Writer. Filmmaker. Teacher. Interpreter of hamsters.
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Kisapmata 1981
The best horror movie to come out of Philippine cinema does not employ ghosts or creatures from the bowels of lower mythology. But it has a monster in its midst — the gimlet-eyed father whose Machismo proves murderous — and it is even scarier because it has all the trappings of reality many of us in the Philippines breathe.
We know severe fathers like Dadong Carandang, blustering machos whose harsh words are the laws of the family, whose withering glance…
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When Harry Met Sally... 1989
When Nora Ephron died in 2012, I had no idea I would be so devastated — and still continue to be so until now. Her body of work [all those movies, all those books...] and her life [all that love for cooking, for reading in bed, and for friends...] were seriously aspirational for me. Even how she chose to lead the last years of her life knowing that she had leukemia [she wrote books and a play, she directed Julie…
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Lost in Paradise 2011
I will never cease to be amazed that the lead here eventually went on to become a famous porn star.
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Mallari 2023
There is a point somewhere in the fuzzy third act of Mallari where a character named Agnes confronts one of the Piolos [there are four] in this movie, where she tells him: “I knew you before as a doctor. Now you’re telling me you’re a fortuneteller.” I felt her confusion so hard. Because this movie is exactly like that: it does not know what it wants to be.
Because what is this? A movie about a historical serial killer? A…
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Leave the World Behind 2023
I have never been more shocked by the use of the Friends' theme ever.
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