Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos (Mario O'Hara)

Chance.

Not so long ago, I finally came into a certain understanding that Filipino films will always be inclined into 'melodrama': The sappy music, intense displays of physical animation to accompany the drama, and of course, tears. It's a nauseating phenomenon in the Philippine movie industry when absolutely done the wrong way. But thank god there are films such as "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos" to serve as timeless testaments to the magic that 'melodrama' can create and manifest within one's senses and emotions, from simple to complex, when done perfectly.

The film started with Hitler's rhyming, mouth-foaming speech regarding the strength of his socialist party. Being set in the times of the Second World War, the film unveils like how a history text book would for a student. But after this run-of-the-mill introduction, its story unfolds like how a poet affects to even the farthest of souls.

In plain sight, the film may look like your typical 'love caught by the tides of war' and a period vehicle for its star and producer, Nora Aunor. Granted, the love story arc is already established prior to the complications of the narrative, but I am deeply surprised and pleasured how complex the film really was.

At various points, "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos" can be viewed as a metaphor for the ravages and ruins that the Philippines (The idea of the motherland may allude to Nora Aunor's (subtly powerful, as always) character Rosario and her initial abuse in the hands of Masugi, played by Christopher De Leon) have experienced during the Japanese Occupation and, on the opposite end, the potentially unconscious development of the Philippines' slow embrace towards the Japanese ways (how Rosario learned to love Masugi after she has been raped).

And pushing it further, Bembol Roco's character Crispin is the physical manifestation of the concept of a true 'Filipino' who, despite of the predicament that his real love (Rosario) has gone through, remained completely absent and consumed by fighting an abstract notion towards an illusory, national deliverance. The film may also relate to a slightly satiric approach to some Filipinos' extreme devotion to the perpetually clean-cut view of America and their intervention.

Mario O'Hara, a primed director and a memorable actor by his own right due to his performance in Brocka's "Tinimbang ka ngunit kulang", created this film with a certain honesty and a hint for something new. He dared not to mold a war film with old clays of sentiments and melancholy. He instead established a fresh foundation to the film, making the complexity of love and the ambiguity of Catholicism its true center and added up the hypnotically repugnant, yet may have been quite accurate, emotional weather of the time.

"Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos" never settled for a one-sided rally behind patriotism's usual sweet myth-making; director Mario O'Hara treated the Filipino people (that includes the Guerrillas) not as hopeful revolutionaries that can almost dwell on the pages of a legend, but as a confused crowd dipped into a mudflow of fever and hysteria: looking for even the slightest mistakes, violently ditching even the slightest idea of a socially unsanctioned love, and pointing fingers to even the slightest of flaws.

Nora's Rosario, on the other hand, served as their martyr; their miniature 'Joan of Arc' to make up for the futility of their distorted search for something meaningful. A senseless pervasion of mobocracy masquerading as a push for Philippines' well-being and disguised as a search for national identity.

The film covered so much, yet it came out as a simple tragedy of love. Deep analysis or surface viewing, either way, "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos" is still a tremendous work of Philippine cinema. Where is film preservation when it's needed most? This film begs for a better print. Too bad it's too late.

FINAL RATING

Hereafter (Clint Eastwood)

The exhaustion of vision.

The film that seemingly came at a right time considering the stage of Clint Eastwood's career and age already sealed with greatness, composure and productivity. There's not much left to explore for him, so why not the mystery of the afterlife and, at times, tricky to pull off atmosphere of the supernatural? "Hereafter", with its uncommon use of a finely recreated natural disaster and unrelated though interconnected stories, is more of a well-thought curiosity piece whose focus goes everywhere, filmmaking wise, rather than a pure narrative that speaks of some tightly-drawn drama.

It stars Matt Damon in a very vulnerable performance as George, a genuine psychic that considers his insights into the netherworld a curse rather than a gift. Like a "Miss Lonelyhearts", he has given up to what he does best, keeps his profile low, yet the quantity of those who seek for help is at an all-time high. Above his personal and psychological struggles, at the opposite side of existence, he unconsciously serves as the personification of the kid, Marcus' (played by Frankie and George McLaren) primary goal: To find a medium for him to talk to his deceased twin brother.

You know those motifs prevalent throughout ensemble, non-linear films that connects each characters and sub-stories? The briefcase in "Pulp Fiction", the dog in "Amores Perros" or the frog rain in "Magnolia"? In "Hereafter's" case, it is Damon's character and his uncompromising visions; as we witness the emotional plight of the grieving kid and the startling, subconscious discovery of the French journalist, it all forms into a wide round of events that ultimately encircles George and his subsequent interactions with the two.

It's a given that in the film's 2 hour running time, these characters' destiny will soon converge just like other typical films of its kind. How it will come out convincingly and without any contrivances or narrative convolution rests on the handling of the material. And while it's not anything new in terms of cinematic experience, Clint Eastwood has, even in a very meager way, still delivered.

"Hereafter" surely does not belong in the league of Eastwood's very best works; but damn, his directorial range is just astounding. He pulled off something akin to Inarritu's works, filled it with the evocative anticipation of what lies beyond the limits of life and mortal existence, and armed it with consistency.

Judging that Clint Eastwood is not fond of leaving personal trademarks in his films, "Hereafter", although having its own flaws, still came out strengthened by an unhindered emotional urgency and subtly encompassing vision; indeed distinguishable marks of his own. Only the questionable ending disappoints, and the closure for the poor Bryce Dallas Howard character not given enough importance.

Her connection with Damon's character, in my opinion, is much more believable. But thinking that "Hereafter" is a fantasy, I guess the ethereal is preferably highlighted rather than the definite. Dramatic escapism, it ultimately seems.

FINAL RATING

Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe)

Existence in Tokyo in full, living (literally) color.

Gaspar Noe, an underground master auteur, continues his visceral exploration of raw human drama with "Enter the Void", an epic surrealist film with touches of the supernatural interspersed with unsettling colors and images going askew into a territory where despair is a way of life. Going as ambiguous as possible with the theme of 'incest' prevalent throughout the film, Noe combines the 'in-your-face' emotional gut wrench of "Irreversible" and the aforementioned theme in the psychologically disturbing "I Stand Alone".

With both approaches from these two previous films utilized, we have, in our hands, an assault to the senses that is also a dire though sweet cinematic discourse about sibling love paired with a bit of mental conflict.

The film was labeled as a 'Psychedelic Melodrama', which is of course an absolutely perfect description. But "Enter the Void" is also a perfect example of an experimental film made by a filmmaker with an imagination going through constant permutations. Its story concerns that of a deceased drug dealer named Oscar (played by new-comer Nathaniel Brown) and his transcendent observation of his sister's (played by Paz de la Huerta) life through transitions of fires and lights in the calmly transgressive night life in Tokyo.

Gaspar Noe already used reverse chronology, 'shock' filmmaking and continuous shots in his previous works. This time, he initially used first person point of view, then suddenly transforming into shots behind the protagonist's back. Not only does it provide a closer look into the film's degrading drama of sex and drugs, nor is it just a senselessly voyeuristic perception of the more sexually-charged sequences. It's also an emotional narrative device of how those people around the protagonist look to be too close to touch yet too far away to feel.

It's Oscar's sentiment; a feeling that could have been bastardized by over-exposition. But the film has captured it in a fairly simplistic manner by this unorthodox cinematic style that is also a product of an affluent dedication to the craft. Amidst the complex imagery and hovering eagle's viewpoint that explores the moody qualms of Tokyo, Japan, "Enter the Void" is also about an individual's alienation about those around him resulted by a stigmatic past and the endlessly agonizing consequences of unguided existence.

Films like these, although it may find a more positive general response from time to time, will always fall into two categorizations: Either be perceived as a pornographic exploitation wrapped in vibrant pretense or be particularly viewed as an essential piece of cinema. Either way, "Enter the Void" inspires divisiveness, which is what 'true' cinema is all about.

Modifying Truffaut, a film must either be about the joy or agony of making it. This film dealt with love and pain and strife and life. It grabs the middle ground and never lets go.

FINAL RATING

Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker)

The pilot in the left: the 'inflated' egotist.

One of the establishing foundations of the cinematic comedy wave that is the spoof and 'random' humor sub-type. Known serious actors at the time such as Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, and Leslie Nielsen (I think almost everybody knows how the tone of his career had gone on since then) figuratively donned eccentric personae and armed themselves with dry humor and straight faces to populate the screen, with unfamiliar (at least for me) yet effective actors Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty in the lead.

At various points, "Airplane!" seems to be too quick on its wit that the comic touches become too abundant in a single frame that there's no way a viewer can quite catch them all on an initial viewing. But ironically, it's also its main positive trait, making the humor relentless in its presentation and brief yet precise in its delivery that although it can be very exhausting to comically involve oneself in such an overflow of humor spitting from all sides, this also makes "Airplane!" very palatable and engrossing for subsequent viewings.

"Airplane!" is an entertaining ode to the utterly stupefying repetitiveness of mutual cinema; from the cliches of over-seriousness, the tiring utilization of flashbacks to the tonal sentiments of musical scores pertaining to love encounters (that 50's-type orchestra music nauseatingly repeated throughout every time the two leads come face to face with each other). "Airplane!" may not be the first of its kind, but it has furthered and enforced its contextual confidence to fully manifest itself in mainstream filmmaking.

Its influence was all too sudden and immensely appealing that it has inspired a path for mutated abominations like "Epic Movie" and "Meet the Spartans". Yes, it has extremely spread all over the film realm that it has given Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer enough guts to waste ample time, budget and film with their hackish works. After all, I guess "Airplane!" have something indirectly worth blaming for.

Though the film is overly indulged in fantastical, surrealistic comedy, giving realistic plausibility a blurring barrier, it has given a notable statement that may have really spoken the absolute truth: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar does not work hard on defense. A speck of sobering verite.

Why? He got easily defeated by Bruce Lee in "Game of Death", isn't it? Oh, you thought in Basketball? Well, that's arguable.

FINAL RATING

I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell)

Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin: Existential Detectives

Absurdist film filled with deep existential concepts relentlessly displayed through comic articulacy. I've read many dissenting reviews regarding the film even before I have seen it so I'm quite weary that this will be one of those pseudo-intellectual, nonsensical pretense disguised as a comedy film. But even though the alienating opening sequence (I have no idea what Jason Schwartzman's character is blabbering about) is a cautious foreboding that this won't be a usual film, I do believe that with enough patience, "I Heart Huckabees" can easily be appreciated and absorbed even by the most unenthusiastic of viewers.

It stars distinguished actors such as Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Mark Wahlberg, and Naomi Watts (with 'The Birds'' Tippi Hedren in a minor role), and the plot concerns depression, divisive philosophies about the universe and identity and it never stops there. This film is fueled with enough intellectual discourse to inspire debates and disgust. Even the idea of producing a brief philosophy book out of it would not be an overstatement.

Director David O. Russell, known for his eccentric temperament, seems to have found his ideal film: a film where characters populate sequences armed with enough angst, questions and disoriented energy that fully complement the nature of the situations.

Concerning machismo, 'Three Kings' may be Russell's definitive creation, but considering the sheer downpour of endless thoughts that may have bugged his psyche firsthand, this is possibly 'it'. The visual accompaniment for his supposedly erratic behavior on-sets. The exalted characters. The endlessly restless cerebral and 'physical' activities. Yes, this can be 'him'.

Amidst its tireless interior that contains stupendous amount of grounds deep inquiries that can easily be answered with practicality ('isn't coincidence just, well, a coincidence all on itself?'), "I Heart Huckabees" unfolded its true, simplistic nature via a question repeatedly uttered throughout and even included at the very end of the credits: "How am I not myself?"

Same existential question can be raised in 'Values Education' classes and within that context, it might be the film's ultimate intent: To align our inner thoughts to who we really are. I'm quite sure that I've already mentioned that line in my "Three Kings" review. Redundancy perhaps, but It can be a sign of a thematic trend.

"I Heart Huckabees" wasn't an energy-sucking 'infernal' machine as what Roger Ebert stated in his review of this film. It truly is a well-made commentary (as if it resembles one) about every person's hidden acumen that can solve inner dilemmas not through the exploration of an abyss infested with far-fetched ideas but through the fondness to expose the true, cathartic nature of ourselves.

We have already seen many films dealing with human comedy and the folly of decisions. "I Heart Huckabees", on the other hand, is the comedy of philosophy and the folly of its perceived precision.

FINAL RATING

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Daniel Alfredson)

The girl who did a lot of things.

After the cliffhanger that is the "The Girl Who Played with Fire", the 'Millennium' trilogy finally came into a fitting end with barrels blazing and head held up high. There has always been an unhealthy practice for many filmmakers that handle trilogies to set every concluding films into high gear and hasten up into every plot closures, usually starting and, at the same time, culminating into some kind of a prolonged climax. We saw that happen to "The Matrix" franchise, to the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" film, and even "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (with that deus ex machina courtesy of the ghost army). Maybe they must have mistranslated the idea of a third film as 'an all-out racing fare into a quick conclusion'.

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest", with its grounded patience and steady yet tense pace, greatly differentiated itself from every narrative-connected film trilogies. The film, again masterfully handled by director Daniel Alfredson, carried the complex remnants of the tale's progressing anomaly with ease and a sense of utmost professionalism in terms of storytelling.

After the first two films' great build-up, the filmmakers maintained its attention to viewers' intellectual capacity and never went on for some cheap tricks and easy thrills; the film waited and anticipated. They could have easily cut some of Lisbeth Salander's (Noomi Rapace) stagnant sequences in the hospital, but they knew more. The film even focused itself at the slower moments, the conversations and the vocal developments of the story's impending end.

This approach proved to be very effective that when a brief physical action sequence finally comes to play, it was immensely satisfying and a tad bit more thrilling. Why? Because it was intensely justified. It did not put any characters into random degrees of action scenes just for the sake of it. The film fully developed before it gave its initial gunshots. It made us learn to be patient and open-minded, we were rewarded with great satisfaction.

Now, maybe the real reason for the film's well-executed display is the source material itself (by Stieg Larsson) but still, kudos to the makers who have brought this final chapter into cinematic fruition. Lisbeth and journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) were not the only ones who received some pats on their backs for a job well done and a conflict well-resolved, we, the viewers, also did too: for a hefty fourth wall involvement in such an exhilarating, balanced, and thematically provocative saga that is also a damn fine triumvirate of thriller. The girl with the dragon tattoo. Played with fire. Kicked the hornet's nest. Rocked the film world.

And also gave Niedermann a heavily deserved comeuppance.

FINAL RATING

Tetro (Francis Ford Coppola)

Tetro 'looking at the lights'.

Mr. Coppola. Once created cinematic juggernauts that is "The Godfather" series. Explored unrelenting paranoia in "The Conversation". Endured nightmares, tensions and existential questions in the Philippines, and splattered goth and color into Bram Stoker's "Dracula". Yes, it's just like looking back into Francis Ford Coppola's 'more than impressive' resume, but I just can't help but do that as I watch "Tetro", a film bringing Coppola's vision into the smaller confines of the art house scene, the uninhibited territory of Spanish linguistics and arguably into a more complex landscape of filmmaking where far-reaching scope is seldom a concern.

It stars Vincent Gallo, an actor who I think is just about as enigmatic and eccentric as the eponymous role he portrays, but may not be as restrained ("Brown Bunny?"). The film, like the opening sequence of "The Godfather", initially encapsulates the titular character with the same air of mystery and presence as that of Vito Corleone's cinematic introduction. We first see and feel Tetro not as an immediate character but merely as an idea. A lingering emotional attachment to its other important character, Bennie (well played by Alden Ehrenreich). A product of a past without a 'face'.

Though it may not be as noticed, I think director Coppola handled that brief scene perfectly, making us think that Bennie's visit to this 'brother' may not be an adequate idea as he thinks it is (highlighted by Tetro's harsh locking of his door). And though strengthened by a letter sent by his brother, Bennie's visit is still an unsure quest towards the unknown, into a brother who has also tread the same; a brooding but hopeful reverberation of a bond seemingly forgotten by time.

While I'm watching the film, one of the many things that I can think about is that it's quite reminiscent of Federico Fellini with its 'La Strada-like' utilization of carnivalesque characters littered around its central emotional arc. I'm not saying that Coppola, with all his aspirations to create a film he preferred to be remembered more in the European film scene, indirectly channeled and imitated Fellini. May be it's just the fact that in creating a deeply 'personal' film (he mentioned that it is), one can't help but grab the enduring roots of perennial cinematic artists like the aforementioned one above, a director also known for extracting emotions from his personal recesses for his more passionate projects to enhance the idea that the film was conceived, shot, and edited with the eyes on the camera's lens and hands pressed somewhere in the heart.

"Tetro" isn't just about the cliched concept of 'brotherly love', it's also about naivety at its most brutal misplacement and emptiness completely out of sync with what could have really been. And to say that Tetro's self-exile from his family is nothing but a bitter exaggeration is an insight out of context. I personally think that it was justifiable.

'Control' may also have something to do with it. With Tetro not having any with his life because of his father's egocentric authority, he looks for some place where he can. Then along came Bennie, his brother with the same sentiments but armed with much more urgency to answer questions of his own.

One chose to separate himself from his family, another is on a quest to know it more, and with the masterful and experienced craftsmanship of Francis Ford Coppola, the film has been rather successful in its polarizing portrayal of the two-sided truths and consequences of 'familial alienation' and an uncommon insight into an alternative reality of patriarchal flaws .

A self-produced film that is also an endlessly intriguing narrative exercise enhanced by unorthodox filmmaking. Coppola, with the creation of this independent gem shown in relative obscurity, really heeded the film's most significant line: "Don't look into the light". In his case, the blindingly bright lights of mainstream, that is.

FINAL RATING