These days, every Cinemalaya has one movie with a really big star, and this year it's the one and only Megastar Sharon Cuneta, who hasn't been in a feature film since 2009-2010. Her comeback comes in the form of Mes de Guzman's Ang Pamilyang Hindi Lumuluha, where she plays a mother seeking to reconnect with her family.
The movie starts off with a number of jokes, mostly coming from the inspired pairing of Sharon and Hatima "Moi Bien" Marcampo. Thanks to excellent performances from both actresses, it's all quite hilarious, and the hilarity continues for most of the film. And the jokes go on... and on... and on.
And while the laughs do provide a generally fun, lighthearted source of entertainment, the film has several structural problems. Everything is tied together too loosely, the plot existing to serve the jokes instead of the other way around. One wonders how exactly can Sharon's familial problems be solved by reuniting the titular Family, but the film glosses through the admittedly convoluted explanation with a vague notion of 'they bring good luck'. Then more jokes ensue.
Behind the laughter is a vulnerable, lonely woman who has sought love from her family and friends, only to get nothing in return. Sharon's performance is wonderful during the rare moments when her facade cracks, showing the damaged woman underneath. Those are the moments that stuck with me the most instead of the comedic scenes, and I think the film could have gained a bit more nuance had it built up its characters more. And with such characters, the film's resolution comes almost as a deus ex machina, where everything sorts itself out somehow instead of, for example, having the new people in Sharon's character's life help her out in more direct ways.
A crowd pleaser through and through, Ang Pamilyang Hindi Lumuluha will no doubt entertain fans and casual movie goers. However, it is basically a loosely knit patchwork of funny scenes with a thin plot holding it up, which at least to me was disappointing, considering the fact that the Megastar has an impressive body of work behind her, such as the excellent Crying Ladies (2003), which mixed humor and a solid dramatic story. In any case, with the Megastar gearing up to make more independent films in the future, I remain optimistic.
The original title for Anysay Keola's 2015 film Above it All is Noy, which refers to two characters with that name. One is a medical student who is having trouble coming out as gay to his family, while the other is a Hmong woman who must make a decision between true love and supporting her family by getting married to a complete stranger.
One of the few Marxist-Leninist states left in the world, Laos is a country with a turbulent history. In the course of that history, human rights have been violated and ethnic minorities have been marginalized. The film seeks to give people from these marginalized groups their own stories. It tries to show the how these people face discrimination, or how they deal with social taboos.
The film has a tendency to meander with its two stories. The lack of focus slows the film down, much to its detriment. Certain dramatic scenes fall a little flat thanks to this habit. The sound was extremely loud in some scenes, though I've yet to determine if this was more a technical problem than a problem with the film itself.
The international title, Above it All, serves the movie well: in seeing beyond petty biases or discriminatory ideas about race or gender, the characters of the film see the shared humanity that we all possess underneath.
***
That ends my coverage of the competition films, but I'll still be watching Cinemalaya's exhibition films until Saturday, with a short break today. See you guys tomorrow.
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