an otherwise mediocre script. She barely buoys a briskly sagging narrative. Fact is, Young is a gifted performer and she never resorts to brimming sentimentality, but there's so much one can do with a trite script and an even dour characterization.

When cloyingly adorable Kyla confronts Sam, the once-clingy and delightful teenager suddenly morphs into a cantankerous bitch from hell, spewing acid like a possessed soul. And everyone just stares at her. No one even dared to stop her from her constipated bravado, not even the authoritative figure in the room – Mama Precy. They were just frozen stiff. Why is it so hard to understand Sam’s dilemma? Her mother is on death’s bed, for pete’s sake! Even a 6 year old would be able to discern the right thing to do! Then there’s the ever annoying Efren – Khen Aldovino – who is prone to acting out like an overcharged version of a clown! Most times he’s in front of the screen, he behaves like an amused epileptic, I just wanted to throw darts at the screen.

When the action turns to Sam’s scenes at the hospital, the movie shifts to a different film altogether. The sense of disconnect is so palpable, I suddenly missed watching MMK. You then realize the unfocused attention of a film maker who: 1) is clueless on thespic executions, thus she is ill equipped to direct her actors, 2) cannot tell a legible story without resorting to unnecessary, albeit protracted detours, 3) drawn to melodrama – and not even succeeding to a coax a single tear from her audience after all the incessant caterwauling!

SUPPLEMENTARY ANNOYANCES

While I was watching, 5 rows ahead of me were two ladies freely discussing the film, oblivious to the rest of the paying crowd. For the duration of this painful experience, you could hear them annotating scene per scene what went on during the filming. One would say, “Naka ilang take kami dyan.” And so on. So it’s safe to refer to these dingbats as part of the production team.

This begs the question: Isn’t cinema etiquette taught in their university (DLSU)? Did they think they were immune to good manners by chatting up overtime like they were in their own story conference? Such uncouth behavior from the makers of the film itself makes you wonder why they can’t even render due respect that their film required. I began to comprehend why. Because they knew they were in crapland! And only still waters run deep!

So they kept making noise!

What's with film graduates from New York Film Academy? This is the second disappointing work we've seen from an alumnus of that institution.


Khen Aldovino needs restraint... or medication... or electroconvulsive therapy! He was distracting and annoying!


Lauren Young: insightful


Miguell Tanfelix reminds me of Derick Monasterio

Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington - Gaiety Meets Homophobia

Remington is a hopeless homophobe. As a child, he would taunt homosexuals without much provocation. He would jeer, snicker and point his fingers as though he saw a clown. One fateful day, he finds a transvestite (Roderick Paulate) kneeling before a tomb. As has been his habit, he shouts and pokes funs at him. But the victim who bears wizardly powers wasn’t amused. With dagger looks, he casts a spell on the young boy, “When you turn adult, you will turn gay.” Thunder shakes the skies and his hexing hangs over Remington’s shoulders like a scepter about to engulf him. But time keeps the unrepentant child imprudent.

Fifteen years hence, Remington (Martin Escudero) is a strapping lad, active and facile. He detests his parent’s plan sending him to Manila for college. He’s reluctant to be anything else but his unambitious father Eduardo (John Regala) who mans the family’s carinderia. Meanwhile, he meets beautiful Hannah (Lauren Young) whose father recently died. Unfortunately for Remington, Hannah’s dear departed dad was among our protagonist’s victims. Though this doesn’t bother Hannah much, Remington (who’s infatuated with Hannah) doesn’t get points from his shady past.

There’s one more thing troubling the quaint town. A serial killer has sowed fear among local folk, claiming his 5^th victim, all of them beauty parlor-operating homosexuals. Who’s the next victim? Remington’s mother, Officer Fe Martinez (Janice de Belen) is knee deep in the case. And the gay community waits with bated breath who dies next?

As clock strikes 12 however, Remington (who turns 21) notices salient changes in his manner of speech, movement or garment choice. He is suddenly torn between Hannah who’s becoming receptive to his attention and his best friend Jigs (Kerbie Zamora) whom he suddenly finds attractive. What is going on here? Will Remington fall victim to a gaydar-toting murderer (who either fries his victims or turns them to dust)?

Told in brisk fashion, “Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington” is clearly a metaphor on the bigotry that befalls the third sex and how the latter will eventually get their ascendancy in the scheme of things. After all, discrimination is injustice and a movement (i.e. a form of “uprising”), as the movie implies, would find its way in a rightful society, or would it? If anything, the film provides a hopeful chord that allows an under-the-radar sententious moral, and I don’t mean excessive moralizing. One can never get enough lessons for “gender discrimination”. The good news?

The film stands on feral ground where its entertainment value is concerned. The film is hilarious yet thought provoking. It’s hard not to get besotted with our hero/anti-hero Remington, marvelously played by the incandescent Martin Escudero. As Remington, Escudero is a pleasure to watch. The scene where he delivers a beauty contestant's speech is highly nuanced and insightful. He lights up the screen yet he never goes overboard. He curiously exhibits an innocence as well as circumvention that should otherwise contradict itself, but the insightful writing has made this plausible. After all, Remington is besieged by a duplicitous character: the woman-lover and the reluctant homosexual.

"Are you gay?" asks Remington's mother who's investigating the series of murders.

Confusion

What further buoys this flick is its adorable supporting cast: Daniel Fernando, Leandro Baldemor, Odette Khan (as the town mayor) and of course, there’s Eugene Domingo who cameos as roller-skating Mrs. Montano, Hannah’s mom who’s still dazed from her hubby’s demise. The big welcome surprise? The utterly winsome turn of John Regala who plays Eduardo, Remington’s father, who’s willing to do the ultimate sacrifice to save his “gay-now, straight-later” son. Regala never displayed the excesses pathognomonic of his career. After all, what could be worse than growing up ridiculed and chastised for being inherently limpwristed? Not that it’s even a personal choice.

I do have misgivings about the flagrant, unremitting sward speak, as though all homosexuals are flaming queens and engage in parlor-speak. The gay lingo tends to eventually get heavy-handed, thus alienating and as with most things, systems work best with moderation. There’s a hint of stereotyping that’s probably required to underscore emphasis? But this is a tenuous idea. I have to admit that the laughs were not as simultaneous nor successive as Marlon Rivera’s “Ang Babae sa Septic Tank” which was hilarious even on second viewing. But this isn’t saying it isn’t worth our hard earned money. I am just being didactic. This is director Jade Castro's better realized and most accomplished work. And make no mistake, this is a superior film.

Remington is suddenly bothered by his childhood friend Jig's random touch.

Beware of the spiteful homosexual. He might carry irreversible spells. Roderick Paulate (above) once again shines in a head-turning, spine tingling cameo.

Mart Escudero makes a star turn in his film debut.