Alone / Together

Juan Luna's Spoliarium is in a way the embodiment of Antoinette Jadaone's Alone/Together, in that it reflects the world young adults like Tin (Liza Soberano) and Raf (Enrique Gil) live in: a deadly capitalist gladiator's pit, whose participants are bound to the whims of corporate slave drivers. Once again it bears the facade of a romantic movie, yet it is so much more than that - it serves as a defense of art, a chronicle of redemption, a call to change the world in our own small ways. 

The movie embodies the spirit of the university in which it is set.  Jadaone graduated from the University of the Philippines, and this feels like a love letter to the place, as well as an application of the things students are taught in the university. Even in the first few minutes of the film, there's subtext that feels political, surprising for a mainstream romantic film. In its championing of art, it also gives the message we must be responsible in making that art, a message that feels ever more profound in contemporary times, where art can be made to propagandize, to deceive, to glorify evil men. In this capacity, Tin and Raf's characters feel like two sides of the same coin: while Raf serves the people directly in his capacity as a doctor, Tin serves the country's soul through her advocacy for art.

Alone/Together also continues the trend of recent Jadaone films where millennial concerns and relationships are viewed through the lens of class and contemporary issues. In contrast to last year's Never Not Love You, the relationship in Alone/Together feels accessory to the main plot. In fact, one could argue that Alone/Together is not really a romance, but a coming of age film about Liza Soberano's character, as her character's arc defines the film and drives it forward. Her struggles resonate, as they reflect a growing sense of generational regret about missed opportunities in life.  Youthful idealism vs jaded cynicism become the film's greatest conflict. Soberano in particular is a revelation, delivering her best performance to date.

From a certain point of view, the main 'antagonist' of this film is compromise: the characters of Alone/Together have traded away the idealism of their youth for something safer, but dull and unfulfilling. And in that sense, the film's resolution feels subversive, because it rejects settling for something less and champions making that youthful idealism work for the service of the community at large. Constrained by the world being smaller than the breadth of their dreams, the characters of Alone/Together grow into something greater, such that the stifling gladiator's pit of life can contain then no more.

The film stumbles a bit during its final moments, parts of it stubbornly beholden to the form of the romantic movie. It can lead to the film being misread as something else. That said, Alone/Together remains one of the year's standout films.

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