Reviews

Lino Brocka's "Ang Tatay Kong Nanay" (My Father, My Mother, roughly, 1978) is the master filmmaker's one collaboration with the near-universally acknowledged King of Philippine Comedy, Dolphy (Rodolfo Vera Quizon). Screen legends working with famed filmmakers rarely if ever create sure bets; it's something of a surprise, then that the resulting picture from these two is so straightforwardly poignant, laced with just enough humor to wriggle past one's defenses.

Lino Brocka's "Tatlo, Dalawa, Isa" (Three, Two, One, 1974) shows the filmmaker's versatility in the short form, working with various writers.

The first segment, Tony Perez's "Mga Hugis ng Pag-asa" (Faces of Hope) has Jay Ilagan play Noni, a drug addict struggling in a drug rehabilitation center. And while the segment is generally considered to be the weakest of the three, it does feature cinematographer Romy Vitug's fine monochromatic camerawork, and the startling image of Ilagan being shaved of all his hair (a shockingly traumatic sight when I first saw it at the tender age of nine).

ROGUE MAGAZINE, Gallery, August 2007

“Losing it. Journey into the heart of madness with Unitel Pictures’ atmospheric psycho-thriller, Blackout.”

WE ALL HATE LOSING THINGS, be it an object of great sentimental value, a cellphone that contains all the numbers we need to live by, a job, a loved one. Once you name it, loss is never easy to deal with. Losing our minds and losing our touch with reality is probably the most frightening of all, and our descent into madness is made even more dramatic if we are unaware that we are “losing it” in the first place.

CRITIC AFTER DARK: A REVIEW OF PHILIPPINE CINEMA

“Tinimbang Judged Today”
By Noel Vera (www.bigozine2.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html)

TINIMBANG KA NGUNIT KULANG (You Were Weighed and Found Wanting, 1974) was in many ways a seminal work in contemporary Philippine cinema. It was one of the rare quality films of the ‘70s to enjoy commercial success. It announced Lino Brocka, previously known as a skilful commercial director, as a major Filipino artist.

CRITIC AFTER DARK: A REVIEW OF PHILIPPINE CINEMA

“Insiang: One Happy Family”
By Noel Vera (www.bigozine2.com/theshop/books/NVcritic.html)

Insiang is arguably Brocka’s masterpiece --- it’s his most intense work, the intensity sustained from beginning almost to end. It has the best-structured screenplay of all his pictures (by Lamberto Antonio, based on the original television script by Mario O’hara); it’s also one of his most typical, and atypical of even most other Filipino films.