Movie Review

Review: Miracle in Cell No. 7

| Dale Bacar

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Let’s get this out of the way first. Yes, I know Aga Muhlach issued statements that echoed DDS sentiments and he is on our boycott list. And yes, it is hypocritical that I watched his movie given the boycott. In my defense, there are decent people in the cast and the director is also a good guy so it kinda balances things out… or so I tell myself. I am leaving it at that before I trip over myself trying to justify this.

There is so much buzz in social media about the Filipino remake and it was hard not to get curious. After all, it is not every year that a film can go head-to-head with a Vice Ganda movie in the box office. I have not seen the Korean original but I am aware of its immense popularity. Watching the remake, it is easy to see why. Miracle in Cell No. 7 is a heart-tugging tale of family, friendship, love, and the kind of injustice that is all too familiar wherever you are in the world (we will get back to this in a bit and warning – it gets political).

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Review: Write About Love

| Dale Bacar

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Write About Love is a story about the creative process. It is also a will-they/won’t-they romantic comedy about an industry veteran and a newbie film writer who are assigned to collaborate to complete an unfinished relationship story.

It all starts pretty mundane but the film takes off as soon as the writers begin to reveal bits and pieces of themselves that are reflected in their characters’ lives and the decisions that they make. While the writing isn’t necessarily great, the connections we make between the writers and their writing become quite immersive. It is like being given an inside scoop into somebody’s life, a CliffsNotes interpretation as to why the characters in a story do the things that they do and so we become invested, eagerly waiting for the next chapter.

Write About Love shows us that writing isn’t just relaying what you already know. Good writing can take a life of its own – free from the writer’s judgments and justifications. Just like in real life, we relinquish control and let the story go to places that we are not prepared to face. If we are lucky, it can lead us to grow and to looking deeper within ourselves until we realize that pain is a necessary part of life and love. And emerging from that pain can hopefully take us to where we want to go.

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Review: Citizen Jake

| Dale Bacar

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Citizen Jake is an important film in today’s Pilipinas.

It is a bleak but necessary look at the cycle of abuse and power in the country. It confronts the audience with blatant truths disguised as fiction and offers no way out nor redemption for the characters.

There are no good guys in Citizen Jake. Not even Jake. The film shows us that the people we may regard as evil may be motivated by some sick sense of love for country and are doing what they think is necessary. It shows us that we are all haunted by the ghost of a political past. We are abandoned by our heroes. We are bred from a system that tells us that there is an inescapable divide between a master and a slave; where justice is unattainable. We watch helplessly as life is drained out of our country because we are held down by our own sins. And in the end, just like in real life, it is the little people that always end up dead and fucked.

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Review: Les Miserables

| Dale Bacar

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It was Jae’s first time to watch Les Miserables. The most he knew of it was of course On My Own and I Dreamed a Dream that were popularized by various artists of late. His reaction to the film was priceless. Check out his review below. – Dale

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Review: Milk

| Dale Bacar
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“I am 40 years old and I haven’t done a thing that I’m proud of.” So says Harvey Milk on the eve of his 40th birthday when he and his then-lover decided to move to San Francisco to start a new life together. It is a move inspired by a need to be able to get away from the ‘hate’ that is all too familiar even at present when we, as a society, have supposedly progressed.

Milk tells the story of one of America’s first openly gay public officials who embattled oppression and inspired thousands of gay men and women all across the US to recognize their value and self-worth. This is a story of a man who remained unfazed against all the moralist judgment flung by people who disguise bigotry as an act of God. It is a masterful presentation of a man and a movement – in a city where police brutality is described as an imposition of God’s laws and how one person who stood up for the rights of those that are like him risked his own life to get his message across.

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Review: The Thank You Girls

| Dale Bacar
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As part of our guild meet-up last Saturday, we checked out Charliebebs Gohetia’s ‘The Thank You Girls.’

Synopsis:

Tired of losing in all the beauty competitions in Davao City, six dysfunctional gay beauty pageant veterans decide to travel north to Cagayan de Oro City, in the island of Mindanao, with a mission to conquer the grandest competition of beauty, personality and brains in the province. They believe that being city dwellers, gays in the province will never stand a chance against them.

Passing through the breathtaking landscapes and cultural vignettes of the Mindanao provinces, each queer needs not only struggle to win a single title but also battles against his individual internal demon rearing its ugly head behind their pink masks.

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