DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CINEMA

Elections in the Philippines has always taken its place in the hall of infamy, with its share of violence, celebrities turned instant politicians, and yes, the phenomena of vote-buying which is as old as time itself.  In BADIL, the gripping political thriller from seasoned filmmaker Chito S. Rono, we see the extent of people's desire to emerge victorious in the elections by way of sabotaging known supporters of the opposition, a practice known as "dynamiting" or "dynamite fishing", or in the local parlance, "badil".  Ponso (Dick Israel) is a highly-influential figure in their barrio who is known as a master manipulator and facilitator. He can steer the results of an election his way through use of money, influence, blackmail, sometimes even violence, and most importantly, the innate Filipino trait of "utang na loob" or owing favors.  On the eve of the elections in a small coastal barrio, Ponso makes the usual rounds to his ...

Love will separate and eventually reunite husband and wife Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie (Rooney Mara) in first-time writer/director David Lowery's compelling low-key drama AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, a film that fills your eyes with endless majesty of the Texan landscape, all the while weaving a searing tale of a man who takes the place of her wife in jail, and who breaks out of prison so he can be reunited with her, and cherish the daughter he's never met. The film does not glorify crime in any way, and Lowery presents his subject of crime and punishment in such manner that we are able to reflect on the human toll of what Bob and Ruth did, and not only their broken family is affected. We also see old man Skerritt (Keith Carradine) fall into pieces and slowly pick up his life again after his son Freddy (Kentucker Audley) unluckily gets gunned down by the police after the last robbery to which Freddy, Bob, and Ruth are involved with.  Skerritt is t...

At a coffee shop, idealist Fabian (Sid Lucero) discusses to his former law professors his idea of an ideal setup of government and/or society. His professors, regretful of Fabian not having finished law school, listen in on his ideas, however absurd. Outside, a woman is bleeding to death on the sidewalk.  And there begins Lav Diaz's four-hour treatise of man and society- establishing his basic premise of instituting change in social conditions through his idealist intellectual antihero Fabian, who may seem at first like the modern hero the country badly needs.  We see Fabian bitch about history and society, and how Filipinos have come to bastardize history, from his disdain of the revisionists seeking to glamorize Emilio Aguinaldo as a hero of the revolution, to the endless cycle of corruption in present government. He even mentions of Machiavelli, whose principle of "the end justifies the means" will be the core of NORTE, and the merits of which shall be put...