Bb. Joyce Bernal's Of All The Things - Cinematic Delight

Emil (Aga Muhlach) unexpectedly lucked out when he failed his bar exams. After all, he’s among UP Law’s top students. Meanwhile, his girlfriend (Miriam Quiambao) successfully hurdles the bar and becomes a lawyer. She would then become Emil’s constant reminder of his failure. So they part ways. This adversity puts his life in stasis. These days, Emil illegally works with a typewriter under an umbrella by the roadside, notarizing documents for a fee. With his dignity tucked like tail between his legs, Emil is a fallen man. His successful brother (Raymond Lauchengco) constantly sneers at him, and his father (Tommy Abuel) – a retired, albeit brilliant law professor – all but glances his way with clipped conversation. They haven’t spoken about his academic debacle; and it’s burrowing down his self esteem. So he keeps to himself.

Meanwhile, Berns (Regine Velasquez) is a professional fixer with dubious connections to prominent people. She introduces herself as a politician’s former youth leader, then insinuates herself in the company of influential politicians: mayors, governors, even Senator Chiz Escudero. This allows her to push disputable contractors for a fee, of course. In various occasions, these acquaintances get her out of a bind. One day, she meets Emil who so impressed her, she decides to hire him to pose as her lawyer – one of her contacts refuses to pay her commission when a deal turns sour. This commences into a partnership that would have Berns take Emil under her tutelage.

When Emil acquiesces, Berns begins planning Emil’s life. While the two deny their obvious attraction to each other (“Di kita type”, Berns would say), their constant companionship soon turns amorous – and they’re found kissing each other. Emil tells Berns that he’s fallen for her, but she’s adamant. Unfortunately, Berns’ mother (Gina Pareno) isn’t crazy about the non-lawyer. She’s afraid Berns would end up like her who subsists selling fake bags (“They’re genuine leather,” she’d say) while her husband (Ariel Ureta) stays home.

One day, Berns hands over Emil’s application forms to re-take the bar, complete with references and the necessary documents. Emil freezes. In his mind, he can never face such loss again. Berns’ actions so enraged him, he storms out leaving his tearful “partner”. Is there happy ever after for our kindred protagonists? Guess.

Director Joyce Bernal seems most inspired whenever she works with Aga Muhlach and Regine Velasquez. Bernal's tandem with scriptwriter Mel Martinez-del Rosario has produced one of the most artistically and financially successful local romcom-trilogy of all time: 1999’s “Dahil May Isang Ikaw”, 2000’s “Kailangan Ko’y Ikaw” and 2001’s “Pangako Ikaw Lang”. More than a decade later, Bernal brings back the magic with a more urgent and diverting narrative concern: how to deal with defeat. While majority of flicks in the genre is punctuated by cotton candy veneers and characters with bittersweet, albeit fairy tale lives, "Of All The Things" touches base with "losers". 

Bernadette's life wallows in getting through shady deals. Emil's is frozen with self pity. And if fantasies are made of these sad excuse of heroes, where then could people derive their inspiration? Bernal and Del Rosario guide us through the intricacies of patience, perseverance and love even from "losers" like Berns and Umboy (aka Emil). 

Aga Muhlach delivers another insightful performance that curiously parallels to his "deadbeat' role in Olivia Lamasan's "In the Name of Love". It is thus a testament to Muhlach's artistic sensibility that he was able to adequately delineate his role here. He succeeds to personify Emil with all his emotional pathos. Muhlach's silent moments are a virtual force of nature, like when he finally admits to his father how he needs his help (to review for his retake). His scenes with Abuel are heart breaking like when the latter tells him: "Sa araw araw na nakikita kong bitbit mo ang makinilya mo, ako ang nanliliit." The gravity between these two actors could summon tsunamis of emotion, you better hold on to solid ground. Needless to say, Tommy Abuel complements Muhlach's grief. Abuel, after all, is a real life lawyer; and his emotional gravitas is more than considerable. He is one of the country's best actors of all time.

In this movie, Regine Velasquez-Alcasid (she's billed as such) comes into her own. Her frenetic movements and assiduous demeanor are believable. Gone are her awkward facial ticks and affectations. Velasquez has finally learned how to relax and get comfortable with her emotions. In fact, she succeeds - with flying colors - to create a valid character and to make Berns an endearing soul; a tall order when you're a hideous professional fixer. Evidently, this is her career best.

The film is further punctuated by winsome characters, and not one of them is a throwaway: Gina Pareno as flaky mother Susana who's overly cautious of her daughters' affairs (she's so adorable and hilarious despite her nagging demeanor); Mark Bautista as Eps, Emil's cousin; John Lapus as Berns' assistant Rocky; Joy Viado as the errant contractor Mrs. Manubat; Raymond Lauchengco as Emil's brother; Jojo Alejar as Berns' suitor, and Ariel Ureta as Eduardo, Berns' father (His short line to his wife is memorable: "Minahal naman kita nang tapat.") Eugene Domingo cameos as a bar exam monitor.

Romcoms like this have a tendency to be predictable, but the characters are so beautifully written, you understand all their motivations and you empathize with their dilemmas. With brisk pacing yet unhurried exposition, unobtrusive music, occasional funny glibs, adequately developed characters, well-tempered performances, inspired writing, and the pervading theme on the redemptive power of love, it's easy to declare "Of All The Things" as one of 2012's most delightful and affecting movies. It allows you to leave the cinema with a lingering warm feeling - and a huge smile on your face. I am reminded why I love the movies. This is first rate entertainment! Do not miss it!     

This scene is not to be missed as Emil trades legal jargon with Bern's nemesis, Mrs. Manubat. This is so funny!

The Depressive Effect of Watching "Ang Babae Sa Sementeryo"

It's uncanny the way a film can drive a person to depression. So I was in my cinema seat, slouched down feeling so sorry for myself and thinking, that yet again, I have to blog about yet another horrible Tagalog film. For a while there I was honestly feeling dejected. It had been one bad Tagalog film after another, and this is driving me bonkers!

Such is the state of the local film industry! When the most prodigious and most exhibited works on commercial theaters are from one of the following: Neal Tan, Crisaldo Pablo and those shameless Pink Film-directors, oh boy, we are indeed fucked!

The Philippine Movie Industry is in deep shit! Just thumb through the list of Tagalog films being reviewed in this blog from January 2010 alone. It would make you wonder why I even bother to write about them when directors of films like "Fidel" can't even grasp the fact that the artistic merits of his film go beyond horrid and non-existent. Yet week after week, we are served up vomit-inducing ouvres hailed like masterpieces (read: "Tarima"). There evidently is no accounting for taste these days!

It's also getting tricky to write a discourse about films with thematic substance as thin as a clarinet reed. It's like rendering flesh and meat to an otherwise emaciated tuberculosis-afflicted patient. But if I were to really complain about the state of the local movie industry, I can only do so if I've actually watched these films. Any person who huffs and puffs about the state of Philippine Cinema doesn't deserve to do so if they didn't even bother to watch any. Sasabihin mong pangit, wala ka ngang napanood, which should make you a pretentious twat not dissimilar to director Mark Shandii Bacolod discoursing about what a good cinema is - and even using his own work "Fidel" as specimen of great cinema. Of course we are aware that maybe he was just exercising his right to be either a humorist or a ironist.

Director Neal Tan, prolific in his dim-witted artistry, is once again fielding another gag-inducing fiasco with "Ang Babae sa Sementeryo" (The Graveyard).

The film follows a northern town's chief of police (Roi Vinzon) investigating a series of murders around the vicinity of the local cemetery. But it isn't the itinerant souls rustling around. Uming, the caretaker (Mon Confiado) takes advantage of the empty tombs to expand his burgeoning prostitution metier. While Uming is cashing in on Aliway (Mercedes Cabral) and her friends, we are introduced to a bumbling duo of journalists (Jigo Garcia and Bryle Mondejar resurrected from oblivion) who navigate the bowels of the departed with a video camera, you somehow wonder if they're just perverts afflicted with Hayden Kho-syndrome. Moreover, flashbacks take us back to Barbara (Ma. Isabel Lopez), the erstwhile iconic hooker "mysteriously" murdered by a monster! The plot is even made thicker than lard when her story opens with her incestous affair with her father. And yeah, lest we forget, she bore a daughter Agnes (Ella Guevarra) from this apocryphal affair. Agnes grows up witnessing the indiscretions of her prostitute mother. She would beg her mother for food while she's in the nick of her salacious trade. "Gutom na gutom na po ako," she'd implore while being reverently ignored. Despite all her pleadings, we actually see a beautiful and healthy child with rosy cheeks and Pantene-dabbed hair. Isn't that peachy?

Once again, Neal Tan's cofferful of riches is able to gather a formidable cast - Tommy Abuel (who plays a Joonee Gamboa-like narrator), Boots Anson Roa (as a clueless nun), et.al. But this a testament to the obvious that money cannot buy intelligence or directorial expertise! Tan's technique is easily summarized - he gathers a series of incipient ideas, throw them all together in a pan, add a dash of unemployed local actors and a couple of veterans to render it a mainstream veneer - voila! You have a semblance of a movie! Lamentably, there is nothing in this film that is worth even one peso of your movie admission's time!

Let's take for example some of the lines:

While the chief was interrogating Uming, he asked, "Maraming patay dito, di ka ba natatakot?" (Duh! It's a cemetery, you twat!)

A nun remarked about child Agnes, "Ni hindi ko sya nakitang nagsalita o umiyak," yet when she came to the convent, she was bawling her hearts out! (The nun should be deaf, dontcha think?)

When the child was caught "eating" people, the chief's assistant rationalized, "Di kasi pinapakain ng tama." (Oh my god, have you ever heard of such idiocy?)

When they found carcasses filled with fingers, eyeballs and other body parts from Agnes' bag, an assistant once again offered his enlightened commentary: "Ano naman ang kinalaman ng bata?" (There are dismembered body parts in her bag, you idiot! Doesn't solid evidence ring a bell?)

These are just a few from a long list of asinine details that litter this clutter! The director is wildly conflicted regarding his theme so he writes up scenes that would check out both "psychological thriller" and "horror flick" into it. The more themes, the merrier, right? LOL

Yet there were more brain numbing scenes without resolutions: whatever happened to the daughter of the landlady (you would see her dressed in baro't saya with a veil up her head, then she'd disappear at second glance). Mr. Tan's head is so full of random ideas he doesn't know what to do with them. My suggestion would be to rest it all away... forever!

I was dazed coming out from the movie theater. From hereon, I am dedicating a portion of my prayers so that the heavens would send Neal Tan somewhere really really far from the destructive effects of his mediocrity! Somewhere remote and somewhere he couldn't depress people with his works. Oh heavens, please take Neal Tan to Burundi, Nigeria or Zimbabwe! Or anywhere far from his high-definition movie camera!

The Male Voice - An Intensely Entertaining Theater Experience

Joaqui Valdes charms...

Delfin and Zamora - Powerful, insightful, poignant parallel monologues in "The Stain".

I am anti-hype, so I was reluctant spending a fraction of my savings to watch a play about men justifying their existence on the violence that permeates the modern world. Vagina Monologues for men? But since it was a barkada decision, sige na nga. So off we trooped to the RCBC Plaza to watch "The Male Voice".

What I didn't expect was a consistently powerful set of monologues that reek with honesty and an opulence of stories that for the next 2 hours transfixed me on my seat. Divided in 15 parts, the stories start coming alive in carefully placed monologues that were culled from interviews of real people. These are a variety of anecdotes about a child's first "palo" to another child's deadly kiss to his mother, a homecoming that unravels a lifetime of secrets, etc. Since I was caught unaware the play had no intermission, I didn't dare leave the theater for a toilet break. I couldn't. Joaqui Valdes was charming his way through a monologue about a popular macho dancer and escort. Not only did he perfectly personify "Adonis", he somehow justified Adonis' descent into moral oblivion, it was almost unbelievable when things turned 180 degrees and we find him bearing his soldier's gun. But then reality is sometimes stranger than fiction, isn't it?

It is hard to pick favorites in a cast that pulls heavy punches. Michael Williams was downright hilarious in Victor/Victoria, it's hard not to recognize the internal facility of an actor who is veteran to some of the most complex characters on Philippine Stage. However, in Victor/Victoria, Williams simply comes of age. He was sympathetic and engaging in every line that comes out of his mouth, I so wanted to meet him and shake his hand. Even in less serious piece like "The Belt" - an anecdote about a guy's shopping experience with a girl when they detoured to shop for a belt in a Bangkok market! Williams took hold of the material and transformed it into his own experience. I could swear he was telling his own story. This anecdote gave me an insight into the male viewpoint when girls like me get ourselves in a tizzy shopping! Should we apologize for finding materials other than a much-needed "belt"? I am inclined not to - but I'll try to be more understanding of guys' exasperation. There are elements of nature that are hard to control. That includes our penchance to roam and shop! Excuse moi! That was funny!

In Tommy Abuel's performances lie years of well-honed experience. I was shaken by his "Apat na Sulok ng Kalayaan ni Bobby", about a convict who finds salvation at the penitentiary, then he finds his son joining him in jail. It was hard not to sympathize with his plight. Miren, my friend, would cower down her seat everytime Abuel shouts at the audience (in "Si Adonis, Si Dennis", etc.). He was just such a powerful presence, I find my friends saying, "Nakakatakot naman sya." Tommy Abuel's power lies in his facility to deliver words like his life depended on them. They embody clarity and strength, I couldn't help shed a tear as he concluded his monologue.

Then there's Joel Trinidad. In "Kuya's Picture", he narrates a life cloistered within the secret walls of family betrayal. He was consistently empathic - as though there is a vicarious experience that suddenly needed closure. From his initially muted ramblings to a building guilelessness that belies a thespian at work, Joel Trinidad was a force to reckon with. He displays the same grit in the thought-provoking "LRT/MRT" about sexual equality in the realm of riding the LRT/MRT!

Now, let me point out that one of my favorite scenes was the ingeniously interconnected monologues of a couple of HIV cases in "The Stain" (Batik), performed by Rem Zamora and Pete Delfin. This piece is carefully structured to parallel the lives of men who have fallen victims into the reality of HIV/AIDS - one promiscuous (an escort who would travel as far as Australia) and one discrete. There are lessons to be learned here - that it will take a single moment of carelessness (thoughtlessness) to suffer a consequence as morbid as HIV. Rem Zamora was intense and absolutely persuasive though his monologue is characterized by a very subdued delivery. He was so believable, Tina, my seatmate kept saying, "It's his story, I'm sure! It is his story!" And I was tempted to ask after the show. Pete Delfin was similarly engaging. The power of these vignettes come from the way these seemingly, excessively cumbersome tales of human experience are told matter-of-factly - sans melodrama. These amazing tales of grief and excesses have been carefully tempered, giving them the respect that they deserve. After all, these stories are not mere caricatures. They are real stories - and they haven't been taken advantaged of.

It was easy to fall into the mistake of milking the peculiarity of these individual situations, but THIS is New Voice Company. This is the company that turned the Liza Minelli's song "Cabaret" from a frisky ebullient Broadway song to a more appropriate moody, cheerless, haunting version (sung by Ms. Monique Wilson) that perfectly suited the fate of what befell the Jews during the Holocaust.

Monologues are a tricky thing to perform. Even big named stars in the Westend and Broadway try to avoid one-man shows. They are daunting. For one, you have to be pretty secure of your capacity to engage your audience the whole time you are on stage. In monologues, an actor will have to solely interact with the audience. It is more difficult than sharing the stage with others. Though in TMV, there were several interactions among the 4 actors on stage, they were mostly left to their own devise. What a fantastic ensemble. If there was a competent Theater Awards in the Philippines like the Tony's, this ensemble should win hands down! And I salute New Voice Company for a brilliant material and fantastic show.

As usual!