Cinemalaya 2011 Backlogs: Cinemalaya 2011: NONO (NETPAC Premiere)

You've probably heard of Milo Tolentino's films in my previous reviews. Basically the same thing runs through all his films. They involve kids as non actors, there's poverty, the script is actually invariably funny, and they're all SHORT FILMS. (I also noticed that I used the word 'invariably' in my review of his other film. See?) I bought the ticket to this film by chance and found that the director was in fact Milo Tolentino, and this was a full length film. The question now is, can he still do the same formula with his previous films with a longer running time?

Toto is a boy with a cleft lip, leading to a speech impediment. But the boy is otherwise clever and at least decent academically. He runs afoul of Badong the class bully, and goes on adventures throughout the cramped streets of... wherever... with his friend Ogoy. Both kids have their own issues in life, which the film explores.

Toto wants to join the singing performance of the class, but his teacher lets him sit by the sidelines because she fears it would lead to the child becoming ridiculed. But the boy is determined, and is supported by his mother, a Japayuki hoping to get into a job as a cultural dancer abroad. A number of circumstances, both fortunate and unfortunate, leads him into determinedly wanting to perform in the declamation contest in the hopes of performing at the school's Filipino Language Week celebration.

In my experience, kids with disabilities approach life with two mindsets: think that the world is made for them, and that they should be accomodated due to their status, or they think that the world doesn't really give a damn, and that they should accomodate themselves to the world. Toto is guided by his mother to do what he wants, if he wants it, which I think is the right thing.

The plot sometimes bogs down in the middle parts, but it's relieved by well timed moments of comedy. The kids were well chosen, but making kids read lines ala Little Rascals sometimes breaks the realism a bit and makes the acting fall flat for some. I can't blame anyone for it, though.

All in all the film is decent enough that it doesn't get boring, and at the end it has a few touching moments that really round out the film as a whole. 7 broken airplanes out of 10.