Perfect Sense - Apocalyptic Musings

Like the proverbial thief in the night, it comes in fortuitous stages. The illness is ominous. First, a person is overcome with an overwhelming grief. Truck drivers who were never emotional cry like little girls who have their hearts broken. Then they lose their sense of smell.

They call it S.O.S. Severe Olfactory Syndrome. Scientists are baffled because they couldn't find the usual etiologies; there’s no pattern or apparent source, nor mode of transmission. Within 24 hours, 120 cases are reported in England. Hundreds more spread across Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East. Against this backdrop, we follow Michael (Ewan McGregor) and Susan (Eva Green) whose paths cross in a world of uncertainty.

Michael works as a chef in a busy fine dining restaurant. Epidemiologist Susan, who’s nursing a broken heart, lives at an apartment next block. One morning, while Michael gets his ciggie fix, he finds Susan by her window. In such prodigious rendezvous, two strangers meet and fall in love.

As they deliberately learn about each other, the spread of the “disease” turns pandemic. Both of them eventually become part of the growing statistics.

What becomes of a chef who can’t smell? But the resilience of humanity allows people to adapt. As people settle down with their sensory loss, food in restaurants become spicier, saltier, sweeter to account for the loss of smell. People after all can still “taste”. Then comes the next stage : those afflicted are overcome with insatiable hunger. At that particular moment, they are cloaked by an immense desire to eat. So they grab anything they could. Cotton, lipstick, paper, raw fish. India, Japan and the rest of the world turn into famished beasts, devouring any item they could grab. After satisfying their desire, they lose their sense of taste. Still, people adapt. Once accustomed to it, they started going back to restaurants for the memories of gastronomy; the food presentation, etc. Where is this syndrome leading to?

In what could be one of the most petrifying cinematic imagining, director David Mackenzie paints a unique landscape and a bleak scenario to usher us into a dying humanity; the end of the world as we know it. In its contemporary setting, humanity is abruptly beset, not by wars, extreme weather or zombies, but by a series of emotional upheavals before a sensation disappears forever.

When each symptomatic prodome starts, we were constantly anticipating for a light at the end of the tunnel. After all, big men don’t just burst into inconsolable tears; mothers don’t suddenly eat lipsticks out of perverse hunger. Which sensation would follow? From what emotional outburst is it coming from? "Perfect Sense" is an unseemly horror flick. I was on tenterhooks from start to finish.

Ewan McGregor returns to quirky film making. In the past, he’s always favored interesting stories thus gaining a cult following from movies like “Trainspotting”, “Velvet Goldmine”, “Young Adam”, “The Ghost Writer”, “The Man Who Stare at Goats”, “Little Voice”, etc. Recently, I saw Mike Mills’ “Beginners” where Ewan plays a son who learns that his septuagenarian father is battling cancer – and in his advancing age, keeps a male lover. After a series of Hollywood debacles, McGregor has retraced his cinematic pathway. This is even evident in his preponderance to take his "kitt off". Yes, in "Perfect Sense", he once again shares Obi-wan Kenobi's enviable "light saber", albeit for a few precious seconds (see screen cap below).

Eva Green, who played Vesper Lynd of “Casino Royale” opposite blond Bond – Daniel Craig, isn't so bashful either. When she shares her bed with McGregor, she displays her proud mammaries. Equal opportunity for every pervs. J

The film is peculiar. The veneer is contemporary, yet there’s a conspicuous darkness that foreshadows a cataclysmic holocaust. It throws a hint of optimism withinin the stark desperation of the situation, yet an undercurrent of restlessness keeps reminding you to brace yourself for an eventuality. What’s more jarring is its suggestion of how we gradually lose everything… in unexpected stages.

I was pushed into introspection. Would I cope if I were inflicted with “crippling grief, a spell of extreme derangement, violent rage”? Then gradually lose all my sensations! That night, I sat on my bed with a disconcerting feeling. As a realist, will I be capable of emotions if I were to lose my senses? Oddly, McGregor thought of the brilliant script as a metaphor for “falling in love”. “You know how we say that you lose your senses when you fall in love?" he said. True enough; a concluding scene displays a possible scenario as people started losing the next sensation.

But we’re not telling what it is.

Susan and Michael share a morning in Mackenzie's "Perfect Sense".



Ewan McGregor


Ewan McGregor. One of my favorite McGregor films is a low-brow English comedy called "Brassed Off" where McGregor played a tuba.


Ewan McGregor


Eva Green has a fraternal twin - a girl who doesn't look like her. She appears next in Tim Burton's gothic tale of vampires, "Dark Shadows" along side Johnny Depp, Jonny Lee Miller and Michelle Pfeiffer.


Eva Green


Eva Green. Her first film was the sexually ambivalent "The Dreamers" by film master Bernardo Bertolucci.


Eva Green

A Mother's Story - Accountable Tragedies

The Filipino migrant worker has embraced the concept of 3D jobs, an American neologism that refers to “Dirty, Dangerous and Demeaning”. These jobs bring higher wages due to a shortage of willing qualified workers. Such employments engage in high risk, low status works. What’s baffling, some of these people aren’t even paid all that well.

Medy Santos (Pokwang) is desperately coming up for air. Her dubiously invalid husband Gerry (Noni Buencamino) refuses to work, and has turned to gambling; even their utility budget gets usurped. When Medy gives birth to her second child, she only had herself to turn to. Moreover, her mother (Daria Ramirez) constantly nags her to find a job abroad. The road to riches is nowhere found on local shores. When an actress offers Medy the chance to work with her for her 10-day U.S. tour, she reluctantly grabs the opportunity and leaves the care of her children to her mother and best friend (Ana Capri).

One serendipitous day, she meets Helen (Beth Tamayo), her erstwhile childhood best friend who has left a daughter in Manila, but has since remarried to an elderly American. She tries convincing Medy to stay and find her fortune there, at the risk of earning an illegal status. The day before her flight back to Manila, Medy gets a distressed call from Gerry. Queenie (Xyriel Manabat), her youngest, was rushed to the hospital and she had to send money – fast! It wasn’t even considered that she was coming home the next day.

En route to the airport, Medy is circumspect – and swiftly detours away. She decides to stay. After all, coming home seems like a dead-end option for dearth. And her children need to feed, go to school, see doctors. With Helen’s help, Medy takes odd jobs helping out at a children’s class. But as days pass, it becomes clear that illegal immigrants enjoy paltry rights, thus couldn’t earn more than they should. Helen offers her a better paying job (try $800) – that of a live-in house keeper in a household of a constantly squabbling lawyer couple. What’s worse, they take her passport and throw her in an otherwise nonhabitable room. She isn’t allowed to leave the premises except the occasional foray outside to put out the garbage.

For the next couple of years, Medy lives her miserable days oppressed and mistreated. Her only link to the world outside is Helen who runs errands for her, sending money to Medy’s family and dropping her Balikbayan boxes. But Medy gradually unearths a ruse: Helen receives a considerable percentage of the money she earns. With hands mashed by manual labor and a crumbling soul, Medy – with the help of her employer’s daughter – finds the courage to escape. Will Medy succeed?

Medy’s story is a cautionary tale of courage and perseverance, and it’s obvious that this will resonate loudly among Filipinos whose fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters work overseas. But this tale of heartbreaking quandary is showing interminable urgency. We’ve lived with this for three decades and we’ve grown accustomed to such humdrum tragedy. The plot gets more tiresome when Medy – after seven years – finds her way home. Suddenly, the mouths she’s been feeding turn against her. She’s suddenly the neglectful mother to her idiotic son King (Rayver Cruz). Her sickly daughter (Manabat) doesn’t know her. Her mother just stares with woeful I-told-you-so’s when she complains of her children’s apparent alienation (“Pitong taon kang nawala.”). Gerry, her husband, wouldn’t even meet her at the airport.

Though there is a degree of diversion in Medy’s story, you couldn’t help shake the excessive complot to weave a story as deplorable, almost disconsolate – nothing short of calamitous – as Medy’s. Many of the characters are caricatures and cardboard depictions – like Medy’s American employers, husband Gerry, Medy’s son King, et.al. – you are somehow taken to the world of Walt Disney where anti-heroes look like villains, growl like devils and move with sinister deportment. Such is the failure of this narrative, where black is black and white is white. Life, if you’ve noticed, has gray hues in between, and blotches of colors and shades. This is why Beth Tamayo’s performance lends a degree of inscrutability for this cinematic vehicle. Tamayo tempers her underwritten part with due restraint; it’s hard to peg her as friend or foe. Like most people, Tamayo shows reflections of humanity – actions guided by motives, yet there’s also the inherent goodness grappling with moral dilemmas (she has gambling problems; her marriage is falling apart; she needs to send money for her daughter back home). Tamayo luminously shines in 2012’s first local release!

Pokwang tries hard as Medy, and it’s easy to empathize with someone who has experienced the hardships of being a migrant worker. She has probably endured more than Medy (didn’t she lose a daughter while working in Japan?) Unfortunately, Pokwang peppers her performance with sprinkles of humor which don’t quite make the grade. (“Aatend ng kombulsyon sa Amerika.”) It was an artistic choice to lighten what’s a decidedly sappy narrative, but such moments feel displaced. The more glaring realization is that we’re watching Pokwang play herself. That isn’t so bad, but not all that good either.

It’s hard not to challenge some illogical choices in director John-D Lazatin's narrative. King, the character played by Rayver Cruz, Medy’s eldest child, is particularly perturbing. If he was indeed intelligent as the story has him, wasn’t it ever an issue that his father was merely posturing as an invalid? Was Gerry sitting in a wheelchair? Yes, he limped, but that never stopped people from finding work. Heck, people with greater physical disabilities – polio victims, amputees – even become lawyers and doctors. Wasn’t it crystal that if there were one negligent parent; it would readily single out the patriarch who refused to seek work? And wasn’t it the grandmother’s métier to educate her grandchildren why their mother chose to stay away? Or was she merely happy to receive her monthly stipend? She was the moving force behind her daughter’s migration. These were obvious lapses in the story. You may drop a tear or two, but at the back of your mind, you knew you’re riding the perfunctory mechanics of melodrama. And it helps that Dodgie Simon penned such a heart breaking melody in Carol Banawa’s “Sakaling Malimutan Ka”.

Life sometimes reeks of tragedy, and we’re accountable for half of it.

Helen and Medy



Employers from hell



Mother and daughter share light moments



Son King blames mother Medy

Worst of the Worst - 2011's Horror Roll

We've waited a whole year to collate the titles and performances that made us suffer, wince, and shiver out of frustration. These were the films that made us doubt the Filipino as a Filmmaker, and truly underlined why many Filipinos prefer brainless Hollywood fares over local commercial and independent titles. "Untamed Virgins" vs. "Transformer"? Which one would you pay P180 for? It's a no-brainer really!

CONSUMER RIGHTS

If you don't agree with us, too bad. It's my own money I wasted to watch these flicks. Last time I checked, I had the inherent right to say what I wanted about the products I bought. Like that rotten tomato from the market. Otherwise, spend your money and go watch a movie. Join me in my suffering! Then make your own list!

Without further ado, here are 2011's Worst Films:

1. Panday 2 – Mac Alejandre’s action adventure-fantasy is filled with characters that don’t make sense; try a fire-breathing dragon that’s too inept to kill sword-wielding devil warriors a fourth of their size; a mythical hero with a protruding abdominal girth hidden behind a 5-inch thick belt, one who can’t protect his love ones; a Joker-wannabe nemesis who keeps getting resurrected after having been blown to smithereens from their last encounter; a schizophrenic witch who does nothing but laugh whether she’s pleased or otherwise.. Yes, it’s déjà vu. The plot – if you can call it that – is exactly similar to the last one.

2. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow – Maricel Soriano shows the ABC’s of bad acting! Lovi Poe and Carla Abellana repeat themselves because they were so pleased with their soap opera performance in Jun Lana’s “My Neighbor’s Wife”. So they’re giving us more of the same. But this is different. Calamity and catastrophe are used as backdrop for their caterwauling. Impressed?

3. Big Boy - Shireen Seno’s masturbatory journey back into post-war Manila is littered with dreamlike sequences of random events and scatterbrain indulgence. A poor family gets their teenage child a nose job. And this is the 1950’s! The narrative alternately jumps from black-and-white to color scheme. A story easily told in 15 minutes is stretched to an almost-epic two-and-a-half hours! The best part? Some people label it “brilliant”. Go figure.

4. Sexventure. Nigerian expat Fellyx Honeyfield once again plays with his camera and comes up with easily the year’s worst movie. A 65 kilometer ride from Makati to Calamba takes a bunch of horned up girls two days to complete. After getting abducted – where they were beaten black and blue and even raped, they opted to head down to a rundown resort for a swim instead of reporting the incident at the nearest police station. And before you thought that’s how the narrative ultimately unravels, this was actually an AIDS-related vendetta involving a woman who doesn’t have HIV! Get it? The funniest bit in this sad excuse of cinema happens at the tail end of the screening. Little did I realize that “Sexventure” wasn’t actually a compound word for “sex adventure”, but an acronym that meant this: S – Severe, EX – Extremely, V – Vicious, E – Exposing, N – Nudity, R – Reproach… and so on! Does that vaguely mean anything to you? Someone needs to bump his head on the wall.

5. Pak! Pak! My Dr. Kwak! – An angel is sent down to Earth for a mission involving a quack healer. Fart jokes, not to mention characters on the throes of a diarrheaic episode, pepper this Tony Reyes cinematic atrocity. The idiots at the Cinema Evaluations Board gave it a B-rating. Were you surprised? Well, not really. Not when they also gave “Tween Academy”, “Panday 2”, “Enteng ng Ina Mo” similar rating. You know what one of those moron judges called Bea Binene? The new Maricel Soriano! Alcohol intoxication perhaps? Nausog tuloy si Maricel. :)

6. Students Project. Another Laguna-bound homophobic quartet (teen age boys this time) head to the province to interview a transvestite. Appreciate the narrative coherence already? The lines in the flick were careless, even thoughtless. Define "gay", students were asked by an interviewee. One poor guy replied: "Gay is a social being who is creative and responsible". He might as well describe National Artist wanna-be Carlo Caparas, right? Or Sharon Cuneta, for that matter. While the guys were picking up a hooker, Richard paid her a compliment: "Ang ganda mo. Para kang isang magandang dilag!" Huh? Maybe Rich thought the girl was a transsexual? At one of the class scenes - filmed under the canopy of a camachile, their professor introduced, "This is Psychology. Do you know what the world needs now?" Love, sweet, love, maybe? Then suddenly, these homophobes started canoodling with each other’s joysticks at a camp out. And wait, this Deo Fajardo-movie ended up with a good guy-bad guy chase scene. Still follow the narrative structure?

7. Masikip sa Tatlo. Edz Espiritu’s film examines infidelity in a homosexual relationship. Eh? Does this mean there’s a degree of discernment here? Fat chance of that happening. But see Jersey Milano cry from one room to the next in the most painfully protracted crying scenes in the history of the human race.

8. Untamed Virgins. John Ad. Castillo and Malaysian expat Z Lokman incorporate two unrelated stories: one follows indigenous tribesmen as they go about their daily jungle routine; the other follows a fictitious tribal king in search of a potion that could revitalize his sexual stamina. Roldan Aquino parades around with his male boobs and a gargantuan potbelly, bemoaning his incapacity to “get it up”. One scene has him scouring the jungle to look for his "mahiwagang dahon" (magic leaves supposedly possessing Viagra potency). When he saw a porcupine, he was so petrified he jumped on a tree and stayed there overnight until his son found him the next day! He said, "Nakakita ako ng napakaraming malalaki't mababangis na hayop!" A single diminutive porcupine?

9. Tiyo Pablo. Another Edz Espiritu hair-pulling masterpiece. This provided a cinematic template to the low-budget, pink-flavored domestic drama that doesn't need change of scenery. Characters just navigate the walls of a house, gallantly disrobing between lines. This scenario is seen in succeeding homoerotic titles like Rad Francisco’s “Playmates”, Vince Tan’s “Laro”, Paul Singh Cudail’s “Sulot”, Darry de la Cruz’s “Bingwit”, Lucas Mercado’s “Trabajador: Men @ Work”, etc. Aren't homosexuals the most brilliant minds where art is concerned? Why are the most detestable films of the year the pink-fueled releases? Mediocrity has become almost pathognomonic to the genre. One reason for this unrelenting proliferation is the audience’s tolerance to poor creativity; as long as there are flashes of genitalia, it’s a five star movie. I actually overheard two men conversing about “Kape Barako”. “Uy napanood mo yun? Ang ganda ganda nun, maraming titi!” I rest my case. Isn’t that plain stupidity? Someone bring him a brain… fast!

10. Crisaldo Pablo Films. Six of them: “Subok”, “Hinala”, “M2M Eyeball The Movie”, “Manong Konstru”, “Wanted Male Boarders” and “Dose, Trese, Katorse”. While a big network like GMA Films can only muster 6 commercial releases, Crisaldo Pablo easily comes out with the same output; many of them in simultaneous weekly commercial releases. Fuzzy camera, low budget, tuberculous guys willing to flash their magic wands, and stories conjured from a libidinous, confused, albeit hallucinating writer characterize these stories. We have separate reviews of each gag-inducing work. Pablo’s excuse for their mediocrity? These are not “films” but “video movies”! LOL. Didn’t he finish Film Studies in UP Diliman?

2011’s Most Annoying Performances: The Horror Roll

We’ve retitled the heading. Why? Because if we were to really qualify a heading with “worst”, then we’d need a long, long list. Instead, we’ve collated the performers who stuck out like sore thumbs in their respective films. They made our viewing experience unbearable. We wanted to throw rancid eggs and rotten tomatoes while they were on screen.

Inclusion-exclusion criteria: All films screened in commercial theaters. We’ve excluded most of the Pink Films of Crisaldo Pablo and some of his cohorts. Otherwise, this list would be a roll call to most of the year’s gay-friendly outputs. Besides, you can hardly take these flicks seriously where artistic merit and professional standards are concerned. But, we had to make an exception to two of the most hair-pulling performances from that genre. As heaven is my witness, these names deserve to be here.

1. Aljur Abrenica as Alfredo, the college jock, in Chris Martinez’s updating of Joey Gosiengfiao’s “Temptation Island”. For all of Abrenica's physical splendor, he is hopelessly hammy. Abrenica's deliveries were perfunctory and at times painful... like playing a pre-recorded indolent declamatory line, robotic and wooden. He has taken Machete to heart. Method acting, perhaps?

2. Melai Cantiveros as hard working bread winner Pureza in Soxy Topacio’s wrinkle-inspiring penitence flick called “The Adventures of Pureza: Queen of the Riles”. Stripped of the charm and affability we've expected from Cantiveros, all that’s left is a shrill, noisy, charmless comedic delusion that irritates and tests patience.

3. Toffee Calma as gay director Melos who sets out to manipulate the lives of his household help in Vince Tan’s “Laro”. Watching him perform on screen felt like he hasn't learned much from his considerable experience in the business – a long list of mostly B-movie eroticas. He is awkward. He articulates as though there’s a gum stuck in his incisors and a furball down his larynx. He fills his persona with wasted facial contortions and lavishly unnecessary animated spiels; it was like a bad drag show in a two-bit comedy bar.

4. Marc Abaya as Rodel, the head henchman who’s running after the children of the massacre victims in Jerrold Tarog’s “Aswang”. Abaya took his character with livid thespic strokes, you might as well expect him to eventually transmogrify into Beelzebub himself. His depiction is exactly similar to his role in Joaquin Valdez’s “Dagim” (about cannibals in the mountains). He could have hopped from that set to this, there wouldn’t be discernable contrariety. This has always been Abaya’s unfortunate inclination. When he portrays, he goes all out, with no heed for restraint.

5. Noriel Jarito as Efren, the middle aged OFW who, after getting downsized from work, comes home unannounced only to find his wife canoodling with their neighbor in Jarito’s “Rindido”. Jarito, the film’s protagonist and lead star, wears a single facial expression throughout the film; he displays a uniform blunt affect that slightly changes when he closes his eyes during coitus. Doing double duty as actor and director was an ill advised decision and sheds all the focus that his narrative required.

6. Richard Gutierrez played 4 characters in GMA’s “My Valentine Girls”: as novelist Arvin Perez who struggles from an artist’s block; as taxi driver Oslec in Dom Zapanta’s “Soulmates”; as apocalypse survivor Aidan in Chris Martinez’s “Gunaw”; as lawyer Zack in Andoy Ranay’s “BBF”. Here’s the rub: Whether he's a lawyer or a taxi driver, a novelist or an action hero, Gutierrez offered no delineation in terms of characterization. They were strangely similar. How an actor could impart an absence of distinction in all four characters is stuff of legends.

7. Roldan Aquino as Bating, a tribal head in search of the “mahiwagang dahon” that could bring his sexual vitality back in John Ad. Castillo and Z Lokman’s “Untamed Virgins” – a film populated by bulging abdomens, static emotions and inert facial expressions. And this was marketed as old-school erotica, without any hint of eroticism, mind you!

8. Jersey Milano as Sandy, the call center agent whose lover (Anton Nolasco) cheated on him in Edz Espiritu’s “Masikip sa Tatlo” – curiously one of this blog’s most searched titles. Milano’s film is stippled with incessant, caustic caterwauling and vociferous scenes that inspires hara kiri from its audience. You’d find him crying in the bedroom, then he’d move to the living room to cry again, and further his emotional calisthenics in the bathroom. The film, bafflingly labeled as an experimental film by its discombobulated makers, is one of the year’s most painful films we had to endure.

9. Candy Pangilinan takes a twin dishonorable mention for her choleric demeanor as Monique in Deramas’ “Who’s That Girl” and as the irascible camera person in Tan’s “HIV: Si Heidi, Ivy at si V” elegantly displaying her dense and boisterous, staccato version of how acting should be. If you've seen her in "For The First Time", "Petrang Kabayo", "Who's That Girl", and all her other television work, it's the same thespic attack: she has, in fact, mastered the art of constipated delivery. She's always irritable, throws her lines like she's going to drop dead if she couldn't finish a sentence in 2 seconds. In one scene, out of desperate haste, she referred to Gil as "a hot young shot director" - Ano daw? What’s a “young shot director”? Of course, she meant "a young hotshot director".

10. Maricel Soriano as Mariel, the spiteful television network head in Jun Lana’s “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”. Lana has managed to singularly destroy Maricel Soriano’s spotless reputation as an insightful, dependable actress. For the first time in her illustrious career, I was surprised to find Ms. Soriano heavy handed and misdirected. This was a Soriano that’s graceless, shrill and mediocre. Her one-note performance is baffling. What has time done to one of the most versatile actresses this business has ever produced? What's more mysterious? She won Best Actress at the recent MMFF! Doesn't it make you wonder who these idiotic panel of judges are?

11. Carla Varga as Cedes, the widow - with three sons – who falls for an apocryphal young husband who has eyes for her sons in Edz Espiritu’s “Tiyo Pablo”. Varga repeated herself as Melba, the abandoned wife in Jigz Recto’s “Dulas”. In both flicks, the aging upstart parades around fully made up and accessorized, wearing her skin tights and ready to party… even in the bedroom where her young husband was already half naked.

12. Toni Gonzaga as music teacher Maribel who opted to work in Japan in Jose Javier Reyes’ “Wedding Tayo, Wedding Hindi”. We love Toni to bits, but hated her ill-advised turn in the movie. Her decision to meet Eugene Domingo’s flagrant comedic (but welcome) excesses head on exposed her weaknesses. Her performance straddled between demonic possession and constipation. Yes, we know that living in Japan could have toughened her up, but did she really have to be that loud and eccentric? Toni mistook change of personality for insanity.

13. Jaime Pebanco as Haddic, the coffee farmer whose son, a slow-learner in school, was recruited to join the Abu Sayyaf in Joel Lamangan’s “Patikul”. Pebanco’s first ever award – a best supporting actor from Cinemalaya – was as mysterious as the crop rotations of South America. His turn was one of the sore points of an otherwise serviceable, if a tad too schmaltzy pro-education film campaign. Yes, “30 years” in the business (really?) sometimes doesn't teach cinematic restraint.

14. GMA Tweeners (Barbie Forteza, Joshua Dionesio, Elmo Magalona, Bea Ninene, Jake Vargas, et.al) for their collective effort in “Tweet Academy: Class of 2011”. Here’s a bunch of charmless, clueless young performers who awkwardly hopped into cinema like fish out of water. Weird growing-up flick for an extra terrestrial audience. Enough said.

SPECIAL MENTION

There’s more – like Sue Prado’s hysterics as Lolita, a drug mule in Joseph Israel Laban’s “Cuchera” and the cast of Sari Lluch Dalena’s “Ka Oryang” – with the exception of Alessandra de Rossi, who was brilliant as usual. Special mention goes to Marife Necesito and Angeli Bayani for their gag-inducing, soap opera’ish depiction of abused political prisoners. Didn’t I mention before that this abomination won “Best Picture” as well at 2011’s Cinema One Festival? They should have shared the “Best Picture” trophy with Shireen Seno’s “Big Boy” to completely realize the big joke! The good news: These flicks didn’t make it for commercial screening!

Marife Necesito and Sue Prado

Blush! - 2011's Best Performances: The Honor List

Imagine that! Eighty (80) commercial films and about 3 dozens of independent and full-length festival features and we couldn't even complete a list of 10 in most categories.

In terms of performance, it's been slim pickings for 2011. There have been few out-of-the-box portrayals. This is mirrored even in international festivals where there were relatively less acclaims for local performers compared to the previous couple of years.

Inclusion criteria: All commercial releases, festival entries and indies we saw from 2011. We were actually surprised when we completed the list. KC Concepcion, Kathryn Bernardo and Alden Richards are unseemly names for their categories, but we've reviewed their performances and we sincerely believe theirs were among the most laudable in a year where we couldn't even complete a list.

Bernardo, for example, was less successful in Sineneng's "Way Back Home". She was eclipsed by her co-star Julia Montes who was a revelation. However, the brevity and compactness of the material in Tarog's "Parola (Shake, Rattle & Roll 13) highlighted the young actress' gift. Alden Richards, on the other hand, was always a bland personality to us until we saw him in Laranas' "The Road", as though the movie was written with him in mind. His raw and unfettered delivery surprised us and made for some spine-tingling depiction of a young man with a tortured past. If he were less believable, the film would have limped. KC Concepcion bravely chose a tragedy for her sole cinematic vehicle for the year, and she comes up with a performance that truly deserves mention.

We have 8 names for best lead actors, 10 for best lead actresses, 6 names for best supporting actors and 6 names for best supporting actresses. Each one has succeeded in churning out nuanced performances, not to mention consistency. They brought the stories to life with pulsating realism . Here are the year's Best Performances.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role:

1. Martin Escudero as Remington, the homophobe cursed by a cantankerous wizard (Roderick Paulate) to turn “gay” on his 21^st birthday in Jade Castro’s “Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington”. His character shifts and emotional upheavals are competently delivered in the subtlest movements. He perfected the nuance of a flaming fag who’s hard-pressed in controlling his emerging effete tendencies. What a joy to watch!

2. Dingdong Dantes as Ivan, a persevering husband and father abandoned by an adulterous wife in Joyce Bernal’s “Segunda Mano”. Dantes ably transformed into a passionate soul, hard-wired to do the things he felt needed to be done. When he's agitated and distraught, he tempers his outburst, effectively brandishing an undercurrent of malignant danger.

3. Aga Muhlach as Emman, the aging dance instructor in Olivia Lamasan’s “In the Name of Love”. This is Aga Muhlach at his best, uncluttered, without the distractions and vanity inherent in romantic lead roles. He grew an abdominal girth that rendered more character and allowed us to focus on the actor's emotive capacity.

4. Joel Torre as Rafael Dacanay, the cabeza of San Isidro invaded by a battalion of American soldiers in 1990 for John Sayles’ “Amigo”. But when was Torre ever bad?

5. Mark Gil as Rogelio, the struggling stuntman who was deceived by a transvestite in Lawrence Fajardo’s “Amok”. Gil displays the vulnerability of a desperate soul without dismissing the inherent humor borne out of his situation.

6. Edgar Allan Guzman as Intoy, the college guy who crosses path with an aggressive, sexually forward classmate in Erick Salud’s “Ligo na U, Lapit na Me”. Guzman exhibits a winking portrayal that displays both his dramatic and comedic skill, all in one coherent, insightful package.

7. Bembol Roco as Miguel, the husband of a woman whose wife gave birth to a fish in Adolfo Alix Jr.'s “Isda” (Fable of the Fish). Roco moves around as though a joke's being played on his family, and we feel his helplessness.

8. Alden Richards as the introverted teen boy Luis in Yam Laranas’ “The Road”. Richards deliberately took advantage of the script’s slow but steady build up, mining an emotional grit that inspires discernment. He displayed bristlingly restrained emotions, belying a calm and “angelic” exterior. Despite sparseness of movement and lines, his reticence petrified us.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEAD ROLE: Martin Escudero for "Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role:

1. Anita Linda as Cion aka Esmeralda Cortez, the 85 year old former actress who is serving her sentence after a drug deal goes sour in Adolfo Alix, Jr.’s “Presa”. Linda's astonishing range is on full display. You'll loath her, laugh at her delusions, then sympathize for what becomes of her dreams. The scene where she shoots a movie inside prison - grappling with skills that aren't there anymore - is truly a Mastercard moment.

2. Lovi Poe as Lilibeth, the town beauty tasked to oversee fund raising ("ambagan") for the "tapusan", Infanta Quezon’s annual town ball in Dan Villegas’ “Mayohan” (Maytime). Poe shows such beauty and clarity in a role that could have easily turned into a bore.

3. Angel Locsin as Cedes, the fiancé of a rising politician who hides a sad romantic past with a dance instructor in Olivia Lamasan’s “In The Name of Love”. Angel Locsin owned up Cedes like second skin. Angel's inherent sexuality is key to making Cedes' character work; her sensitivity is painfully palpable.

4. Lovi Poe as Serafina, the catty beauty pageant contestant in Chris Martinez’s remake of Joey Gosiengfiao’s “Temptation Island”. When she flips her hair and waves a stick against her enemies, she embodies this snooty girl with wild abandon. She's this seductress; the vamp from hell, and obviously, Panday's sophisticated daughter. What a joy to watch!

5. Eugene Domingo as herself and as Mila – the conflicted mother of seven children - in Marlon Rivera’s “Ang Babae sa Septic Tank”. Domingo executes her mastery of the comedic language in flagrant strokes that defy adequate description. When she finally objected to scenes dipping her in a septic tank, a protracted round of laughter erupted all throughout the cinema. She has this enviable skill to infuse humor in drab lines like, “Tae yan. Madumi ang tae.”

6. Cherry Pie Picache as Lina, the woman from the dumpsite who gave birth to a fish in Alix’s “Isda” (Fable of the Fish). Carrying her "fish child" around with a desperate sense of affection has got to be one of the hardest things to parlay.

7. KC Concepcion as Raffy, the lymphoma patient who refuses another round of chemotherapy until she meets Eugene (Sam Milby) in Cathy Garcia-Molina’s “Forever and a Day”. A bold turn for a mainstream (i.e. "commercial") artist, her grief is displayed with moderated emotionality bereft of excesses common in sappy dramas dealing with mortality.

8. Diana Zubiri as Sarah, a nurse at a maternity hospital who, on Christmas Day, unravels a few unsavory truths about her lover (Yul Servo) in Eduardo Roy Jr.’s “Bahay Bata” (Baby Factory). This is one of the best displays of character progression in a film.

9. Boots Anson Roa as Eos, the septuagenarian widow who is impetuously carrying on an affair with Rodrigo (Rome Mallari), a much younger man in Arevalo-Ramos-Roxas’ “Ganap na Babae” (Garden of Eve). Roa takes on a role immersed in a situation that's pretty hilarious, but she does so with austere demeanor.

10. Kathryn Bernardo as Lucy who's friendship with her best friend is tested when warring witches use them as pawns in a long running rivalry in Jerrold Tarog's "Parola" episode from "Shake Rattle and Roll 13". Bernardo shifts from genial and breezy to menacing, we had chills running down our spine.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE: Eugene Domingo for "Ang Babae sa Septic Tank"

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

1. Yul Vasquez as Padre Hidalgo, the Spanish priest who preferred to stay in a small town invaded by American soldiers in maverick film master John Sayles' "Amigo". Vasquez's unpredictable nature is deliciously showcased - and begged the question: Can the town folk trust him or not?

2. John Regala as Eduardo, the father who sacrificed his “sexuality” to redeem a son cursed by a wizard. Regala displays an endearing and mollified depiction, a far cry from the emotive excesses pathognomonic in his early career performances.

3. Jun Jun Quintana as Popoy, the street hawker who’d sell anything for a buck in Adolf Alix Jr.’s “Haruo. Quintana fills the screen with natural charm and cinematic candor.

4. Dennis Trillo as Derek, the gym instructor who’s being kept by a wealthy matron in Jun Lana’s “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”. Trillo succeeds in making an unpleasant character sympathetic, and that’s no mean feat.

5. Marvin Agustin as the student leader turned revolutionary Oliver in Joel Lamangan’s “Sigwa” (Rage of Perils and Hope). He delivers one of the most emotionally distressing depiction of a torture victim. While his tears trickle down his cheeks and he pleads for his life, you are punched in the gut by the scene’s realism.

6. Garry Lim as Edwin, Mohawk-wearing street urchin who runs amok when an acquaintance he’s playing a game of pool with points a gun at him in Lawrence Fajardo’s “Amok. Lim delivered a blood-curdling performance.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: John Regala for "Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington"

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

1. Jodi Sta. Maria as Aylynn, the girl friend Wesley (Sam Milby) left behind without a word when the latter moved to America in EJ Salcedo’s “Third World Happy”. In a scene where Aylynn reunites with her runaway boyfriend, Sta.Maria conveys silent anxiety and understated volatile agitation in delicious emotive splendor.

2. Rufa Mae Quinto as Nimfa, the much abused “alalay” of a pageant contestant. She's deftly displayed a sardonic take even on pedestrian lines; her impeccable wit at delivery is pure delight.

3. Carmina Villaroel as the discontented, adulterous and abusive homemaker Carmela in Yam Laranas’ “The Road”. She browbeats with sinister abandon. You hardly hear her voice rise, but the menace is all there.

4. Rosanna Roces as Edna, an aging bar girl who is the protagonist's confidant in Adolfo Alix, Jr.’s “Haruo”. Her presence brought realism to every scene she's in.

5. Eugene Domingo as Aida Capinpin, the manic mistress in Jose Javier Reyes’ “My House Husband”. Domingo’s humor is infused with masterful timing, raising the entertainment quotient of an otherwise derivative flick.

6. Gina Alajar as Azon, the fearful mother who, like Rosanna Roces' character in "Haruo", is afraid to lose the child she’s nurtured as her own in Joel Lamangan's "Sigwa". A truly heart-breaking, albeit desperate bid to hold on to a love one.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Carmina Villaroel for "The Road"

Up next: Brace yourselves for 2011's Horror List - The most annoying, hair-pulling cinematic turns of the year!

Blush! - 2011's Best Pictures

I like the immersive atmosphere of a cool dark cinema, with flickering images set before me. The ruminative nature of film allows me to bear witness to the lives of others and experience little bits and pieces of the world – all in the comfort of my seat. It acquiesces to emotions not probably served by a sheltered life. The experience is a high in itself. But it isn’t all that pleasant; not when cinemas allow child’s play in the form of Fellyx Honeyfield and a caboodle of clueless directors serving cinematic slop. But 2011 had some rewards – and we’ve collated last year’s Ten Best Pictures that made us embrace repeatedly the wonderment and magic of the celluloid.

At the bottom of the list are titles that deserve honorable mentions. We want them in the line-up but we have to draw the line somehow.

Inclusion criteria: All Filipino Films we saw in 2011 – commercial, festival and specially-screened ouvres from the brilliant minds that made my year a little brighter and a lot richer. And I’m honored to share them here with you.

Aureaus Solito's Busong (Palawan Fate)

Punay (Alessandra De Rossi) is on a road trip - she’s being carried around on a hammock - in search of a cure for the baffling ulcerative lesions spreading all over her body. Along the way, she encounters people with dilemmas of their own to hurdle. Surreal story telling admixes with haunting images, and takes us to a perplexing, mystical dream land that we never thought existed in Palawan. The lyrical beauty of some scenes defies description. This is sublime cinematic experience that takes your breath away.

Marlon Rivera's Ang Babae sa Septic Tank

Sarcastic, hilarious, experimental, witty and a joy to watch – and there’s that vaguely familiar talent named Eugene Domingo who shall forever live in infamy as the woman who immersed in a pool of excreta – for the sake of art!

Yam Laranas' The Road - Abuse has sown evil. Director Laranas masterfully and cleverly spins a yarn of utter suspense bristling with pulsating narrative progression and psychological disquiet. It’s the year’s most unexpected triumph too.

Adolfo Alix, Jr.'s Haruo

A morbid turn of events brings a Japanese national to the squalor of Manila. He has escaped a criminal syndicate with bountiful cash, a helpless Filipina bar girl and tragic consequences. Now solitary, he has uprooted himself to the railside slums of the metropolis, wistfully fending for himself. Then he meets a mysterious girl. With a bristling narrative and the calculated manipulations of its color palette, smartly doing away with those shaky handhelds, it plays out like a blank canvas that gradually unravels right before your eyes, peeling veneers of its story in delectable stages of unrelenting tale, way until the full story is laid out like a masterpiece.



Richard Somes, Jerrold Tarog & Chris Martinez's Shake Rattle & Roll 13

Narrative triptych that challenges our intrinsic fears. Ashen faced earth creatures assault a sleepy countryside to reclaim what’s theirs; Two girls become pawns when warring witches endure a long standing conflict; A phobic factory owner is haunted by the tragic events that transpired during a typhoon. Cerebral take on the things that frighten us; a novel screamfest. More than anything, it is celebratory that three of local cinema's most innovative megmen are bunched together in one vehicle. Are we ushering into an era of the artists and veering away from the star system?



Alvin Yapan and Alemberg Ang's Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa

A student stalks his poetry teacher and enrolls in a dance class to spend more time with her. But a new dance partner insinuates into the equation with unexpected consequence. Exquisitely composed through a series of poems and movements, visual and textual romanticism curdle into one delectable narrative.



Jade Castro's Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington

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 who was cursed to become a homosexual when he turned 21. Marvelously played by the incandescent Martin Escudero.

Lawrence Fajardo's Amok

Crisscrossing tales of strangers come to a head when stray bullets fly across a busy intersection in Baclaran. Briskly paced and compellingly told, “Amok” – despite a dubious, ill-conceived conclusion - is one of the year’s most compelling watch.



Mes de Guzman's Sa Kanto ng Ulap at Lupa

Four children are left to their own devices in bleak Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya where they forage for food, salvage a video player, burglarize for rugby bottles and share wistful and seemingly uneventful days. Until tragedy ensues. Straight forward storytelling and sincere performances from novice actors make a persuasive and engaging tale of pathos and regret.

***

Rica Arevalo, Ellen Ramos & Sarah Roxas' Ganap na Babae (Garden of Eve)

Three divergent tales of women are told in contrasting techniques and temperaments – a farm girl who ploughs the unproductive land in a time of drought; a 68 year old widow endears herself to a strapping young man; a prostitute reluctantly agrees to tell her harrowing story to a persistent documentary film maker. These stories are elegantly pieced in utter subtlety through music, the patter of a gentle rain, a show on television, a breaking news on the radio. Served on a cinematic platter with a truly breath-taking conclusion, I had goosebumps leaving the cinema. As the film draws to an end, the nameless woman was asked of her name. And it wasn't Catherine Pena.

Honorable Mention:

1. Lawrence Fajardo's X-Deal - Masterly crafted erotica that brings back sophistication in a year characterized by mostly brainless sex-oriented films. We want our sex-oriented flicks with a dash of brain and a lot of class! Pretty please!

2. Eric Salud's Ligo na U, Lapit na Me (Star-Crossed Love) - It is a brave, albeit humor-filled exposition on present day sexual mores. It’s tantalizing and presents feminism by way of sexual liberation. The concepts here spread out of our comfort zones, like sympathizing with a woman who gets into a sexual relationship by dissing emotional commitment altogether. And we like the fact that it comes from a literary material, this one from Eros Atalia.

3. Adolfo Alix, Jr.'s Isda (Fable of the Fish) - It has a preposterous premise. After finding a miraculous statue at a garbage dumpsite, a woman gets pregnant – and gives birth to a fish! But this tale has a rewarding script and insightful performances that would have you thinking: Yeah, what if?

We were asked for the following category so we're sharing them here as well:

Best Director – Auraeus Solito for “Busong”

Best First Feature: EJ Salcedo's Third World Happy

Best Cinematography – Albert Banzon for “Haruo” and Luis Quirino for “Busong” (Palawan Fate)

Best Ensemble - John Sayle's Amigo

Up Next: The Year's Best Performances - and Worst? :)