Tatlong Ina, Isang Anak

Three godmothers

Saw Mario O'Hara's Tatlong Ina, Isang Anak (Three Mothers, One Child, 1987) starring Nora Aunor years ago in a bootleg but the video was muddy and you could barely see what's going on. Cinema One put up a reasonably clear copy on YouTube-- in a few days ABS CBN will be unveiling a digitally enhanced version on theater screens-- and judging from what can be seen at the YouTube it's one of the loveliest, moodiest, most stylishly shot and lit Filipino comedies I'd ever seen. 

Mickey 17 (Bong Joon-ho, 2025)

Hidden Mickey

Bong Joon-ho's latest film Mickey 17 is out and disappointing some folks-- in part because it isn't making the boxoffice they're hoping from the director of Parasite ($262 million worldwide from an $11 million budget), in part because it doesn't have the sharp edge of Parasite with its literal upstairs-downstairs allegory or bloody melancholic finale. Basically the complaint I'm hearing is that it isn't Parasite, which won a goldplated Oscar doorstop for Best Picture, and that he should just do more of the same only better for the rest of his career. 

And for the rest of us? Well lemme tell you... 

Stargate (Roland Emmerich, 1994)

Gatekeeping

Stargate is a whole mix of movies blendered and rendered into a soupy paste. You suck it through a straw, because the producers of the film believe you have no teeth to work with, just gums to massage the occasional tasty tidbit.

Cinema Regained: Noel Vera (Rotterdam Film Festival 2006)

In tribute to Gertjan Zuilhof (1955 - 2025) who made this program possible

Critic in Rotterdam

Some months ago, Gertjan Zuilhof of the Rotterdam Film Festival asked me right out of the blue to program films I'd written about in my book Critic After Dark. I originally had over ten choices, narrowed down to seven features and a collection of shorts, made a few compromises along the way but otherwise felt happy about what I'd been able to bring to festival audiences last January 2006.