Rakenrol

My buddy, Quark Henares, is finally screening the film that is closest to his heart, Rakenrol. It's a film about friendship, love and music - all the things movies are made for.

What's cool is that Quark got all his friends to make posters for the movie's fictional band's gigs. Among the many artists who made posters is the creative powerhouse, and my favorite couple, Arnold and Cynthia Bauzon-Arre.

Arnold's poster:

  

Cynthia's poster:

Anyway Rakenrol is showing in Manila sometime in June, but it will screen first on May 4 at the LA Asian Pacific Festival. Watch the trailer:

More poster art at Quark's Tumblr. And check out Rakenrol's Facebook page.

I've been seeing a lot of good movies lately. Well, I've been seeing a lot of bad ones too. I saw The Ugly Truth on the plane on the way back home from L.A. And then the other night, I saw 2012. They're all right, I guess, for when you you have no choice but to kill time. Or, as a friend says, for knowing how to appreciate good movies by watching bad ones. Actually, you know what, just read a damn book.

So about the good ones, there was Moon last weekend. And I forgot to mention that I was able to catch Inglorious Basterds last month. It was a one-night screening for the opening of Cinemanila, and it was, actually, the only movie I caught during that festival. I hate admitting this to my friends (God, like that time I said I didn't get Radiohead), but I'm not a big Tarantino fan. I enjoy his stuff a lot, but he's not hugely influential in my, er, life. But of all his films, possibly even over Pulp Fiction, I like Inglorious Basterds the most. That's just me. Please don't hit me.

I get what they mean when this is the grown up Tarantino we're seeing in Basterds. Without completely forsaking his visual and dialogue style, Tarantino, in this film, shows that he's got the maturity and guts to let scenes play themselves out. I know that Tarantion films aren't usually considered quiet films, but I see Basterds as one of those quiet films where the tension is as thick as the hot and sour soup at my favorite Chinese restaurant.

Also, props to Tarantino, for liking There Will Be Blood and acknowledging how that movie sort of made him up his game.

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I saw Funny People last night. After sexually naive teens in a 40-year old's body, and meandering twenty-year olds who man up and start families, Judd Apatow deals with mortality and the very adult reality of living with your choices. After seeing the trailer, Funny People was a movie that I wanted to like. But I had my hopes tempered by mixed reviews. So I saw it, and yeah, it was a bit of a mess. But it had me laughing through out, and tearing up in some parts. If it just didn't have too many acts that brought you all over the place.

Moon

I saw Moon last night. Not to be confused with New Moon, for crying out loud. This one was directed by Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie, and acted in by Sam Rockwell. Both of whom turn in fine performances.

Moon is about a guy named Sam (Sam Rockwell) who is in the last weeks of a three-year contractual stretch to man the Lunar Industries-owned moon station. This moon station oversees the mining of helium-3, which, in turn, provides Earth with much of it's clean energy. His only company on this three-year gig is the robot, GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). That's until Sam gets into an accident, wakes up, and finds himself facing Sam.

Who is the real Sam and is the other Sam a figment of an untethered and frayed mind, a clone, or a metaphysical manifestation of needs and wants? Will either Sam make it back home to the wife and kid he left behind? What secrets are hiding in this dark and cold lunar landscape and in the bulkheads of this ominous moon station?

It's all great sci-fi, folks. Sam Rockwell acts by himself and shows his amazing range. Duncan Jones imagines a great story and paces the film well. I like that this quiet movie punches you in the gut and also makes you chuckle sometimes with its gallows humor. Yet, Moon's resolution is just a tad bit hopeful.

I love sci-fi, the imagination that goes into the genre, the cautionary tone, and the hope that is often injected to the text. When confronted with a future, or present, where we humans will do our dumbest best to eradicate our own race and humanity via man-made natural catastrophes, artificial intelligence gone haywire, or cloning misuse, some people just want a cheerier picture. I'll take that.

But I also like sci-fi when it doesn't resolve and when it ends up asking more questions. Like what is the merit and value of reality, love, or one's existence in the face of being infinitesimal in this very large and cold universe?

By the way, if you know me, I'm really a very happy guy. Haha.

what we lost

RIP Alexis Tioseco. 1981-2009.

Have had a bad run at the movies lately. Last one I really liked was Adventureland. Though I was banking on Ryan Reynolds, The Proposal truly sucked. I'm really surprised that a lot of people liked it though. Which is why I guess there is an us and there is a them.

GI Joe also sucked. I mean it wasn't boring, but it could have been better in many ways. As a kid, I used to collect GI Joes. I used to buy them from Nova Fontana in Shoppesville for, I think, 70 bucks a figurine. I collected the vehicles and bases too. I thank my parents for indulging me and rue the day I decided to open my Joes and Cobras up and mix body parts. Youth is wasted on the young.

Also, after going through a bunch of interesting books, I am stuck at a very mediocre one.

That's all!

the Records

Max Records, the kid who plays the kid in Where The Wild Things Are, is interviewed on We Love You So.

Max is also the son of Shawn Records, the photographer.

If my last name was Records, I'd name my kids Hit and Broken. Hehe.

young adult fiction

Barry: Alam mo yung pains of being pure at heart?

Me: Ano yan, band?
Barry: No, yan ang current emotions ko.

That's how I found out, just recently, about the pretty cool, My Bloody Valentine-influenced, earnestly-named, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

POBPAH for short.

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I saw Greg Mottola's Adventureland last night. I wanted to see it for four reasons. One, it's set in a theme park, and theme parks really look great in mixed lighting. Two, it's a period piece! Set in my home decade, the 80's. Three, Yo La Tengo features prominently in the soundtrack, a soundtrack with a lot of 80's stuff that you didn't get from The Wedding Singer. Like Rock Me Amadeus. And four, it's written and directed by the guy who did Superbad.

Like Superbad, Adventureland is a coming-of-age flick (oh, reason number five) wherein characters navigate the choppy waters of post-adolescent life, wherein money and dreams, and sex and love, as always, weigh heavily on everyone's hearts.

I like how there is this whole bunch of actors who are providing an alternative honest and great performances to the well-chiseled bodies and botoxed faces of Hollywood. We've got that guy who played the older brother in The Squid And The Whale. We've got that girl who played Jodie Foster's daughter in Panic Room (and, hmm, Bella in Twilight). We've got that guy and girl from SNL, and this other guy from Party Down. And we've got, well, Ryan Reynolds in just about everything now.

Anyway, Adventureland is showing only in Ayala Cinemas and probably won't last more than a week. See it now.

Lots of stuff happening but I seriously can't bring myself to write about anything. I will force random content upon this blog.


My brother and his best bud, Marco, where production designers for the Cinemalaya 2009 entry, "Ang Panggagahasa Kay Fe (The Rapture of Fe)." We attended the premiere last night and I found myself actually liking the movie. I usually feel that one has to go through a gamut of heavy-handed, irony and humor deficient films to find gems (like Maximo, Jay and Endo) in Cinemalaya. But Fe was good. More than trying to be socially relevant, political or, god forbid, art, Fe was just an story told well.

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Finally got my film back from my US trip. It gave me an attack of self-doubt. Seriously. I've been doing this for long and I should be better. I should be constantly good, scratch that, I should be great.

But I'm not and I'm working on it.

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I turned thirty some days ago. I was toying with the idea of writing a list of thirty things. Like things I want to do, or things I know, or things about myself. But, god, can you imagine what a pompous ass I'd be?

I do know that I want to do more things that mean a lot to me this year. I'm saying I'm committing time, the most precious thing I've got, to making things that mean a lot to me. Hopefully it will have value for others too.

Also, I'm the luckiest sonovabitch in the world. In the stare down between the abyss and me, I'm holding my own. And it's because I've managed, by some fucking miracle of life, by some mystery of the universe, to surround myself with the awesomest people on earth. Even my dad says so. After my dinner last Sunday, he texted saying that he had a good time, and that my friends were all good people (natch!). That he could imagine me growing old with them and that it all reflects on how I've lived my life.

I like how he didn't care if I made any money or not. In my dad's eyes, I'm big time because of my friendships. Gee, Pa, I am only my father's son.

Anyway, I spent three continuous days last weekend just enjoying my friends and family and it was the best three days in a very good year so far. A very good year in an incredible life. Thanks Universe.

Away We Go

I made it a point to see Away We Go, the first joint effort of Sam Mendes and the writing team of authors Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. I came away really liking it despite some reviews that say that it's too quirky for its own good. I saw the quirk; I saw how some people can feel that the movie had caricatures not characters.

I, however, felt the emotional resonance to be strong and true. It may have something to do with me feeling a bit vulnerable and untethered, like the two characters deftly played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. Or that they are also close to me in age. This demographic, the late 20s/early 30s, is still uncharted territory. It's transition time. We move from having our own apartment to planting our roots, from holding a job to choosing our vocation, from having a girlfriend to finding our partner.

Yet, there is no formula. I like the idea that, no matter how much prep work, and no matter how scary, when it comes to things like parenthood, partnership, and life, we will have to wing it and hope for the best.

Sherlock Holmes

This is probably going to be way different from the stories I began to love after reading A Study In Scarlet, but I will still watch this Sherlock Holmes.

By the way, Robert Downey Jr both as Ironman and Sherlock Holmes? Damn him.

Away We Go

I don't know how I missed Away We Go. Looking forward to it already. 2009 feels like a great movie year.

creative juices

Spike Jonze and his band of merry persons have been blogging about all the lovely things that influenced them as they were making the potentially awesome film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are.

Of course it's got a pretty cool collection of production photos and videos. But the best things are the random things. Like this post about Paperhouse, a movie that is permanently seared in my memory because I was scared shitless watching it at my cousin's house during one of those endless summers in the late 80's. There is also a collection of photos from Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion. Very cool.

I finished Season 2 of The Wire. And I won't have Season 3 until for another couple of days. Suddenly I feel untethered and that my life has no meaning.

So I'm re-reading Kavalier and Clay. Or maybe Remains Of The Day. I really want a new, great book.

Speaking of Chabon, his first novel, The Mysteries Of Pittsburgh is now a movie with Sienna Miller in it. I really didn't enjoy the book much, and I'm looking forward to the Coen Brothers' adaptation of The Yiddish Policemen's Union instead. The Frozen Chosen... hehe.

Anyway here's the trailer for Mysteries, I'm not expecting much.

wake up

Aww.

HT: Ramon

shoot first sightsee later

So I've been back on my feet for some days now. Spent the weekend seeing friends, having dinners, getting a drink. I don't want to ever get sick again. I'm loading up on multivitamins, getting flu shots next time, and I should be watching what I eat. The last part's the toughest.

Anyway, the past week, when I was still under doctor's orders to stay home, I was lamenting (to myself) the dearth of good reads I've been having for the past months. It used to be that I could finish any book. Nowadays, if I don't get into it by the first couple of pages, I put the book down, and almost never reopen it again. I think it's partly age. You know what you want, you don't want to waste your time.

As soon as I was able to get out, I hit the bookstore and shopped for some books. First thing I found interesting was Thomas Pynchon's Against The Day. Pynchon is one of those guys tagged as one of America's greatest modern writers. Poor guy. He's sometimes mentioned in the same breath as Roth and McCarthy, which is good company. He's also almost as reclusive as Salinger. He does however turn up in the weirdest of places (i.e. cameos in The Simpsons, and supposedly in an interview for Playboy Japan).

Against The Day was published in 2006 and, from what I gather, is a whimsical, cross-genre, multiple-charactered epic that spans the time between the late 19th century (Chicago World Fair, 1893) and the WWI. I'm only on page 20 and I'm still getting the hang of it.

It seems already dense and ironic. So for to balance things out, I bought a Mario Puzo book too. While I enjoyed The Godfather and The Sicilian, and while I at least appreciated the shock value of The Family, this last one, The Fourth K, was just plain boring. It felt like a meandering, heavy-handed, melodramatic treatise on power and the covenant between government and the people. In the beginning of the book, the richest, most powerful man in the world got to be that way by amassing a never-heard-of wealth of ten billion dollars. I read that line, gave thanks for Dr. Evil, and checked when the damn book was published (1990).

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I just saw In Bruges awhile ago. Awesome. Everyone should watch it.

all day TV

I don't think I've spent this much time in front of the TV since... forever. Here's a list of what I stayed on to watch today:

1. The Pacers-Hawks game. Hawks are a good enough East team to make the playoffs again and easily handled the Pacers. But I have to say, TJ Ford is fearless.

2. The Pistons-Raptors game. Ever since Rip Hamilton was moved back to the starting spot he's always deserved, my Pistons have been winning again. That Antonio McDyess is playing like a 24-year old again is another huge factor. Good game, went into OT, with Detroit finally closing out the slumping Raptors.

3. The Benchwarmers. Rob Schneider movie, ugh, but about Little League, so cute.

4. Ghostbusters. Bill Murray, the 80s, Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man thrashing New York! Yeah!

5. Over Her Dead Body. I was bored and so was Paul Rudd making this movie, I bet.

6. Glory. Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman and Denzel are in this Civil War movie. For some weird reason, my brother and I love this movie, even if it feels a bit melodramatic now. But you gotta love the speeches about equality and freedom, and the operatic soundtrack. I think we even have it on video library, in VHS format. We've seen it so many times, we can recite the lines, and I still tear up in the same scenes. Watching it now as I type this. Hold on, they're about to attack Fort Wagner.

funny people

Aww, I can't wait.

HT Ramon.

injury

I did a bit of iPod housekeeping today. It was time. Out went Bruce Springsteen's Magic, and the whole lot of Mates of State. Some Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros stuff went out too. That made room for the soundtrack of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Ramon's downloadable playlist, a couple of songs from The Temper Trap (thanks Donna!) and The Frightened Rabbit's The Midnight Organ Flight.

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Last week, at my out-of-town shoot, I slept in the car in bad way and strained my neck. I have my full range of motion, but for awhile there was an acute pain whenever I'd turn my head or tilt it up and down. Now, it's a dull pain. And my neck still hellishly stiffens up when I sleep. Morning's are literally a pain in the neck.

So you know me during the rare times I'm unwell. I get really depressed, thinking the worst, and getting depressed over that. I feel like I have tumor in my neck/spine or something, or maybe I've broken it. I hate this feeling.

So I did the sensible thing. I went out and bought myself a new book and a pair of New Balance sneaks. The girls are on to something here.

(NB U410Bl, but in black, not this purplish one)

Watching Marley and Me didn't help either. I'm not really an animal movie watcher, but this one also had Jennifer Aniston's legs in it, and I've always felt some sympathy for Owen Wilson. The movie was actually solid, if not a bit heavy in the end. Who would've thunk.

Jay

Some spoilers ahead.

I saw Jay yesterday, and I think it deserved that Cinemalaya 2008 Best Film award. I found it to be intelligent, subtle, and solid.

The writer and director, Francis Xavier Pasion, was a senior Comm major when I was freshman back in the day. I think he was even a founder and the first president of The Loyola Film circle. So it's good to finally see his output, and a deftly made one at that.

Jay is the name of both a murdered gay teacher and the also gay TV producer documenting the aftermath of this death. And being one of those metafilms, it blurs the lines between truth, manufactured truth, and whatever the hell is left. My friends know that I have a bias against self-aware text. But Jay surprised me by being poignant without being annoyingly precious. For the most part.

One of the things that struck me about Jay was how the film was shot on a static, tripod-mounted camera, while the in-film's documentary camera was always moving and going for the money shot. In the static shots, the director even tosses out conventional blocking, and framing techniques allowing heads to be cut and the focus to be on anonymous, overlapping torsos.

I think it's a clever way to say something about the difference between the artificial beauty of manufactured truth and the artlessness of real life. The documentary footage shows a close-up of the mother mourning for her son in the morgue, bathed in warm, golden light. The film reveals this to be a reenactment. For the real event, the camera is set in a corner and we see a wide shot of the mother collapsing into a heap upon seeing her son's dead body in a fluorescent-lit, antiseptic morgue.

While this is all clever filmmaking, it's really the great dialogue and nuanced acting by Baron Geisler and Coco Martin that make Jay a gem. Combined with the stark imagery serving as backdrop, the humor and pathos that make for the authentic condition of the characters is clearly seen. All in all, good calls by the direk.

Yet, this film movie is slightly marred by, of all things, it's ending. I'm not going to spoil that, but I'll say this. This is the problem I have with self-aware text: I like how my favorite things, like books and films comment on life, so I get thrown off when these things comment on commenting on life. Jay's ending is one comment too many.

Jay opened the other day, and is showing in SM cinemas.

knowing is half the battle

They also aired a new Star Trek trailer and the Transformers sequel's trailer at Superbowl, but Paramount yanked it off Youtube. Boo! Who the heck doesn't want free viral marketing, I ask you.