Aside from a few visual details, it's hard to tell that Emmanuel Dela Cruz's Sarong Banggi was a product of the very first Cinemalaya film festival. Its neon infused visuals of Manila at night are both familiar and nostalgic as Alfredo Lim shut down most of the stalls and bars along Baywalk during his term.
But it's the character interactions that make Sarong Banggi shine. The movie finds its flow when Jacklyn Jose and Angelo Ilagan's characters are just made to just say their minds, and in the most memorable scene in the movie, both characters make up stories about passers by. It boils down to how all of us have stories to tell. There's a (made up, but relevant) term for this, that you may have encountered in one of my previous reviews last year: sonder - the realization that every passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.
The revelations during the second half of the film were quite shocking, but not fully unexpected. It does give substance to the young boy's attachment and/or fascination with Jacklyn's character. In a way, perhaps this boy saw Jacklyn and made up a story of his own, not knowing that it may be closer to the truth than expected.
The ending does drag a bit, and makes the flow of the last third of the film a bit rough. But the heartbreak of these moments, implied or not, still ring true.
Alvin Yapan's EDSA is a lean film but it packs a lot of ideas into such a small frame. Unlike other films where the idea of the People Power revolution is in the spotlight, Yapan decides to approach the famed street as it is now, where there is little to remind us of those days, where stories of peaceful revolution are relegated to fading memories and old war stories.
Today's EDSA reflects our hopes and aspirations as a people, the road representing (even visually, thanks to an inspired matching cut) our desire for miracles, saviors and change, something we felt during this year's presidential election. Its many disparate stories are the stories of our people, struggling to make a living, ignorant of the plight of others, forced by circumstance.
Despite this, EDSA has a somewhat hopeful tone. In visuals and concept it's both an answer and homage to Lino Brocka's Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag, where the city is a monster that devours its citizens whole. Yapan's EDSA gives the impression that we, the Filipino people, still have the capacity to do good.
While I don't think the film completely manages to tie things together with its central theme, there's still a lot to like in this film. There's also an element of strangeness to the film, perhaps magical realism, that's also present in most of Yapan's other work. It deserves a second viewing to unearth the multiple levels of meaning Yapan has infused into the film.
The movie is politically neutral, and wants to show us that right now, it's no longer about political affiliations or families or 'colors' in the political spectrum. We can claim EDSA as a symbol of hope for ourselves as a people. It teaches us not to rely on saviors and strongmen to make our miracles for us - we can do that on our own., and that's something I think we need given recent events.
Adolfo Alix has made a wide variety of movies in his career, both mainstream and non-mainstream. It's safe to say that very few of his movies are alike. This time, he takes a look at the evolution of a relationship between two men.
4 Days takes place during four Valentine's days, where we see a relationship develop between a young man and his roommate through its many peaks and valleys. The film frames the holiday of love as major points in the relationship between the two. Alix captures these moments with long takes, and lays the heartbreak and longing of its main characters bare by lingering on their emotions. Exposition and implication help fill in the gaps.
With this film Alix eschews the familiar stereotypes in pink/LGBTQ films where you have to have some sort of sex scene and everything feels exploitative and melodramatic. Its treatment is neither garish nor exploitative, and that's something I appreciated from this film. It treats its characters tenderly, like real people with their own complex set of hangups and insecurities. Gay or straight, these are moments in a relationship that we can all relate to in some form or another.
The sound design is a bit spotty at times (perhaps due to the length of some takes), but otherwise is technically sound, with beautiful DOP work from Albert Banzon. The acting is relatively solid (there's a part in the script about ketchup that sounds quite silly but makes sense in context) but Mikoy Morales is the standout performance in this film, especially during the film's climax.
The film ends with a rousing emotional moment, the whole film building up to it. It's a moment that has been earned, without melodramatics or forced emotional conflict. It's flow is organic and natural instead of artificial - a sin a lot of romantic films tend to commit.
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