rediscovering the glorious feeling of freedom @t cinemalaya two thousand and thirteen

one thing great about the just concluded two thousand and thirteen cinemalaya film festival is that it allowed us -- lovers of philippine cinema who are long deprived of something worthy of our two-hour time -- to exercise our divine right to choose what movie to watch. rediscovering it is glorious. it's like dying a thousand deaths and going straight to cinema heaven. no exaggeration there.
imagine quality movie after quality movie competing for our attention. the only downside to this is of course, the weeklong festival is short. we need more time to watch each movie considering that most screenings, whether at the ccp or at the ayala-owned cineplexes, are almost always sold out already.

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of the dozen or so movies that were interesting, i was only able to catch seven : debosyon, ekstra, instant mommy, purok syete, amor y muerte, porno and the terribly awful diplomat hotel. i missed babagwa, quick change, transit and sana dati because most of the screenings were already full before i could reach the box office. sayang! hopefully, these movies would be shown commercially, or they would be available on dvds very, very soon, especially sana dati and transit.

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another thing that can be surmised from the festival is that the filipino audience is tired of the formulaic, idiotic trash that are being thrown into their faces by the shameless star cinema and regal films that featured their tired, lousy stars that should be banished to neverland already; that the moviegoers are hungry for sensible, daring and out-of-the-box filipino movies like ekstra, the top grossing film of this year's festival.
the long queues at the ccp ticket booth, as well as the standing room only cinemas at greenbelt (where i caught purok syete and amor y muerte) bodes well for the revival of the philippine film industry. if only producers would hire new breed of writers, directors who are far more daring and experimental than their older counterparts. we need a new peque gallaga, ishmael bernal, lino brocka, marilou diaz abaya, mario o'hara, celso ad castillo, danny zialcita and joey gosiengfiao.

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enough of that.
here are some of my views about the movies that i saw (please click here for my earlier post on debosyon and porno if you care):

*ekstra - probably the most mainstream of the indie films because it starred one of country's only two superstars, ms. vilma santos, playing, ironically, a bit player in the industry. it also boasted of some of the country's top stars in supporting roles: piolo pascual, cherrie gil, marriane rivera and pilar pilapil.
the story is really simple - a day in the life of a bit player (ekstra) in movies who is paid very low (per scene) and often times treated shabbily by the production and staff. they (bit players) often have to shoot even if they are hungry (the production run out of food), tired, sleep-deprived, wearing costumes that they themselves brought to the set, resting in uncomfortable places because they, well, are not the stars of the movie that they are shooting. sad!

ekstra is both a comedy and a drama, things that moviegoers love. no wonder it is a hit among the audience.
but the story is compelling and fresh. the script is intelligently written and the dialogues are well thought of, something you cannot say about most regal and star cinema outputs. especially those horrible movies shown during the annual metro manila film festival come christmas time.
as far as acting is concerned, there is nothing groundbreaking about it. we have already seen vilma doing offbeat and unglamorous roles notably in anak, where she played a maid working in hong kong and appeared on the big screen most of the time with little make-up and wearing ordinary clothes.
in fact, most of her scenes in ekstra just reminded me of her performance in anak.
still, she deserves the best actress award. nobody in the festival (except perhaps for the unknown ingenue in purok syete) came close to her performance. i love the last scene, where she showed several emotions, with the camera zooming in on her face, without any dialogue at all.
thank god, indeed, that vilma and her rival nora aunor are still around to remind us how watching a film can be a worthwhile experience, a glorious break from our humdrum lives.

*instant mommy - the current comedy queen, eugene domingo, did not disappoint. again, the story is simple and familiar, but excellent. eugene plays an employee of an advertising company that makes those commercials on teevee, who is several months pregnant courtesy of her japanese boyfriend, who cannot marry her yet because he is still in the process of divorcing his wife in japan. we see them talking only through the internet because she is in manila while he is in japan.

the story takes off when eugene had a miscarriage, but she has to pretend that she is still carrying her boyfriend's child so that he would continue sending her money; as well as for him to come to the philippines to fulfill his promise of finally marrying her.
i will stop here so as not to spoil your pleasure of watching the movie.
it's one of eugene's best movies yet after ang babae sa sceptic tank, another cinemalaya entry a few years ago that made eugene a household name and won for her the best actress trophy.

*amor y muerte - set during the spanish colonization of the philippines, this movie is all about sex, religion and politics. it's a poor cousin, very, very poor cousin, of peque gallaga's virgin forest and to some extent, his brilliant opus oro, plata, mata. as promised by its marketing people, the movie is full of sex scenes that featured its stars in their birthday suits. having said that, the story is engaging (read: ridiculous) enough and the actors look great naked on the big screen to make us sit through its nearly two-hour run.

there is a running joke (unintentionally, i suppose) about a big snake, a metaphor of the actors' penises as well as a symbol for the dangers that lurk beneath the uncontrollable desires of its main stars. chos!  watch it if you are daring enough to catch a live snake on the big screen. haha.

*diplomat hotel - forget it. it's pretentious and wants but fails big-time to reinvent the horror genre. i walked out of it, after seeing gretchen barretto, sooo miscast and sooo trying hard to be a serious actress, wearing expensive, designer clothes, bags and shoes playing a serious and award-wining broadcast journalist -- in the tradition of cheche lazaro, loren legarda and jessica soho -- who is trying to uncover the secrets, horrors and mysteries of a ruined diplomat hotel and the people who used to occupy it.
gretchen's character probably thought she would be covering the oscars or a fashion extravaganza in new york or milan! for me, that's the real horror.
the opening scene alone is already stupidly done, written, acted and what-have-yous.
i hate to say this, but avoid this movie during its commercial run at all cost if you don't want to feel cheated, first of your precious time and second of the pricey entrance fee.
(gretchen, whose partner, the tycoon tony cojuangco is the main sponsor of the festival, should have just begged off from this vanity project. for delicadeza di ba? what if she gave an award-worthy performance and ended up winning the best actress trophy? eh di nahaluan pa ng kulay ang kanyang panalo di ba?! luckily, she did not!)

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i reserved the last for the best -- purok syete. a story about two siblings who are trying their best to survive after their mother left to work in china, only to end-up being a victim of an illegal drug trade that leads to a death penalty imposed on her; while the father ran off with another woman in the same village where they all live.
the children, stubborn and hurt as only children can, refused to live with their father in his new home even if he and his new "wife" wanted them to.
it's also about the joys, confusion and sometimes sadness that we get from falling in love for the first time; as well as how the community tried to help the young siblings make both ends meet by hiring them to do their laundry, among other chores, despite their own poverty.
the two main stars who played the young siblings delivered brilliant performances. i especially love the newcomer who played the older sister diana, krystle valentino. the two are both natural on screen. hindi umaarte. their style is so effective that you feel like crying too when they are sad and laughing when they are happy. if there is justice in this world, they should both merit acting awards next year.

i also like the fact that the other woman, played very well by angeli bayani, is so sympathetic, not your typical onscreen kabit who always makes the life of her stepchildren hellish.
the depiction of rural life is also very realistic, not romanticized. i love the scenes in the field (the one showing diana climbing a mango tree and stealing mangoes is priceless; or the siblings catching frogs that they planned to sell so they can afford to go to the perya at the town).

despite its dark, tragic theme, the story unfolded very lightly, very breezily. hindi pilit ang drama. hindi mabigat sa dibdib. even the comedic scenes are also natural. very realistic.
i highly recommend this film. watch it and you won't regret it.
confession: i watched it twice and on my second viewing, i still enjoyed it. krystle's love interest in the movie,  julian trono, is really cute. he is a great dancer too. every time he appeared on the screen, the girls and gays in the audience swooned, including me of  course. no chos!

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that's all. till the next cinemalaya!