Green Bones (Zig Dulay, 2024)

Presumed innocent

Zig Dulay's Green Bones from a script by Ricky Lee and Angeli Guidaya-Atienza (story by Joseph Conrad Rubio, Kristian Julao, Angeli Guidaya-Atienza, and Ricky Lee) turns on the premise that a convict judged and sentenced isn't always guilty, and truth is always more complicated.  

Having more than passing familiarity with correctional facilities I'd say the answer is: it depends. When you talk to a convict they're always innocent, but when you read their files or talk to someone familiar with their case they're always guilty.

Isang Himala (A Miracle, Pepe Diokno, 2024)

It's a miracle

Let's get the million-peso question out of the way: from my limited perspective Isang Himala does not measure up to Ishmael Bernal's 1982 classic film, not quite, but does easily stand out as the best of the four films I saw at the 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival. 

"But how can this be?!" you ask. Well let me tell you.

Isang Salaysay ng Karahasang Pilipino (a Tale of Filipino Violence, 2022)

Marcos, revisited

How many ways can Lav Diaz take on the Marcos dictatorship? As early as Batang West Side (West Side Avenue 2001) where a lead character admits to a dark relationship with the regime, the director has presented that period in Philippine history as a kind of collective trauma, a recurring nightmare we are all still struggling to awaken from. 

Moral (Marilou Diaz-Abaya, 1982)

Friends

(Available on iTunes and KTX.PH) 

(Warning: narrative and plot twists discussed in explicit detail)

Marilou Diaz-Abaya's Moral (1982) bends stereotypes from the start, beginning where most romantic comedies end, with a marriage. Maritess (Anna Marin) is in the process of being wedded to (welded to?) Dodo (Ronald Bregendahl) when Joey (Lorna Tolentino) stumbles late into the church, fumbles her way to a seat, giggles at inappropriate moments; Kathy (Gina Alajar) sings a heartfelt song but--isn't she off-key? When the ceremonies end it's not bride and groom running out from under a shower of flung rice but bride and friend and friend and friend--Maritess and Joey and Kathy and Sylvia (Sandy Andolong) linked arm to arm, camera retreating before them as they march into the world.