August was such a busy month I could only wish I was at two or several places at once. Also, September. That explains the minimal posts in here lately, which is regrettable since there has been a lot to talk about last month, and that includes the first ever Pista Ng Pelikulang Pilipino in the Philippines. It aims to be a festival that precedes the much-maligned, money-centric festival that arrives in December. The less we talk about that trash the better. As much as I’d like to watch all of the PPP films, I only got to see five of them. And starting today, I’d share my thought about them, starting with this one.
What an odd, little film this is. Victor Villanueva’s “Patay Na Si Hesus”, one of the films screening for Pista Ng Pelikulang Pilipino, is a black comedy that strangely works even if it combines Tagalog and Bisaya humor. There are tones of “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Sideways” here, and I am not complaining. This is definitely road-trip movie—a genre not fully mined and realized in our country’s filmmaking circles and not appreciated by moviegoers—that features a family matriarch taking her children from Cebu to Dumaguete to attend the wake of her husband. It could have been as simple as that, if not for its strange family dynamics and scatterings of visual gags that are so hilarious, so out-there. I've never laughed so hard at the sight of Legos and a TV set until today (you should see them for yourselves). And that bathroom scene early on in the film, I find it so difficult to forget considering I once knew someone who believed that practice for a while. And Chai Fonacier is a delight; although her character borders on the absurd, her decisions and consequences feel real. It is far from perfect though. It definitely needs some judicious amount of script tightening, and the editing can sometimes feel like it is rushed. You’d also get a feeling that this mostly-Bisaya film is not written by a Bisaya at all. But its irreverence, boldness, and all of the actors’ willingness to dive headfirst into the absurd all make up for these, ultimately creating a movie that is charming and one that leaves you smiling even in these tough, dark times.
[ photo borrowed from this site ]
What an odd, little film this is. Victor Villanueva’s “Patay Na Si Hesus”, one of the films screening for Pista Ng Pelikulang Pilipino, is a black comedy that strangely works even if it combines Tagalog and Bisaya humor. There are tones of “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Sideways” here, and I am not complaining. This is definitely road-trip movie—a genre not fully mined and realized in our country’s filmmaking circles and not appreciated by moviegoers—that features a family matriarch taking her children from Cebu to Dumaguete to attend the wake of her husband. It could have been as simple as that, if not for its strange family dynamics and scatterings of visual gags that are so hilarious, so out-there. I've never laughed so hard at the sight of Legos and a TV set until today (you should see them for yourselves). And that bathroom scene early on in the film, I find it so difficult to forget considering I once knew someone who believed that practice for a while. And Chai Fonacier is a delight; although her character borders on the absurd, her decisions and consequences feel real. It is far from perfect though. It definitely needs some judicious amount of script tightening, and the editing can sometimes feel like it is rushed. You’d also get a feeling that this mostly-Bisaya film is not written by a Bisaya at all. But its irreverence, boldness, and all of the actors’ willingness to dive headfirst into the absurd all make up for these, ultimately creating a movie that is charming and one that leaves you smiling even in these tough, dark times.
[ photo borrowed from this site ]
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