Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino | Bar Boys is school days nostalgia the film

Four young men eagerly await the entrance exam results for a law school of their choice. Each one has their respective reasons for going into law school and becoming a lawyer. Three pass and one doesn't, kicking off the story of Kip Oebanda's Bar Boys. 

Based on numerous law school experiences, the film tries to capture the struggles of law school life. Studying to be a lawyer is a brutal process which requires constant study and memorization. Every waking hour is dedicated to pass classes, which leads to graduation, which leads to passing the dreaded bar exam. To an outsider, the stakes may not be so high, but to these students, it is everything, and one feels these stakes as one sympathizes with the characters in question.

Of course, that's not all there is to it; there are other problems, both extracurricular or otherwise, that serve as obstacles for the average law student: fraternities, terror professors, family strife, economic problems, even problems with balancing school and social life. Although my own professional field (medicine) has nothing to do with law, it's just as grueling an ordeal and many school experiences share the same problems, so I identified with the problems the students faced in this film, and I think many people will find something to connect with in this film. It's similar to the 2007 Aureus Solito film Pisay, where the diverse cast of characters are tracked from their freshman year to their senior year.

The film concentrates on the students' problems, but neglects the story arc of Kean Cipriano's character, who did not get into law school and pursued a different career instead. It would have been nice to see the contrast between Kean's character and the rest of the Bar Boys, and delve into problems created by social pressure to get into law school. Unfortunately, that isn't explored in the film too deeply and his character kind of fades into the background as the film focuses on the remaining three characters.

Bar Boys is enjoyable and a bit nostalgic as well. It's filled with fun and warmhearted moments of love and friendship. While it works for the most part, I feel the concepts that it introduced can be expanded into a short series, as it is quite challenging to insert the entirety of the school experience in a couple of hours.

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Accompanying Bar Boys is a short film from Sine Kabataan whose name I can't remember. (I think there's a short film attached to all of the films of the PPP.) In this case, it's a film about a guy enjoying fun times with his barkada. But nothing is as it seems. It ends in an interesting place, and it tackles a subject that is relevant even today.