Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Cinemalaya 2012 Movie Reviews by Ysabelle Gonzalez


CINEMALAYA 2012

It's actually my first time to watch Cinemalaya movies and I am glad that I got the chance to go to the opening event and be able to watch two movies and the free screening of Ang Babae Sa Breakwater. Moving on to my reviews,

New Breed: The Animals directed by Gino Santos


The Animals, the first Cinemalaya movie I have ever seen. Also this is the first blog I have ever made. I must say that I am glad that I saw the movie. I think the movie itself is good because our generation can relate to it. The movie caught my attention right away because it reminded me of Skins (the UK TV series), one of my favorite shows. At first I thought of it as another one of those typical teenage movies about parties, sex, frats, drugs, and alcohol, I was wrong. 
Basically, the movie mostly went around the idea of what happens in the life of normal middle-class teenagers and the consequences of their actions. The usual dilemmas of fitting in, having a good time and having things the way you want it to be. I never got why people my age enjoy open parties, everyone is grinding each other, bathing you with their sweat and people puking everywhere in comfort rooms. Anyway, enough about my opinions about open parties. 
I have always loved watching films and I always notice the cinematography and end up thinking how hard to shoot certain scenes. The cinematography on this film was well, different angles were taken during a conversation of the characters and the different scenes with their different moods. There were a few funny scenes here and there. One of the scenes that I really got into was when Trina was being harassed by the taxi driver. I already am scared of commuting alone so when that scene came up I got even more scared and I told myself never to go out alone at night. I was at the edge of my seat and I kept on saying “ano ba yan,lumaban ka kasi”. 
The last scene was such a cliff hanger because we never found out if the other characters found out about what happened to Trina (Dawn Balagot). Something that I also noticed is that this movie is the kind of film that won’t get you to think about hidden meaning about some scenes. It is what it is. To sum it all up, I think the movie is good and it would appeal to teenagers especially those who love going to open parties. It will give you something to think about and might leave you with good values. It actually taught me to appreciate what I have.

The second movie that I watched was 

Directors Showcase: Mga Mumunting Lihim (Those Little Secrets) directed by Jose Javier Reyes


In my opinion, Mga Mumunting Lihim was a genuinely good drama film. It was about four friends and their secrets written in diaries. Mariel, who died from cancer, kept diaries that had all their secrets in it. When she passed away, she gave those diaries to her best friend Carla. The whole story revolved around those secrets and how they were able to surpass the problems it brought them. Those secrets they found out almost broke the friendship they had (fortunately, it did not). 
The film was all about friendship and how important it was to treasure the friends you have. It showed the imperfections of each character and their good personalities that brought them together as friends. I could very much relate to the film because I’ve been through almost all of the situations they were in. Especially the part when we talk behind our friends back but we never intend to hurt them because we say that we’re only telling the truth about them. The movie was so simple but it made an impact on me. It made me realize how important my friends are to me and how I would not last a day without them. Sometimes we even end up being closer to our friends than our relatives. 
What the movie taught me is that true friends will accept you no matter what your imperfections are and they will always be there for you. This kind of movie would appeal to anyone of any age, who values friendship. As I expected, the movie turned out great because everyone knew that it had convincing actors and that it had a skilled director. 

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