adventures in neverland

of course i have done it before. bitch countless of times about the state of philippine cinema. of how producers offered nothing but vapid, vacuous, mindless, stupid, crappy movies. i especially reserve my most venomous and villainous remarks in december, when the entire country is plagued and held hostaged by the metro manila film festival and all that the local cineplexes can offer are the entries to this horrendous event that has become synonymous with trashy movies through the years. but i have gone tired of it. instead of bitching about it, i supported worthy movies that are shown during the cinemalaya, cinemanila, cinefilipino and other festivals that featured indie films made by upstart artists and lovers of cinema. these are the filmmakers who put their craft above everything else, money included. these are the artists who are willing to suffer for their works, for their goal of uplifting the state of philippine cinema. i also bought dvds (not pirated) of quality...

the brouhaha stirred by nora aunor's entry to the metro manila (popular, mediocre) film festival - thy womb - only proves that the superstar still reigns supreme in the local show business industry. only ms. aunor can rekindle and reignite the decades old rivalry among her  rabid fans and that of ms. vilma santos, another respected institution in the moviedom. (confession: i also luv ate vi. who can forget her performances in relasyon, t-bird at ako, broken marriage, sister stella l, pagputi ng uwak, pag-itim ng tagak, burlesk queen? but i'm a norarian at heart.) to say that ms. aunor won the award because she is the superstar is to diminish the worth of her performance in the movie. she won because she was the best among the nominees in the category. in fact, she gave out her best performance yet in thy womb - sincere, heartfelt, quiet. no hysterics, no shouting, no slapping. she is almost unrecognisable, she is completely lost in her role. if you do not know who she i...