MAY THE LIVING JAY WIN

Jay (Francis Xavier Pasion/Philippines/2008)

Supremely admirable and in every angle charming, Jay will surely keep me enthralled forever. So to speak, it is one of the best Cinemalaya has predestinedly produced and will give a mark in the exciting journey of Philippine independent filmmaking in the auspicious future of the country's national cinema. Winning the most important award, Best Film, at the 2008 Cinemalaya Awards side by side with a Best Actor award for the spellbinding performance of Baron Geisler, Jay is Francis Xavier Pasion's debut film.

Jay is an exciting story of a documentarist named Jay (Baron Geisler) who is moving heaven and earth to create an episode for their show about the poor victims of different crimes. He investigates, explores, and shoots the death, the burial, and how the family, relatives, and friends accepted the horrible fate of a gay man found dead by terrible stabs at his apartment in Manila, who is coincidentally his a namesake of him. This coincidence of similarities grows as the plot thickens, and eventually, and unfortunately, even is namesake's murder will be a similarity he would never ever wish. Formally rich, jay revolves around the narrative pattern of similarity and repetition which in a high degree is a docile yet effective technique of nailing the audiences' consciousness into engagement with the film. These resemblances of the two Jays: firstly their names, their sexual orientation, the mother's sentiment of seeing her deceased son into the documentarist Jay, and the comfortable moments of the living Jay with the dead Jay's ex-boyfriend are not superficially playing the mere purpose of feeding the assumption that men's minds work in approximations. Nevertheless, these witty analogical connections all lead to the final scene and implied ending—documentarist's death, which is the over-all and ultimate likeness of the two Jays. The indirect reference of the final sequence to death has an intrinsic and intertextual intelligence with Alejandro Gonzales Inarittu's “Babel”, where the final scene of the Japanese father embracing the barenaked daughter (Rinko Kikuchi) in their terrace as the camera movers back revealing the dark and beautiful modern Tokyo city at night suggests the somber sexual relationship of the two. This ending of Jay assumes an ending out of what the whole film convinces us to assume is at least on the film language, almost as good as that of Babel's ending, but beyond, in the language of what it speaks about gays in our society, it is actually has nothing quite new to add. As a matter of fact, it still submits to the long-time and repressed emancipation of the homosexuals. The film may actually say that any gay man has to be killed brutally, not even just simply die, but brutally. The implied resolution seems to play a safe statement and leaves the audience baffled whether we have to strip all the supporting elements of the narrative off our minds, violate film coherence and hope for a more queer-loving ending. At this point, I believe that Jay reports, more than it criticizes. That is why it borrows an external form of documentary films, to emphasize that it pretends not to be a solution to an elusive societal understanding of homosexuality but rather, like a documentary, reveals and presents reality and let the viewers do the rest. Aside from deconstructing or exposing the real notoriety of the manipulations of the famous media it likewise leaves very much open how gay men live in what is thought to be a less homophobic society.

Complementing the truth, the film Jay wants to achieve while the protagonist Jay tries to alter for cinematic purposes, is an ultra-realistic approach to the philosophy of filming it. The attracting silence, zero-musical scoring of the entire film, except the final cut of the documentary playing at the beginning of the film, expands the volume of its realism. The difference between the presence of music in the documented story airing on television and the absence of non-diegetic sounds at the whole process of the documentation distinguishes the boundary of what is purely real and what is the mediated real. The connection of the story to real events such as Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, and even Manny Pacquaio's fight also contribute to the achievement of the film's objective. The acting is as natural as it gets. Choosing amateur actors is a tried and tested formula to achieving realistic acting, but witrh crying sequences just like in jay, the purpose is not fully done, though it didn't cause much devastation to the whole. On the main hand, Baron Geisler is a flamboyant choice for the lead role. He for me is absolutely perfect for the role. I can't almost reckon that an actor so unfavorably known as bad, prodigal, and drunkard can play a gay role so well that every single bit of the tone of his voice and minute details of his mannerisms would totally oblige you to pay this actor the most towering respects. Coco Martin, who simply and quietly did his job plays the shy ex-boyfriend of the murdered Jay. This affectionate character is his comfort role. He does this type of character more convincingly and admirably than the fierce character he used to play in the T.V. Series “Tayong Dalawa”. Geisler's surprising and endearing femininity creates a good juxtapositional blending with Martin's timidity which glimmers commensally with the incandescent character of Geisler.

The cinematographic use of space in Jay is admirable. There are scenes where a frame is not totally consumed by the subjects and lately reveals the role of the empty space. In an early scene, the van of Channel where Jay is working for parks at the middle of the frame while the house of Jay's family in Bacolor occupies the right portion. A noticeable space at the left portion is then vacant, lately it serves as a space for Jay making a call for his producers. Another is observes when jay together with the mother of the victim jay is talking. There is a strikingly unused space in the composition where a cabinet is placed. Later, Jay finds photographs of the mourned Jay together with his ex-lover inside.

Undeniably engaging, Jay is a highly captivating film.

BETTER GO AND GET YOUR ARMOR

Doubt (John Patrick Shanley/USA/2009)

Screenplays adapted from stage plays do not usually display and flaunt flashy technicalities on the film, what they ostentatiously  create for themselves  however is a gaudy treasure of film actors performances. These films talk ravely, defiling any human attitudes, behaviors, and ideologies just as from where and what form they are borrowing the content. What films from theater can develop is the character's proximity to the much desired empathy from the audience through what films have and theater don’t—editing.

Doubt has really been interesting for two reasons: superb acting and the compelling conflicts. Meryl Streep plays Sister Aloysious Beauvier, a strict and conformist principal of St. Nicholas Church School.  This Oscar-winning actress verifies all her awards and nominations under her name worthy of every single dime by rendering a frightening, unapproachable, austere and bigoted character. In fact, I even think that Streep has surpassed what Kate Winslet delivered in “The Reader” which for me, should mean another Oscar win for Meryl and none for Kate yet. He is just so dexterous, satisfying, and most importantly—true, all throughout the film. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Flynn, the beloved priests who Sister Aloysius insistently accuse of infringements, and implicitly personally dislikes. Hoffman, another Oscar-winning actor for his very memorable acting in “Capote” made Streep’s job and internalization very tractable. His pleasing aura gets more and more noble as his lovely character is being indicted, an artistic phenomenon only few are capable of. His voice carries with it a thundering authority that resounds through anxiety and fury in the most critical scenes of him with Streep. Amy Adams plays Sister James, an uncorrupted young nun who is tattered between the now loathsome result of what she innocently surmises and of the hopeful redemption of kindness and of elusive truth. Adams is tremendously mesmerizing. I succumb to her purity in acting. I do not wish to overstate, but she is really a conspicuous gem that shimmers alongside the veterans Streep and Hoffman. This demonstrates how adequate the screenplay is for no actors can absolutely be good out of a bad script.

 

The film is very character-driven and very conflict-based—very much a characteristic of plays. Doubt is made up of a human pageant of instinct which is an undoubtful uncertainty, of wishful judgment which is a doubtful uncertainty, and of the repressed truth which is an undoubtful certainty. This convolution of human disposition in a religious atmosphere comprises the good structure of its titular ‘Doubt’. Though it is not clear whether father Flynn is really the man that Sister Aloysius thinks he is, its resolution constrains us to muse over the severe nun bursting out in tears telling she has doubts of what she thought and ponder about the impeccant priest’s freeness from the tainted accusations. The film’s contents are fully honest and scrutinizing creating a paradox of honesty in a surmised foundation. This paradox surprisingly is present in every human beings in the world whether consciously or unconsciously and much as the film is concerned, it is one of the gravest loophole of our psyche.

Speaking of loopholes, I think that the underbearing part of Doubt is its vague and delayed establishment of the point of view and of the characters. Sister Aloysius only appeared after more than 15 minutes, as well as Father Flynn and Sister James. Given that the film is adapted from theater, we are expecting a lot of lengthy sequences that makes a couple of sequences look very long where we almost don’t keep in mind what previously established characters might be doing at the present time, or worse completely forget  them and be surprised of their next appearance in the film. The film’s major objective and conflict only made sense only after 30 minutes or more, though it is forgivable by seeing brilliant actors on their top form even without any life-rending conflicts yet and you can also add tot hat a congruous cinematography of Roger Deakins, especially at the scenes at the church.

The film is a battlefield: first of creating an exceptional transformation of a stage play into silverscreen, which it kinda fell short of; and of a smashing, tenacious, and formidable personalities that Doubt absolutely achieves. Doubt, if not the best, is one of the best-acted Hollywood films just as much as I render it due.

EVIL GETS THE BETTER OF THE PROTAGONIST

Villa Estrella (Rico Ma Ilarde/Philippines/2009)

Swimming polls killing people because of retaliating spirits is actually an impossible idea even if you ask seasoned spirit questors. Pools may be haunted but for them to engulf unfortunate human beings is only a cinematic exaggeration. This in reality makes Villa Estrella a real fictional-horror film. By that, it means that you don’t have to worry about what is happening in the film to happen as well once you find yourself amazed over a swimming pool.  The film is made up of a typical ghost film plot and twisting it in ways where some is predictable others surprising and eventually end up in a way unconventional ending that though may cause unsatisfaction to normal audience, causes awe at least for me.

Ana (Shaina Magdayao) finds herself helpless against her ex-boyfriend, Alex (Jake Cuenca), with the permission of her dad Eddie (John Estrada) to e in a certain dilapidated resort called Villa Estrella that they have a plan to revive. Ana though having comfortable times with Mang Gustin (Ronnie Lazaro), Suzy (Rubi-Rubi), and Giselle (Maja Salvador/Eda Nolan), still can’t get easy with her ex-boyfriend’s manipulation, her father’s pressures, and the many weird things for her happening in the place: Jennifer (Celine Lim) talking to an invisible friend, Mang Gustin’s missing daughter, and her near death experience, almost drowning in the pool. Together with Dennis (Geoff Eigenmann) and Otap (Empoy Marquez), Ana makes an attempt to get out of the place but ends up staying the whole night after Otap can’t be seen anymore in addition to when she learns that her locket is no longer with her. The next day, Eddie and Dave (John Arcilla), fathers of both Ana and Alex respectively, arrive at Villa Estrella. Dennis, after searching friend Otap, learns about a certain Andrea buried under the swimming pool. Ana finds out that Giselle is not the Giselle she has known the day before but a ghost wanting to avenge her death. Ana learns that she is Andrea, the daughter of Mang Gustin. To her outmost surprise, Dave and her father, Dave, killed Andrea. Dave shots dead Dennis after knowing what he just discovered. Eddie is killed by Mang Gustin. Andrea tells Ana that she wants her body. After saying I can’t to what Andrea has just said, the latter vanished, and what appears to her at the neck of a statue towering the pool is her locket that her deceased mother gave her. In attempt to get the sentimental locket, the statue collapses, diving down the pool with Ana. After a year, Andrea has taken over Ana’s body without Mang Gustin and Alex knowing.

Villa Estrella is a little above average horror film. The screenplay is well thought of. The well-kept secrets and the horrifying process of their revelations are impressive. The swimming pool is a good metaphor of a buried secret that even after many years resurfaces terribly gruesome and thrilling. The twist that Maja is a spirit is not totally surprising especially with her unfathomable and stern looks. Living after The Sixth Sense has been released makes watching anything like this very easy to decipher. What is really unpredictable is her killers—the two fathers of the troubled Alex and Ana, where an early comment of Suzy about the two missing uncles of Alex said that men couldn’t last a night without women, which is what exactly Eddie and Dave did to Andrea. I love the fact many things in the film are well planted—Mang Gustin’s dead daughter, Suzy’s daughter, the locket, and even the kid ghost—Danica, though looking overrated with her shocking appearances without direct relationship to Andrea actually is a well planted element of the film for she diverts the audiences’ reading that Andrea is the real force of horror in the pool.

The film’s foxy handling of information is a good part of it. Maja Salvador’s acting is another one. Her acting is brilliant. In fact, the best I have seen from this young actress. Cabalistic enough to be suspicious, she creates a fountain of interest leading towards her. The scene where she is being drowned by John Estrada is the best part of the movie for her. she surely, as it shows, understands the word helpless—as it defines the scene explaining the mystery that impels everything. But what I really admire about the film is the surprising and unusual failure of the protagonists. Ana has three objectives: to stop Andrea's retribution, to get out of the shadows of her ex-boyfriend Alex, to be with Dennis, and even to get the found locket if you want to add, then make it four And she, completely achieved nothing, because aside from the very minimal, almost negligible efforts, all she did in the film is actually to walk-out, to run, and to escape. Andrea, the antagonist and supposedly the loser, wins the film. If we take a look at the people who died in the crucial night of Villa Estrella, we will see that Eddie and Dennis are both Ana's loved ones while those who survived, Mang Gustin, Alex, and Ana's body, are what Ana needs if she is to live in the person, in the life of, and in the body of Ana. This is an unusual ending, thoough not absolutely unusual for we see some similarities with Jun Lana's "Kulam" but this is something that you will not always see in Star Cinema.

The fortitude of Villa Estrella comes from its boldness (though not absolute) of rejecting a staple happily and  victoriously ended horror films.