ANG HUPA
Ang kahalintulad na tema ng Ang Hupa ay ang patuloy na interogasyon sa mga historikal at panlipunang isyu ng amnesia at alaala. Matutunghayan muli sa pelikula ang ensemble ng karakter na magpo-populate sa lunan at panahon ng 2034, kasama ang pinakamataas ng karakter sa pelikula ni Diaz, ang diktador na presidente.
Roland Tolentino
BABAE AT BARIL
In Babae at Baril, the woman and the gun constitute and poetically mirror each other, they are both considered as objects to be manipulated, controlled and dominated. But the woman and the gun have also exceeded their status as objects in the end, they can do things, have sufficient will to make a difference, produce effects, alter the course of their own stories.
Gary Devilles
BABAE AT BARIL
Patriarchy persists, masquerades and morphs into multiple modes, sometimes benevolent, at other times invisible and normalized. Babae’s response is just a first step in a long journey. Dismantling patriarchy’s manifold structures requires continuous immersion and active participation in collective upheavals instead of merely defaulting to violence.
Mike Rapatan
CLEANERS
Sa katunayan, isang importante ang pangunahing pelikulang Cagayano na Cleaners ni Glenn Barit ang may dulot ng bagong impetus sa formasyon ng isa na namang sentro ng rehiyonal sinema bilang pivot ng nabubuong pambansang sinema. Natatangi ang Cleaners sa ilang mga larangan. Una, ang binibigyan-representasyon nito ay isang subalternong mundo ng mga kabataang estudyante sa Tuguegarao bilang melting pot ng iba’t ibang etnisidad, uri at kultura ng norte.
Rolando B. Tolentino
CLEANERS
One detects in this work an effort on his part to tongue-in-cheek interrogate his province’s norms, traditions and conservatism and negotiate contemporary forms of expression, representation and cultural engagement. Like the harmonious interplay of indigenous instruments and synthesized music in the film’s opening track (taken from a minus one version of Edru Abraham’s Kay Sarap Mabuhay sa Bayang Payapa), Barit charts unique paths for creating a rocking synergy of the vernacular and the digital.
Mike Rapatan
EDWARD
This film is an honest and intelligent story of a hospital, no different from those in any municipality or city of our sad republic. This important social institution that is supposed to service medical treatment and proper healthcare ironically possesses the horrors of human living, so that many of us, after having been confined, or caregiving our loved ones, would fervently vow, “I don’t want to see any hospital ever again in my life.”
Shirley Lua
EDWARD
Thop Nazareno taps into a quasi neo-realist approach with wit and drama in his film Edward. It is depressing, grim, distressed and is overcrowded with the impoverished and inlaid with ironic humor and with dark burps of commentary imbedded in its sequences. This robust film work captures the beat of public hospitals. The cramped space inside bursts with images and sounds which creates a casino-like atmosphere, where being in it becomes a whole gamble of whether one will live or die in its suffocating rooms and corridors.
Gigi Javier Alfonso
HUWEBES HUWEBES
Walang bravura o high dramatic points ang Huwebes Huwebes pati ang staging ng mga pagpatay at extrajudicial killing sa war on drugs. In fact, tila mini-mimic nito ang island life sa panahon at espasyo ng pelikula. Ito iyong parang walang nangyayari, mga pang-araw-araw na eksena, tunog at musika ng buhay ang fokus ng atensyon, mga usap at sandali na hindi naman talaga marubdob. Pero deseptibo ito dahil nasa hindi sinasabi at ipinapakita ang tunay na drama at mensahe ng pelikula.
Rolando B. Tolentino
HUWEBES, HUWEBES
The omnibus format of Huwebes Huwebes allowed the three filmmakers with distinct visions and intentions to analyze Duterte’s drug war from different angles and show how every victim is a victim in a specific way, every person a unique life before being executed like the rest—the curious bystander, the guilt-ridden law enforcer, the wrongly accused, the wayward teenager, the bereaved parent, the orphaned child.
Patrick Campos
JOHN DENVER TRENDING
Central to the movie is the indictment of the negative ways in which social media, specifically, Facebook and the internet, has affected provincial communities in the Philippines. Pulling no punches, the film reveals how this potent means of communicating vital information to individuals in the country and all over the world has been perverted by the irresponsible and cynical into a way of creating lies and disseminating misinformation to the same individuals.
Nicanor Tiongson
JOHN DENVER TRENDING
[T]his is a sad story of a boy. But more than that, this is a tragic picture of a society, spiked with apathy and sanctimoniousness. Disconcerting is the boy witness’ insistence on John Denver’s crime, without a tiny measure of guilt or doubt, and the triumph of such nastiness, if not evil, in this world. More unsettling are the portraits of hate and aggression emanating from social media—this terrible “online shitstorm.”
Shirley O. Lua
JOHN DENVER TRENDING
Who needs the violent cities? The screenplay of John Denver Trending is doubly exotic in its cinematic decision to locate the narrative in a rural community and not in a city. The sociologists are right – the city does not need to bring urbanization to the towns; the towns get closer to the urbanized settlements because of technologies. The societal implication of the film compels us to re-examine how the new technologies dissipate and blur the old theme of urban versus rural.
Tito Genova Valiente
KALEL 15
It is the story of Kalel, a young man who is adventurous, undecided, and confused seen in the choices he takes, groping through the strands of poverty of lack of accountability of young reckless passion, the mind and spirit lead by arrogance of ignorance within life’s tapestry enveloped in the constructed murky reality of people around him. The hopelessness felt by Kalel is resounding in this masterpiece of black, white with some shades of grey film by Jun Lana.
Gigi Alfonso
METAMORPHOSIS
We are still too far from understanding the sex of individuals and how it could arise from either ambiguous anatomy or from behavior and desires that are at apparent odds with the sexed body. Hermaphroditism or intersex presents even more complicated problems.
Gary Devilles
The aforementioned films were the nominees for the Best Picture Category at the 43rd Gawad Urian in 202O.
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