Yay, I finally got to watch one of this year's Cinemalaya entries. Yesterday I got a text from one of Dear Fiance' friends, who happens to be my favorite (yeah I know bad girlfriend, cause I like to play favorites) saying that he has extra tickets for the "Colorum" and "Dinig Sana Kita" UP screenings. Since it was my mom's birthday I could only catch one movie, the 5pm "Colorum"
Verdict: I thought Lou Veloso was brilliant. He delivered an extremely authentic performance. I really believed that he was this hard-up ex convict who's heart is in all the right places despite shitty circumstances. Unfortunately I couldn't say the same for Alfred Vargas. Maybe it's because I couldn't shake off the image of him in my mind - that of a macho dancer in the film "Bridal Shower". Everytime I see him in his tight fit shirt, I half expected he'd rip it off and start grinding to the tune of Careless Whisper... But beyond my whacked memory of him, looking with normal eyes, I prolly'd say he hold his own against the more senior Lou.
"Colorum" is like a road trip movie. It takes you from the streets of Metro Manila to obscure provincial towns, from Naga all the way to the Leyte province. The movie centers around Simon (Alfred Vargas) a cop with a sideline - that of an illegal FX driver, hence the title. During one of his trips he encounters the newly released ex-con Pedro (Lou Veloso) who was desperately trying to get in touch with his son. And out of a sincere act of kindness bore an unfortunate faithful incident that links both characters until the end of the film.
The movie questions the notion of morality and goodness, albeit not so subtly at times. The string of characters they meet along the way gives them plenty more time to tackle opposing beliefs and corrupted values, the power of despair and the irony of fate. It doesn't always work IMO though (I hate that suicidal writer for one thing.)
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It sucks that I wasn't able to catch "Dinig Sana Kita" (apparently the indie-kilig film of the year). Howie loved this film and even watched it for the second time that night. Really hoping that Galleria does it's glorious bit in promoting indie films and screen this in the near future.
So after catching "Colorum" Monday, I got another text from Howie that he might be able to score extra tickets for this year's Cinemalaya Best Picture film winner, "Last Supper no. 3". And of course who am I to say no to that.
"Why would I save a world, I no longer have a stake in?"
Went to watch Confessions of a Shopaholic last night. I can’t say I was ever a fan so I wasn’t really excited. But since the fiancé and I are mad movie buffs we went ahead with the fluffy comedy. Movie nights are a tradition, (pirated dvds are for absolute B-movies or those that we’ve missed out due to some (they better be) very important reasons (hee)).
The story of course is brain fluff. Plenty of Gucci-Prada-YSL label dropping going on. And while the flow of the movie was expected, they did manage to pull it off. It came out as very warm and unpretentious. They probably know that they were going to be talking about shopping hence no need to treat it like they were curing brain cancer or anything. A lot of cheezy lines that made the gays beside us very kilig but overall the dialogues were something taken out of the series, I would imagine. Since the movie is about Shopaholics you should expect some crazy fab outfits here. True enough, there were a lot of stylish finds but just the same it's not as fashion forward as say the Sex and the City movie.
P.S. Isla Fisher has a voice that strange enough reminds me of Anna Farris. She sometimes looks like Mandy Moore but what preoccupied my mind the entire time looking at her on screen was the thought: "She’s married to Sasha Baron Cohen!?!? But she looks like she can be in her teens, or early twenties at the least! That lucky Borat!"
Next stop, we were supposed to watch 100, a film by Chris Martinez, only tickets were sold out for that night so we ended up watching Baby Angelo. Hmmm.. Howie did not liked this film at all! haha - - Even sending out late night text as to his analysis why he was disappointed with drool-worthy Joel Ruiz' first foray into full lenght films. This after repeatedly insisting before parting ways, that it reminds him of a school project! (ouch! hehe) Seriously though, the production could use some tweaking here and there (rethink maybe some camera angles, focus as well as the decision behind using natural light in most of the scenes - but then again its an indie film with probably less than a shoestring budget hence...) I thought the movie was generally good though, sans for the annoyingly loud audio screeching from time to time. It started out with a good plot line - think David Lynch's Twin Peaks series. But instead of a small town you have an apartment compound, where eveyrone knows everybody but nothing is what it seems. The director's attempt to inject humor in mundane slices of life was without notice. But then it turned suddenly heavy and the initial brilliance was lost with all the drama. Good point: Ruiz probably thought highly of his audience, and didnt feel the need to over explain things, just the same it probably wouldn't fly commercially. Joel Ruiz need not fret, i have a feeling he would be very successful....he is just that HOT!!! :)