Cinepanalo 2025: Reviews of all Seven Full Length Films

One year after the first Cinepanalo Film Fest graced our theaters, I'm still not completely over the fact that a grocery chain has decided to hold a film festival. Puregold doesn't exactly have cinemas attached to their stores, (for what it's worth, Gaisano does) so I'm not 100% sure what they were trying to go for with this. The fest's propensity to lean towards feel-good (though not necessarily "happy") stories has both upsides and downsides. The biggest downside probably has to be that it limits the kinds of stories that are put out there, acting as a kind of indirect curation. On the other hand, feel good stories don't necessarily mean they are escapist. It all depends on the skill of the filmmaker and how they tie that story into something worth thinking about.

There's a particular scene in Catsi Catalan's Fleeting that to me is the most memorable part of the film: after an extended meet cute, handsome resort owner JC (RK Bagatsing) opens up to his romantic interest/resort guest Gem (Janella Salvador) by taking her to his 'secret spot.' They sit together as they look at the sun sets on the sea and the sky, talking about dreams they keep close to their hearts: Gem wants to be a pilot because she associates it with happier times, while JC is a surfer, preferring to let the waves of life carry him along. It's a lovely metaphor for the two characters, all things considered - though the sea and the sky meet at the horizon, they never really touch, and while planes may leave for destinations far away, the surf always takes one back to the shore.

It's a straightforward, no-frills love story that could have benefitted from a little roughness, because most of the little details are smoothed out, with any conflicts nowhere to be found: JC is supposedly the black sheep of the family but we don't even see his relatives and there isn't a lot of pathos towards his situation, while Gem mostly breezes through her plans with nary a roadblock in sight. I wonder it it's partly because of that 'indirect curation' I talked about earlier. It wasn't a deal breaker for me, but the relative ease may turn off others.

Fleeting takes its time in transitory stillness, dwelling on a sense that the peace and serenity Gem and JC is experiencing is temporary - temporary to those who leave, and to those who are left behind. The tone reminds me a lot of Alec Figuracion's 2018 The Eternity Between Seconds, itself directly inspired by a slew of like films. In these kinds of films (at least for me), the best examples of these films have the setting pop out, and this is one of the few films that have a palpable feeling of Davao as a place - in this case, Mati, Davao Oriental, the City of Beautiful Bays.

Salum reminds me a lot of Allen Dizon's work with directors like Louie Ignacio, films that star downtrodden protagonists on the margins of society making a slew of bad decisions. Thankfully having the film be part of this festival and giving it a relatively feel-good resolution counteracts some of the misery. 

The film takes place somewhere in the Gigantes islands, home to an industry of shellfish divers. Kasko (Allen Dizon) is one such fisherman, who lives and dives with his daughter Arya (Christine Mary Demaisip). Kasko is attached to the child, and he knows that while he can provide for her, she has a better future with her mother who works as an OFW.

In his desperation to keep Arya, Kasko chases a pipe dream to the detriment of everything else. Notably, he commits actions that break the delicate balance between divers and shellfish, actions that gain the attention of authorities. Kasko's struggle is backgrounded by the larger issues at hand with regards to diving communities in Gigantes: the lopsided relationship between divers and middlemen, the delicate environmental tightrope that everyone tries to walk, the regulations that make these people comply with walking that tightrope. Kasko's past also alludes to the greater exploitation of fishermen who once owned land in these parts, as his father was scammed out of his land (and the rights of the surrounding waters) by businessmen.

While Salum leaves things open-ended, it leaves things in a relatively good place. It's not the most polished of films out there, but it works as a simple fable depicting our often complicated relationship with the sea.

Have you ever wondered why there are a disproportionate amount of supernatural beings that are female? There's a white lady, but not white gentlemen. While aswang can take male form, more often than not they are depicted as women in legends and popular culture. Why do we have a propensity to "irrationalize" women into something unnatural? And how many of these supernatural 'beings,' regardless of gender, were just eccentric or misunderstood people, ostracized for their quirks?

Tigkiliwi at first seems like a straight up horror film, but it soon transforms into heartwarming drama akin to Sockie Fernandez's Gulong (2007), about a boy whose quest to buy a bicycle leads to the betterment of the people in his community. Here, it's Tata (JP Larroder), who is recently bereaved. Now, it's only him and his sister Marlin (Gabby Padilla) living in their home after the death of their mother; while Marlin works to sustain her little brother, Tata can't help but befriend random people: Pansay (Ruby Ruiz), the old lady who Tata thinks is an aswang, a creepy guy who Tata invites under their bed (Jeffrey Jiruma) and a woman who lives inside the church (Sunshine Teodoro). Tata (and Marlin) soon learn that these people are misunderstood, and they begin to form a small found family centered around Pansay's old cocoa business.

It's heartwarming almost to a fault, and the characters are relatable and even lovable. The problem lies in the fact that the film's tone is all over the place, vacillating from dead serious to warm and fuzzy, and the third act feels rushed. Tata, the main driver of the film, fades into the background once he gets everyone together. Nevertheless,  Tigkiliwi means well, and the character's interactions with each other will draw one in. 

Have you ever seen a Mr. Beast video? They are, in a sense, freakish works of anti-art. Edited to create a lightning pace, full of transitions and flashing text to keep one occupied, it is a nightmare that is meant to draw in as many audience members as possible, and it has made Mr. Beast the man the biggest (and most probably richest) youtuber of all time. And based on interviews with the guy, living a life that is laser focused on making as much "content" (not art!) as possible, 24/7, 365 days a year is absolutely miserable. 

The first, languid half of Jill Singson Urdaneta's Co Love (stylized as CoxLove) shows two content creator couples whose lives revolve around creating inane content for every waking moment of their existence. Clyde (Jameson Blake) and Melody (Kira Balinger) split because Melody wants to vlog everything and Clyde wants some time with just the two of them, while Jared (KD Estrada) and Peach (Alexa Ilacad) have some creative differences with what they want to do with their content. It's all vapid bullshit in the end, made to serve their own personal interests as they use content creation as a means of financial freedom from their respective circumstances. They could just be doing something else, but the rewards are great, and it's not like some of them have a choice; Peach even says at one point she's too dumb to do anything else. While I appreciate the film trying to give dimension and nuance to the whole thing, it is absolutely soporific to someone who simply does not care about content creation. That person is me. This is more effective than a kilo of melatonin infused into my blood. 

That all changes near the second half, when Clyde and Jared make a YouTube channel of their own. They make the channel in the hopes that their positivity (and popularity through millions of views...???) will get them back together with their exes... like how does that work? At this point, if you haven't noticed the blatant bisexual lighting and the many, many implications throughout this part of the film, that there's more to Clyde and Jared going on than they're ready to admit to anyone, much less themselves. The film then begins to hook me in: Co Love now becomes a film about being true to one's self...

...is what I'm supposed to say, but the film's ending ruins the whole thing for me, ending in ambiguity that isn't even satisfying. The film's many signs pointing to Clyde and Jared having feelings for each other ends like a wet fart, with the duo raising a golden plaque in the air. Yup, no kissing, no hugging, no admission of love. Just two dudes hanging out with a golden plaque. For a film purportedly espousing the virtue of being true to one's self, it is not true to itself at all in the slightest. It's a staggering feat of cowardice so blatant that I wonder if it was mandated by outside forces, because no self-respecting filmmaker would do this unless they wanted to keep it PG. It is one of the worst and most disappointing experiences I've had in a theater all year.

Most boxing films follow the same formula; that of the down-on-his-luck loser who fights to support himself and go for glory against all odds. The crux lies in how well these films execute these concepts. Christian Lat in particular has made a boxing film before in 2022's Ginhawa, and Journeyman is Lat iterating on his idea of the boxing film. 

JC Santos plays Gelo, a talented and skilled boxer who is made to deliberately lose fights for money in order to provide for his sick daughter. I'm not familiar with the equivalent boxing term, but in professional wrestling such fighters are called jobbers. The endless string of losses gut Gelo's spirit, because he knows he can legitimately take on the people he fights and win. An opportunity to catch the eye of legendary boxer Gerry Peñalosa arrives, but he is conflicted: should he lose like he always does, his opportunity with Peñalosa might pass but he gets enough money to support his family during a financially delicate moment. If he wins, he doesn't get any dirty money and only the possibility of future financial reward. 

Like in Ginhawa, Journeyman sheds a light on how middlemen and unscrupulous actors move to exploit boxers and make them financially dependent on actions that will ruin them in the long run. Like any other form or labor, the body is made a commodity, but the damage to it is made visible and palpable. Of course, with that exploitation comes the degradation of one's spirit. To his handlers, Gelo is just a punching bag they can exploit, stringing him along with the promise of more money while probably taking in more for themselves. 

One's enjoyment of Journeyman hinges on whether you sympathize with the character or not, and that's very much dependent on the lead performance. Thankfully, JC Santos delivers one of the year's best, and by the end of this film, you will want this man to win.

Journeyman may be your standard boxing film, with tropes taken at times to extremes, but you know what they say about the man who practices one kick (or in this case, a punch) ten thousand times... This film is a knockout punch.

Ever since the pandemic, JP Habac has at times manipulated the cinematic form to tell deeply human stories. In Dito at Doon (2021), the growing emotional closeness of its two protagonists is shown by shooting them as if they were in the same room, despite them being separated by quarantine-induced distance, a technique that's been used in subsequent films in the pandemic cinema era. In Love You Long Time (2023), Habac uses a split screen that is almost, but not quite, aligned to show its time-displaced protagonists forming a connection. At first, his latest film Olsen's Day looks like a run of the mill, talky slice of life, but as we progress we find that it is actually JP Habac's most personal, intimate film. 

The film takes place in the course of one day: Olsen (Khalil Ramos) works as a researcher for a media outlet. He's tasked with bringing a box of tapes to someone in Manila. He's at a bit of an impasse in his life and career: he feels stagnant at work and is regularly berated by his boss, while at home he takes care of his mother who is suffering from dementia. Olsen's also tasked to have someone accompany him on this trip, and he picks up a father and son duo (Romnick Sarmienta and Xander Nuda). Slowly but surely, the two endear themselves to Olsen as they talk about life, death and everything in between.

Olsen's Day is talky, almost to a fault, as if its characters were speaking as an extension of the filmmaker's own musings. This is intentional. By the end, despite so much having been said, what hits hardest are the unspoken words that linger in conversations that will never be spoken. It's not easy to elaborate without spoiling the rest of the film, so I'll leave it there for now. It seems deceptively straightforward but Habac's clever insertion of certain elements from a certain fantastical genre elevate it.

Nitoy (Enzo Osorio) is trying out for the regional Sepak Takraw team, and he's doing it for a reason: he hates his dad Caloy (Acey Aguilar,) a serial adulterer who abused and abandoned Nitoy's mom to the point where she is now institutionalized. His latest shenanigan is bringing home Nitoy's half brother Ayong (Nicollo Castillo) to live with the family. Nitoy's potential inclusion into the team is a way for him to escape a family life that he doesn't want.

Caloy doesn't exactly look like he's taking the steps to reconcile. While he's remorseful, he doesn't even speak to his son until near the end of the film, and even then they don't hash it out. We don't even see Caloy visit his wife, it is only alluded to in dialogue. Under what we're used to with these kinds of stories, the film is a mess.

Instead, Mes de Guzman tries something different and takes another path. See, Nitoy and his family are part of the Isinay tribe, and the family matriarch (Ruby Ruiz) is seen by the non-tribal community as a crazy woman who is still adherent to the old ways. Caloy's 'redemption' entails, basically, a return to a simpler life with his people. During the third act of the film, Caloy undergoes a purification ritual in order to live a new life. That in itself is not a problem: the problem is that the film is trying to convince me that this is enough to forgive him, and I'm not sure that the film has convinced me.

2024 Philippine Cinema in Review now available as a free download!

2024 Philippine Cinema in Review is now officially released as a free pdf download. This is a compilation of 203 reviews of Filipino feature films from 2024 (out of a total of 207) as well as film information that may be useful for archiving. Click the link below to view and download the file for free:

click here to download the pdf

A non-copyrighted print version of this book will be available soon. I will be making a few dozen copies, let me know if you want a physical copy instead of a pdf. On the other hand, feel free to print this out if you want a printed copy for yourself, I don't mind.

2024 Roundup: Filipino Cinema Favorites

I was in a hurry okay 

I don’t like using the term “best” when I make these end of year lists. My completionist brain will always ask the question: are you sure? How could you say that if you haven’t seen everything? It is not a rational thought, because watching every single film that comes out is something that insane people do.

Given that the assessment of all art is subjective, I don’t necessarily see one person as an authority for determining what the “best” of anything is. Even if I’ve seen more movies than even the Urian (keep up, tanders) this year, I do not consider myself an authority on anything and neither is the writer for this or that. I do, however, see these lists as a way of seeing one’s opinion on all the movies they’ve seen over the past year, and probably find a couple of films to watch next. I enjoy reading end of year lists, even if I don’t agree with them. They’re fun.

That is why for almost the past decade or so I’ve used favorites as a term instead. I think X film is great, you may not and that’s fine (but I’m still right though. Just kidding.)

Before we move on to our top lists, here are a bunch of other Filipino films that I liked in 2024.

 

Favorite Short Films

Not gonna lie, some of the best Filipino films of this year are shorts. I haven’t been keeping up with all of them, but out of the fifty or so shorts I’ve seen this year, here are ten of my favorites. 

10. Text FIND DAD and Send to 2366 (dir. Kent Michael Cadungog) – a fun dig on the artificiality of reality shows and how people draw upon drama for the sake of views. It’s pretty loopy but very fun.

9. Nananahan (dir. Dwein Baltazar) – I think the thing that drew me most to Nananahan is its take on how a man’s life in labor is something pawned and temporary, claimed rarely and often ending in transition from one state of labor to another, also often ending unclaimed and in death.

8. Bahay, Baboy, Bagyo (dir. Miko Biong) – This gem from the Manila Film Festival portrays the sudden violence of urbanization in how it presents an idea of ‘home,’ then showing how it can be cruelly taken away.

7. Primetime Mother (dir. Sonny Calvento) – a little bit low on this list because it is meant to be a prototype for a larger feature. Tickled pink by its inspired casting, even more so at how it shows the lengths people will go through, even willingly participate in spectacle, for the sake of their families.

6. Lumang Tugtugin (dir. Pepe Diokno) – Pepe Diokno’s short film shows how violence (whether familial, societal, or institutional) spreads, a curse borne by one generation to the next.

5. Objects do not Fall Randomly from the Sky (a.k.a. Kay basta angkarabo yay bagay ibat ha langit, dir. Maria Estela Paiso) – perhaps one of the most creative and inventive of all the shorts here, Maria Estela Paiso’s film about the encroachment of our waters by the Chinese, and the previous and current administration’s unwillingness to stop them, is filled with the same anxiety, rage and unease as her previous film Ampangabagat nin talakba ha likol. It is also a reminder that what happens in our waters is not supernatural or divine, it happens due to the deliberate actions of people with bad intentions.

4. Yung Huling Swimming Before Life Happens (dir. Glenn Barit) – Glenn Barit’s followup to his 2019 film Cleaners is resonant in so many ways to me as an older adult. You do not need to see Cleaners to get this film, a bittersweet recollection of people and memories slowly fading.

3. Vox Humana (dir. Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan) – I saw this film at the Singapore International Film Festival, and it immediately made it into this list. Vox Humana uses sound and language to depict attitudes and prejudices towards indigenous peoples, then turning the tables on the audience afterwards. It’s quite the experience.

2. Projections of the City’s Daughter (dir. Julianne Rose Reyes) – this film hit me in a very personal way, as my own lived experiences are not so different from the director’s own. An absorbing, formally creative experimental documentary about films as the externalization of memory, films as the memetic medium in which they are stored, cinephilia as a love not only of the medium, but the memories contained within them.

1. Kinakausap ni Celso ang Diyos (dir. Glib Baldoza) – My favorite Filipino short of the year is a tragedy, in which a laborer gives his body, inadvertently mutilating himself for the sake of compensation, in order to provide for his family. It reaches the point where he gives his everything, literally moving the sky and stars, for the ones he loves.

Favorite Action or Action Adjacent Film

Banjo – Banjo is a crazy film made by crazy people who want to make a good action movie. It’s clear this was made with a lot of love, even though the end product is not very good. I still enjoyed it a lot, and at the very least it’s a movie where the action choreography stands out. The lore of Banjo is also so detailed, only The Kingdom is in its solar system.

Sagrada Luna – Sagrada Luna is the cult action film of the year. It’s certainly one of the wackiest as well, something that’s truly unhinged in a cinematic landscape that only occasionally colors outside the lines.

Favorite Romances

Chances Are, You and I – honestly surprised watching this one. It takes what is essentially a wattpadish story and does something interesting with it. This wouldn’t have worked half as well without Kira Balinger, watch out for that kid.

Pintor at Paraluman – a love story between a man and his creative spark made flesh, unable to consummate it, that unfulfilled desire fueling him even more. The very idea of it makes me very happy.

My Future You – One of the cutest films of the year, My Future You is a film about different kinds of love: the conventional kind between two like-minded souls, and loving what you have instead of holding to what ifs.

A Lab Story – Another extremely cute, feel-good film about puppy love yes, but also loving yourself and all that it entails.

Under a Piaya Moon – A love story between a man and his pastries he bakes. I half kid, it’s a love story between a man and his own culture and the traditions that culture is built on.

Favorite Pulpy Chick Lit Film

Guilty Pleasure – Guilty Pleasure is my guilty pleasure of 2024, a fun pulpy melodrama that takes itself seriously at just the right places.

Favorite Remake

Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital – We’ve made our share of remakes of Korean films this year (Sunny, My Sassy Girl), but Strange Frequencies takes the cake, as while it does follow the story beats of the original, it puts its own original spin on it. It’s also very fun to watch with friends.

Favorite Documentary (not in the top 15)

Bini Chapter 1 – Jet Leyco’s two Bini documentaries immediately put me over the edge from casual listener to fan, though the first is the better of the two. Whenever I pass by National Bookstore and see the Bini standee, I always try to guess who is who (I’m notoriously bad with faces.) Though it is Jet Leyco’s most formally safe work, Bini Chapter 1: Born to Win is surprisingly good, and like I said, it made me a fan.

Home of the Brave – the Filipino overseas worker faces all sorts of situations in their struggle to provide for their families back home. But who looks out for them? Home of the Brave shows the many ways immigrant and expat communities look after their own.

Non-Documentary Honorable Mentions

Isang Himala (dir. Pepe Diokno) – I am not a big fan of musicals, but Pepe Diokno’s adaptation of the 1982 masterpiece is very well made and carries the same resonance as the original.

Uhaw/Kabit (dir. Bobby Bonifacio Jr. and Lawrence Fajardo respectively) – Including my favorite Vivamax films in this list as honorable mentions. The previous section contains my thoughts about them.

Favorite Filipino Feature Films of 2024

 

15. Guardia de Honor (dir. Jay Altarejos) – if there is a theme in Filipino features this year, it is that while forgiveness is divine, there are some sins that must be held to account. Guardia de Honor has Altarejos using the family drama structure to show how the greater good is more important than blood, and that sometimes it takes blood in kind to wash these sins away.

 

14. The Hearing (dir. Lawrence Fajardo) – The Hearing shows how broken some of our societal systems are, and how we as a society disable our own in more ways than one. Considering that this was a last-minute replacement at Cinemalaya, the reults are pretty impressive.

 

13. An Errand (dir. Dominic Bekaert) – There are some films that don’t leave you after you leave the cinema, and for 2024, An Errand is my personal example. A film of imagined lives and prisons both self imposed and invisible, it’s quite unlike any other feature I’ve seen this year.

 

12. Love Child (dir. Jonathan Jurilla) – perhaps the purest love story of 2024 is a reworking of the form of the romcom/romance film, to show that the strongest kinds of love entail sacrifice, and lives beyond the happily ever afters of those kinds of films. It is also equally as tragic, as it shows how broken we are as a society to permit these sacrifices in the first place.

 

11. Phantosmia (dir. Lav Diaz) – When someone is co-opted into the service of injustice, his sins accumulate like creeping rot. It is not easily cleansed; its stench will cling for a long time. But in Phantosmia, it does not mean one cannot liberate himself from injustice through his own actions. Calmer but still indignant, Phantosmia is one of Lav Diaz’s most narratively cohesive features.

 

10. Salome (dir. Teng Mangansakan) – Languid, yes, but deeply entrancing, Salome comments on history, cultural identity, and the control colonial institutions have on them. It is also a treatise on how cultural workers consider art and art history, on how semiotics shapes our cultural understanding. It’s utterly fascinating.

 

9. Elevator (dir. Philip King) – My favorite romance-adjacent (i.e. not exactly a romance) film of the year uses the tropes of its genre in fun and interesting ways.

 

8. Moneyslapper (dir. Bor Ocampo) – draped in pitch black humor, Bor Ocampo’s Moneyslapper is a sucker punch of a film that shows that money can’t buy everything, and to use it as a tool to wield over others ultimately results in emptiness.

 

7. Outside (dir. Carlo Ledesma) – we are the real monsters, and Carlo Ledesma’s Outside, a film that I personally deem to be an important part of Philippine zombie canon, is a perfect portrait of our own propensity towards unimaginable monstrosity.

  

6. Kono Basho (dir. Jaime Pacena II) – Sometimes a film just comes at the right place and time, and for me it was Kono Basho. It came at a time where I was undergoing grief of my own, and because of that it resonated with me. Aside from that, however, Kono Basho also says how places, whether it be a home, a memorial to the dead, or just a ‘place’ beside someone you love, is entrenched in our memories and lives with us forever.

 

5. Ghosts of Kalantiaw (dir. Chuck Escasa) – Chuck Escasa’s documentary on historiography and how myths transform into dogma is fascinating, and resonant to the emergence of the post truth era of the present day.

 

4. Tumandok (dirs. Kat Sumagaysay and Richard Salvadicio) – Tumandok never really left me after Cinemalaya. It is a profound work of regional cinema, art created by the people it represents, in its rawest and most true form.

 

3. Uninvited (dir. Dan Villegas) – a benchmark of fun genre storytelling in 2020s Filipino cinema, Uninvited to me is a film that shows how fun it is to watch a Filipino film in the cinema sometimes.

 

2. Green Bones (dir. Zig Dulay) – brimming with empathy and sentimentality (in a good way, at least for me), the journey I undertook with Green Bones may have its destination visible from a mile away, but it is no less compelling or well done.

 

1. Alipato at Muog (dir. JL Burgos) - My favorite film of Cinemalaya ended up being my favorite Filipino feature of 2024. How do you search for an invisible man? How do you love him still? Alipato at Muog tells us it’s by keeping that flame inside all of us alive, by advocating for change in his name, and trying to hold to account those who are responsible. Resurface all desaparecidos.

*

This list is part of my 2024 Filipino Cinema in Review Compilation book that I will be releasing shortly.

VMX Roundup: Vivamax 2024, In Review

 

I know they've rebranded to VMX, but for one last time, I'll use their old name.

In the year of our lord 2024, there have been a total of 86 original film releases on the Vivamax streaming service in one form or another. Those 86 films include advanced PPV releases. That means Piem Acero's Teacher's Pet, which was released on PPV weeks before its Jan 2025 normal release date and Ivan Payawal's six Ideafirst-VMX collabs are included. Countdown films like Climax are not counted, because they are just compilations of sexy scenes. 56 of those releases were above an hour in duration, which from now on I will call "full length" films. 30 of those releases are 40-59 minutes in length, which I will call mid-length releases. These mid-length films evolved over the year; eventually, they grew longer and longer until they hovered around an hour in length, give or take a few minutes.

I have watched every single one of those eighty six films. Here's what I think of one year of Vivamax. 

Familiar Tropes and Other Miscellany

1) girls girling girling theit way out of toxic men - whether it be two women escaping from men in Takas, or two mistresses finding each other amidst toxic relationships in Kabitan, or a journalist and her subject seeking freedom in Halinghing, I suppose this is Vivamax's attempt at women empowerment stories, but the film is still male gaze-centered erotica so there's a bit of a clash between form and content here. Points for trying I guess, but genuine sex positive stories like what we see in Kitty K7 are sadly still extremely rare.

2) online gambling ads - around the middle of the year I noticed that certain Vivamax films, especially those that are shorter, were being sponsored by something called Playtime. You may also have noticed that Playtime was a prominent sponsor of the recently concluded MMFF 2024 awards, even contributing hefty amounts of money as cash prizes. Playtime's only one of several online gambling mobile apps in the Philippines (and Vivamax also displays ads for those other apps) but it is by far one of the most pervasive on the platform. That's because for the films Playtime sponsors, there is an actual diegetic ad for the game inside the film itself. It always has a cutaway to the game, it always happens after a sex scene (and sometimes between two) and they always, always win. For example, in one sequence in Sigrid Polon's Undergrads, one character has a very vivid fantasy sequence where she fantasizes having sex with her crush and best friend. She snaps out of it and eventually one of them plays an online gambling app, trying to promote the film to her friend as if she has a stake in the company. She wins; none of the Vivamax characters ever lose playing this game. In Bobby Bonifacio Jr's Ungol, one character plays said online gambling app while his bestie and occasional FUBU is doing some solo play in the adjacent room. The film intercuts between the two of them, making it look as if our lady is getting off to the sound of her friend playing online gambling. I cannot glean intent but I hope they were being deliberate here because this is hilarious.

3) Crazy sex scenes - sex scenes in Vivamax are pretty rote, but sometimes things can get really wild. As a form adjacent to porn, the slightest action (even a slipped hand) can trigger a sex scene. A poor hotel worker is dragged into an orgy in Cita for delivering water, while one character in Rita seems to be experimenting with every sex position he can think of, twisting and turning like an unnatural homunculus. People in Vivamax films have sex literally anywhere: in the back of an ambulance (ewww), inside a car, propped up on a ledge in a stairwell (dangerous) and (in the case of Silip) on the stairs of a stairwell, even though there's a perfectly functional, open room right next to them.

4) Horny Dadaist Art - Then there are the crazy non-sex related scenes on Vivamax, which are more numerous than you think. Some Vivamax films have crazy twists, such as the ending of Pin/Ya or the ending of Forbidden Desire. Forbidden Desire in particular has a twist so diabolical, so wicked, that it wouldn't be out of place in something like Death Note. Some endings, like Palipat-lipat, Papalit-Palit or Sisid Marino have copious levels of violence, while others, like the cartoonishly evil villain of Daddysitter getting his comeuppance, or the weird shibari-adjacent ending of Backrider, are merely cathartic. Some endings, like the macho dancing-in-purgatory ending to Mapanukso, while thematically appropriate to the film in question are quite a choice, one of the choices of all time.

Directors and Crew to Watch Out For

I think out of all the Vivamax directors that have made films in 2024, Bobby Bonifacio Jr. is the one who has consistently tried to refine his art. The man has made a whopping nine films this year, eight of them on the Vivamax service. Among all directors (not just Vivamax directors, ALL local directors), he is one of the most prolific Filipino directors working today. And his output, while varied in quality, has some of the best Vivamax output for the year.

Sid Pascua made less films than Bonifacio (four as compared to Bonifacio's nine), but there's something about his films, albeit overall flawed, that appeal to me.

Not a Vivamax director, but props to Che Espiritu (of Pan de Salawal fame) for her DP work on a number of these films. Her work on Undergrads looks so dreamy and lush sometimes that it looks like something out of an art film.

Actors and Actresses to look out for

I am generally piqued whenever an actor or actress has a bit of creative involvement in a film, and for Vivamax, this is Ataska's year. Her songs in Uhaw prove that she's a very talented singer, and performances in Sweet Release and cameo appearances in non Vivamax movies (I think it was Elevator?) prove that this young lady has crossover appeal.

Rica Gonzales has had a pretty great year. This lady has range. From a seductive vixen in Silip, to an innocent, almost naive enigma in Hiraya, to a repressed young woman in Undergrads, she's had some of the most interesting roles among her fellow Vivamax actors and actresses.

Aerol Carmelo makes a great villain, so I enjoyed his villainous turn in Backrider, but I also appreciated his small but substantial role as a nice dude in Throuple. He's kind of like a buffer Daniel Padilla in some scenes. lol.

Ali Asistio's only been in two Vivamax films this year, one being the horrendous Pantasya ni Tami, but his performance in Pintor at Paraluman more than makes up for it. Also as an aside, him with old age makeup looks almost exactly like the bad old age makeup in one of the Lupang Hinirang MVs. You know, the one where he greets his now graduate daughter. I wonder if they had the same makeup artist.

Ghion Espinosa/Ghion Layug only has a handful of credits to his name, but he gets a special mention here because of his performance in Ungol, where he makes the cringiest, most ridiculous sex sounds ever. This is of course deliberate.

The same goes to Alessandra Cruz, whose only 2024 credits are Nurse Abi and Kabitan, but managed to make such an impression on me. I think I have a crush lol. That screen presence is something else. 

Not Necessarily the Best, But I had Fun

I suppose this is something of an honorable mentions list. Shoutout to the campy, enjoyable fun of geriatric sex in Daddysitter, the gentle coming-of-age of Maharot, the slice of life aspects of Butas that make it feel like a film from the digital era of Philippine Cinema (Cinemalaya 2006 anyone??) The concepts of Kaskasero (which would have been 1000x better if we saw actual racing in the racing movie), the fun character dynamics in Mahal ko ang Mahal Mo, or the almost wholesome academic competitiveness of Top 1.

10 Favorite Vivamax Films of 2024

10. Eks (various directors) - Eks is one of two films on here that deal with our various reactions to the creation of art, in that we create it from pain, we put all of what we are into it, and some of us inevitably fall into the pitfall of commodified 'art' as content.

9. Rita (dir. Jerry Lopez Sineneng) - thanks to a fun script by Ricky Lee, Rita overcomes some of its silliness and meh execution to tell a very interesting tale of two (okay, even three) people whose individual views on sex evolve over time. It's certainly one hell of a journey.

8. Sisid Marino (dir. Joel Lamangan) - unironically my favorite Joel Lamangan film of the past few years. Sisid Marino starts out rather unassuming but evolves into metacommentary on how sex as relief from a hard life can only take one so far.  Its third act, reminiscent of Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses, still sticks with me to this day.

7. Dayo (dir. Sid T. Pascua) - I'm tickled pink by Sid Pascua's explanation of "the outside" - how it ties into marginalization and marginalized communities, the encroachment of outsiders in tourist destinations and their effect on the local populace, and how some people will eternally be on the outside wherever they go.

6. Pretty Boys (dir. Ivan Payawal) - one of six mid length films Ivan Payawal made for the platform, Pretty Boys is simply refreshing fun. Nothing too deep, but very entertaining - something that I can see in the cinema, even with its sex scenes.

5. Pwede G, Pwede B (dir. Ivan Payawal) - by far my favorite of Payawal's Vivamax output: sex positive, informative, funny, well acted, and with emotionally mature characters. Everything I want from a Vivamax film, honestly.

4. Stag (dir. Jon Red) - man, this took me on a nostalgia trip. Aside from being very reminiscent of Red's digital cinema work in the 2000s, Stag comments on the nature of commitment; a horny, experimental riff on Goldilocks as sexual coming of age.

3. Pintor at Paraluman (dir. Marc Misa) - the second film on here that comments on our relationship to our art and our muses, and how art is unrealized desire. Ali Asistio and Athena Red were on their A-game here. A flawed third act prevents this from being higher on this list, but it's still great.

2. Kabit (dir. Lawrence Fajardo) - a film about dramaturgy and theater, about our pursuit of art over acclaim and financial security, about the nature of an actor's performances, about the invisible lines that we shouldn't cross when we want to put truth to art. It is one of the most fascinating Vivamax films - nay, Filipino films - I've seen this year.

1. Uhaw (dir. Bobby Bonifacio, Jr.) - this last one is personal preference, but there's an art and poeticism to some parts of Uhaw that I loved. Yes, the film does get a bit horny and problematic at times, but it feels like such a natural evolution of a Vivamax movie that I can't help but get swept up in it all. And I must reiterate - this film has one of the best soundtracks to any Filipino film this year.

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Hope you enjoyed that list. This will also be included in the Philippine Cinema in Review Compilation coming later this month. Next up, hopefully, 2024 Philippine Cinema Favorites.