The irresistible lure of the city of Paris, with its inimitable backdrop of art and fashion, substantiates an inevitable cinematic grandeur of sorts. Paris Fashion week boldly speaks of its ostentatious spectacle of apparel display on runway. With an A-list of celebrities flocking to either watch or grace the catwalk during this event, it is just an overflowing… Read More »

The customary onslaught of promotional materials reassuring a tear-jerker movie continues to thrive in Philippine movie industry. Even if the line-up of cast is imposing enough to grab one’s curiosity, this overdramatic strategy keeps on resurfacing inordinately just to pull off the box office bottomline. No wonder this pitch has been deeply inveterate in Filipino psyches that often… Read More »

Depiction of women in film affixes the ubiquitous mindset of the masses about the female species. Every image projected on screen accedes to the audience’s percipience to freely redirect and validate them into cultural norms and beliefs. The efficacy of cinema creates a ripple effect on societal practices. Hence, the contretemp rests on whether the filmmaker takes the… Read More »

Over time, movie audiences have been treated with multitudinous films specifically made “based on a true story.” This claim often sparks interest to analogize how the film breathes life into the lead characters and recreates scenes that may seem unimaginable to many. Whether the cinematic attempt lends credence to the real story or not, the obligation rests solely… Read More »

The concept of Catholicism interspersed with the pursuit of Rizalism proffers a stark contradiction, notably if one is drawn to the historical facts that led to the martyrdom of the Philippine national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. Delineated images of oppressive friars during the 19th century elucidated by Rizal himself in his novels do not seem to augur a… Read More »

…”We’re goin’ up, up, up, it’s our moment You know together we’re glowin’, gonna be, gonna be golden”… When these lyrics of the song, “Golden,” played in my ears for the first time, every word persisted in my memory. “Golden” is the theme song of the animated feature film, “K-Pop Demon Hunters,” which was nominated for the Golden… Read More »

“…To The Victory” is a unanimous choice for this year’s “Platform award” amongst a very strong selection. Bringing cinematic language to its roots and at the same time masterfully playing with audience expectation, this film dismantles convention to reveal deeply resonant universal emotion. Director Valentyn Vasyanovych has choreographed a mise-en-scène, rendered with masterful precision, arriving at the kind… Read More »

This year is winding up, heralding some semblance to contemplate on how the world of cinema has managed to persevere and survive. Every cinephile can attest that the film industry they lean on continues to deal with major hurdles: reduction of audience numbers in theatres, monstrous streaming competition, fractious consequence of artificial intelligence (AI) on creativity, and soaring… Read More »

“ELEANOR THE GREAT” Award-winning actress Scarlett Johansson pours out her passion and extensive film experience through her directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great.” Taking into account her status as the highest grossing leading film actor of all time worldwide for her iconic roles such as Black Widow in the colossal Marvel sci-fi series, Johansson deviates from such theme and… Read More »

“A PRIVATE LIFE” Among hundreds of films that were showcased at TIFF50, I intuitively put “A Private Life” (Vie privée) on top of my list, not only because its lead star is the multi-awarded actress and director Jodie Foster; I was, in fact, looking forward to watching her speak full French during the entirety of the film. Indeed,… Read More »