The first hour or so of Ralston Javer's Bomba is more immersion than anything else, content to show us that the world is a dark, unforgiving place. The entire film is filled with morally grey characters and death, both rooted in contemporary social realities. That also means that for most of the movie, Pipo (Allen Dizon) is a passive character; things happen to him instead of the other way around. But that fits perfectly with the question the movie poses: what causes a man to explode with rage?
Bomba is elevated above other films of its ilk thanks to amazing performances by Allen Dizon and Angeli Sanoy, who play the films two main characters Pipo and Cyril. Pipo is a deaf-mute who has trouble fitting into society, even at the margins, while Cyril is his daughter. The dynamic between the two forms much of the film's center.
One thing Bomba does really well is inculcate a sense of ambiguity, much like in Jover's previous film Hamog (2016.) The film inserts small clues here and there that call into question character motivations that the audience might have taken for granted. Is Pipo a good, kind hearted man, or is there something dark and sinister behind his actions? What exactly is Cyril's deal, and what is the nature of her relationship with other characters?
There are other things talked about in Bomba, little moments pushed to the margins of the frame, but visible enough to be noticeable. In making us passive observers to this darkness, the film uses these moments to paint a picture of a society quickly growing apathetic, a society that ignores the humanity of other people, where piling corpses in unmarked graves are as casual as eating dinner.
Tale of the Lost Boys finds an unlikely friendship between Alex (Oliver Aquino), a car mechanic, and Jerry, (Ta Su), a medical student. Their relationship is not romantic (Alex is straight, while Jerry is gay); instead, these two find a deeper connection with each other, one that finds its roots in culture, family and identity.
This connection, perhaps ironically, is fueled by a reluctance to connect, with both characters unable to share their true feelings with others or with themselves, lost in more than one sense of the word. Jerry has a hard time coming out as it is, but in addition to his gender, he is also part of the Atayal people, and his responsibility to his family is also compounded by his responsibility to his tribe. Alex has his own issues with parents, so much so that it's unclear what these issues are until the very end of the film.
Despite being very uncommon in personality and life choices, they are bound by their hidden similarities, even at a physical level - it's noted at one point that the Aboriginal Taiwanese may have found their way to the Philippines, making this connection bound by blood. Even with culturally diverse backgrounds, the film makes a point that we are all bound by the emotions we all experience - love, regret, resentment, catharsis.
That said, while the film deftly explores Jerry's side of things, it glosses over Alex as a consequence. Aside from a nice monologue and a short scene, his story arc feels relatively unexplored. Add that to a random plot thread that goes nowhere and an abrupt ending and the film largely feels incomplete. While interesting enough, especially in its middle third, the film meanders towards an unsatisfying conclusion.
Rachel Rivera (Tippy Dos Santos), a young teen from some nondescript Americatown, wakes up in a dark alleyway and is sent to a hospital. However, once there, weird things start to happen. Apparently Rachel has been dead for two months, and nobody believes she is who she says she is. How is she alive? Why doesn't anybody believe her?
The central mystery of Yam Laranas' Abomination is occasionally intriguing. The film does its best to keep details out just enough to make us wonder what the hell is going on. Tippy Dos Santos does a capable job of portraying a troubled girl living in a world she doesn't completely understand, and to be fair the film does have its share of good dramatic moments about teenage struggles with mental health, parental issues and the opposite sex.
Now my problem isn't with the mystery of Abomination, but its eventual resolution. When the truth is finally revealed, I found myself saying, 'that's it?' For all the buildup, the solution to Abomination's mystery was completely underwhelming.
That's not the only problem with the movie. The production is decidedly low budget, despite the fact that the film takes place in America and has an all English speaking cast. Some shots are better left to the imagination rather than be depicted in wonky CGI, and the overall aesthetic feel of the movie is distinctly direct to video. Points for trying, definitely, but ultimately Abomination is a disappointing experience.
Over the past four years I've come to expect a certain kind of film when watching Sinag Maynila: films set locally, dealing with social issues, with a generally conventional narrative structure. Melodrama/Random/Melbourne! is definitely unconventional, like it was cobbled together by a group of film students who met one day and wondered "what's the wackiest thing we can do while still managing to create a conversation?" And the end result, surprisingly, works really well once the pieces fit together.
The film is filled with all kinds of random characters from different facets of Australian society, but arguably its center is Aries, a documentarian out to make her latest film. It could also be argued that this very film is her eventual output, as the conversation gets a little meta later on in the last act. The rest of the film is filled with short sequences following one character after another as they traverse the neon lit streets of Melbourne, searching for something nebulous. Connection? Sex? Revenge? Who really knows? It's all accompanied by music, as if the entire film was a recording of a karaoke session, each vignette and segment serving as just one more song in the night's repertoire.
The movie tackles themes of race and gender in Australian society, which has become a melting pot of different peoples and ideologies. It might not be cohesive from a storytelling standpoint at the start, but by the end, the film's eventual shape communicates emotion rather than denouement, feelings of loneliness, isolation and even courage during hardship.
It's definitely not for everyone, given the unconventional and at times over the top way the movie decides to present itself. But for people patient enough to stay with the film to the end, Melodrama/Random/Melbourne is pretty enjoyable.
Pests disrupt daily life, either by being a general inconvenience or by causing legitimate harm through spreading diseases. In El Peste, the pest exterminator becomes a pest himself when Abner (Mon Confiado) falls for one of his clients, Viola (Jean Judith Javier), who is married to an abusive husband (Alvin Anson). Abner just can't stop coming back to Viola's house, even though there is the real danger of getting caught.
El Peste follows on the heels of the steamy social realist dramas of the early 2000s. But unlike last year's Baklad, which tried to extract inspiration from that time as well, El Peste manages to pull it off somehow. Abner is an interesting character, though not completely sympathetic. Having been separated from his wife, Abner is addicted to connecting with someone (connection being something of a theme for this year's films) to the point that he becomes something of a parasite in Viola's house.
It's an appropriate role for Confiado, who is usually cast as an antagonist. Abner is something of an antihero, whose motivations are pretty selfish. But one can't help but feel for him sometimes because he does this out of loneliness and existential angst. To extend the pest metaphor further, pests do what they do because they have no choice; it's in their nature as pests.
The film's low budget shows, which can work for or against the movie in certain parts. The color grading for some scenes seems a bit off - while it makes other colors pop out, the frame is saturated with a weird yellow tint that makes everyone look jaundiced.
El Peste can be darkly funny in some parts, and it finds its greatest moments in irony. While some things about the film don't work, the positives just barely edge out the negatives.
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