Maricel Cariaga's Children of the River follows the lives of four children who live in a quiet rural town. For a good chunk of the movie, they do stuff that kids normally do: play around and have fun, fall in and out of love, and deal with other mundane concerns. However, there's something in common regarding these four friends that feels a bit different: they all wait for phone calls in the morning from absent fathers.
The film takes its time and moves along at a leisurely pace. For the most part, it focuses on the coming of age of Elias (Noel Comia Jr.,) as he deals with his burgeoning sexual awakening. There really isn't much conflict to the whole enterprise, and any problems are actually quickly resolved. The film seems to be taking a gentle approach to the whole thing.
The film then unloads its central revelation on us, and reveals the secret behind the peculiar setup established at the beginning of the film. It may prove to be emotionally resonant to some, but to me it felt a bit slight compared to everything that went on before.
Children of the River reminds me of another Cinemalaya film about childhood and the loss of innocence, Carlo Obispo's Purok 7. But there's a sense of wonder in the older film that this film doesn't quite have, and that trickles down to the rest of the film.
Eduardo Roy Jr.'s filmography is shaping up to be more diverse than it started out to be. His follow up to the introspective and meta Last Fool Show begins like yet another of Roy's social realist tales, but ends up being a tense politically flavored thriller that ends just before things get really interesting.
There are many small details in F#*@BOIS that hint at a bigger world going on behind the scenes: a political conspiracy, cogs turning, people doing shady things. But since it's told through the perspective of these two... well, fuccbois, they are mostly oblivious to what's going on.
Nevertheless, certain events in the film lead to its central conflict, which sets up a series of very tense scenes. The tension begins to build a half hour in and doesn't stop. It's made even crazier thanks to a committed, demented performance by Ricky Davao.
The film's greatest weakness is that it just ends after a certain point. It leaves open a universe of speculation, and it would've been interesting to explore what happens to the titular fuccbois after the credits have rolled. What we are left with is the very entertaining, prematurely cut first half to what could have been a great film.
One final competition entry on Wednesday. In the meantime, a couple of classics (if schedule permits.) See you guys at the movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment