House & garden Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest begins with a band of solid black held for an interminable time-- Mica Levi's sound collages growling from the big screen-- then cut to a German family picnicking on a lakeside meadow. They pack up, go home, arrive after sunset, fall asleep (mother and father in separate beds). Next morning father is hurriedly dressing but the children play a little game, blindfolding him and leading him to the front courtyard where they surprise him with a new canoe, and of course if you know anything about the film's premise you're waiting-- but eve ..read more

Hot Blood Sundae Blade 2 doesn’t so much improve on the first one as it does evolve-- like the creatures at center stage-- beyond. Both movies are based on Marvel’s comic book series, about a half-human, half-vampire hunter who uses a stylish mix of whirling chrome knives and state-of-the-art tech to hunt his bloodsucking brethren. I’m guessing part of the appeal of the comics (written by Marv Wolfman) is that vampirism is treated not as a supernatural curse but a bizarre plague-- a problem with solutions and side-effects, like any other science fiction problem. Blade is science-f ..read more

Eternity and a day Coming off the commercial and critical success of Kastilyong Buhangin (Castle of Sand, 1980), Nora Aunor, Lito Lapid, and Mario O'Hara put their heads together once more to present Gaano Kita Kamahal (How Much I Love You, 1981), a more ambitious more lavish production. Mely Tagasa and Mario O'Hara's script for Kastilyong told their story in fairy-tale terms-- Nora and Lito's Laura and Oscar growing up as childhood playmates, Laura tormented by her ogre foster-father, brave Oscar defending her and paying a heavy price. The die was cast long before they knew anything: Os ..read more

Done again (Warning: details of both '84, '21, '24 films and '65 book discussed in freewheelingly explicit detail) Denis Villeneuve finishing his two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel and you want to ask: was it worth the wait? Was it worth the hype? Was it worth sitting through the first movie? Pretty much said all I needed to say in my first article save to confirm yes Villeneuve will continue his holier than thou ultrarespectful approach to the Herbert books, enshrining them in crystal atop marble pedestals.  And yes some additional fiddling was do ..read more

Thread softly Madame Web is mostly awful but not as bad as y'all say. Yes it's confusing-- throws too many characters at you too quickly to easily assimilate. Yes it has a fairly complex premise that needs a more deliberate pace and visual clarity. Yes the frenetically handheld visual style adds confusion on top of confusion and makes everything worse. Yes a prep school complete with uniforms, turn-of-the-century architecture, and wrought iron fencing would not likely be facing a major New York avenue shaded by an elevated rail. Yes there's such a thing as too many Pepsi commerci ..read more

David Bordwell (1947 - 2024) I remember him in the Hong Kong Film Festival, always at his preferred spot: first row, at the exact center, the screen filling his eyes. I remember talking to him in between screenings, and on the ferry between Hong Kong and Kowloon: when I mentioned that 30s Hollywood films lost their visual dexterity thanks to the advent of sound he took exception; turns out he was right because he's seen practically every film ever made, or at least more than I ever did. And while I'm trying to catch the latest and hottest films he's running off to some far-flung theater to ..read more

Family planning (WARNING: storyline and plot twists discussed in detail) Laurice Guillen's Kung Mahawi Man ang Ulap (Should the Skies Clear, 1984) is yet another popular komiks series (adapted by Orlando Nadres and Lualhati Bautista from a serial by Gilda Olvidado) about young Catherine Clemente (Hilda Koronel), upset that her mother Minda (Gloria Romero) has fallen for newcomer Pablo Acuesta (Eddie Garcia). Catherine's boyfriend Rustan (Christopher de Leon, almost a required name for middle-class melodramas) scoffs at her fears but Catherine won't be placated; she knows Pablo and his prog ..read more

Pugilist Tattooed gangster As Tikoy put it he grew up in a penitentiary (the Davao Penal Colony, or Depacol, where his father was prison auditor) learning how to box from one of the veteran convicts. With his six other brothers, all of them wearing shorts instead of long pants and speaking in a funny Tagalog accent instead of everyday Visayan, they attracted the attention and ridicule of all the other kids, not necessarily starting fights but finishing them wherever they went. Tikoy's ambition in life was simple: to get a tattoo, and be a gangster; he ended up working briefly in Hollywo ..read more

Proxy mother   Tikoy Aguiluz's Bagong Bayani was made in two months on a shoestring budget, has been plagued by unaccountable production delays (due to pressure from Viva Studios, perhaps?); so far no theater has agreed to release it, so the closest you might get is this article.  Which is a filthy shame: Bagong Bayani is the best Filipino film of the year. "But the year's only half over," you might point out; actually I think this is the best Filipino film since Orapronobis in the late 1980's. Aguiluz as probably no one can remember did Boatman: Ronnie Lazaro and Sarsi Emmanuel ..read more

Bloodsucker I remember mentioning a notable name in the Filipino film industry to one of our better filmmakers, who declared him "an impakto" --Tagalog for 'bloodsucker.' I looked at him. "Really? How about--" and mentioned someone else. "Another impakto." "And--?" "Yet another impakto!" I tossed off several more names and all he could say was "impakto, the lot of them." Which conversation I remember while watching Pablo Larrain's latest feature, a rather obvious high concept horror comedy that answers the question: what if Augusto Pinochet was a vampire? Not a political or metaphoric monster ..read more