DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CINEMA

A miner, believed to be possessed with the devil is brought to a faith healer. Cut to an elderly woman living alone in an old creepy house, doing her usual daily routine- praying, cooking, eating, listening to the radio.  With that, filmmaker Mes De Guzman opens his film DIABLO, which breaks our concepts of good and evil, and serves a helping of the horror genre with a twist. In the classic sense of the word, DIABLO may not be categorized as "horror" per se, yet what really is horror? The admirable thing with Mes De Guzman is that he discards cheap thrills in favor of a more fluid storytelling, slowly building up tension, while we are unaware that we have become one with the characters' plight. At its center is Nanang Lusing (an award-worthy performance by Ama Quiambao), whom we follow on her routine day after day. She has five sons, all of whom doesn't live with her. One doesn't want to see her or speak to her, the details of which are unknown at fir...

There is an overwhelming romantic air in Emerson Reyes's highly controversial film MNL 143, and no it's not just the satisfying third act where we wait and we wait for Joy Viado to appear the entire movie and there she goes and it was beautiful. All throughout the film, you can feel Reyes's love for the urban landscape on which he's a part of, an undeniable ode to the hustle and bustle of everyday Metro Manila setting. Hence the title.  There's your protagonist Ramil, charmingly played by Allan Paule. He's an FX driver who's about to work abroad, and on this last day of him as a driver we share in his experiences- the passengers he encounters, the heartbreaks he feels, and the eventual surprise of his life. An array of unforgettable characters add color to the story, the FX passengers range from an irritating elderly woman, to a coño colegiala, to filmmaking students and even loud gays whose comments you'd want to post as status updat...

The dangers of over-analysis applies to films like Raymond Red's newest baby- KAMERA OBSKURA, a throwback to the silent cinema era and a wake up call for the Philippines NOT having a proper facility and most importantly, thrust for film archiving. But on the surface, KAMERA OBSKURA is visually enchanting, intriguing, and yes, subversive. Political overtones are all over. At its core is a man cleverly named Juan (Pen Medina), imprisoned for two decades in a dark cell, and only sees the outside world through a small hole where light is reflected on the wall (as is the principle for the camera obscura). One day he breaks free of his imprisonment and wanders off into the city. He enters a shop and finds a magical camera that vanquishes corrupt/undesirable people. The shop owner tells him he has to fulfill his destiny, and eventually Juan finds his own hand literally stuck into the camera. So there he goes wandering off again with a camera stuck in his hand. He goes inside ...

Joyce has cancer. She only has about three months to live. She has reached this stage in her life where she has accepted the truth that she's not getting better.  Instead of wallowing in self-pity, she decides to arrange everything in her life- patch things up with people she had issues with, clean up her apartment, go to places she's never been and do things she haven't done before.  An ironic and often humorous take on death and dying, Chris Martinez's debut film "100" takes us on an enjoyable life journey from the POV of a dying person, and this makes the experience all the more bittersweet because the main character knows she has a deadline, and she has decided that she needs to make the most out of her remaining time. Played with no nonsense and with intensity by Mylene Dizon, Joyce becomes a character we can easily relate to. We witness her exodus from a workaholic career woman who's probably made a mess out of almost all her persona...

I am not a true blue comic book enthusiast, but this latest SPIDER-MAN big screen reboot feels amazingly fresh. First of all, Andrew Garfield is more than capable in playing Peter Parker, effectively manifesting Peter's curiosity, rage, and teenage exuberance. Second, the treatment employed takes a darker approach from the get-go, unlike in Sam Raimi's universe where it gets murky only during Part 3- and this is a welcome departure because we are able to glimpse upon Peter's unresolved issues with the disappearance of his parents. Third, the same formula and treatment for the villain is there, where such is recognized as a victim of consequence, and therefore presented in the end as a human being. Rhys Ifans plays Dr. Curt Connors/ The Lizard impeccably, reminiscent of Alfred Molina's charmed performance as Doc Ock.  Using the latest in 3D technology, the filmmakers maximized the visual feast (the film is best seen in IMAX) while refusing to sacrifice script qu...