Filipino Palette: Insiang (Spoilers!)

'No one can help me but myself.'

I think now is the time to start talking more about Philippine cinema and those who contributed to it. These days, Philippine cinema mainly consists of comedy, and sometimes even rehashed plots from other dramas but has slowly and fortunately made way for original filmmakers to make films worth talking about. This is going to be my first entry in a new series called Filipino Palette where I will be talking about films made locally and my first entry is going to be about 1976's Insiang which was the first Filipino film shown at the Cannes Film Festival and directed by the late Lino Brocka starring Hilda Koronel, Mona Lisa, Rez Cortez, Marlon Ramirez, Ruel Vernal and Nina Lorenzo. Insiang (Hilda Koronel) is a young woman living in the slums of Tondo, Manila with her mother Tonya (Mona Lisa), outside their small shack she is seen as the object of attention to men, and catches the unwanted attention of her mother's much younger boyfriend Dado (Ruel Vernal), a butcher and the alpha male of the slums who charms his way into her and her mother's life. Insiang feels lonely despite being surrounded by people everyday but she has allies in her best friend Ludy (Nina Lorenzo), who runs a sari-sari store in the slums with her family, Insiang's aimless boyfriend Bebot (Rez Cortez) a mechanic and gambler and Nanding (Marlon Ramirez), Ludy's younger brother who admires her from afar but all are powerless against Dado's hold on the slums and Insiang.

Western Wednesday: True Grit (1969)

'Fill your hands you son of a bitch!'

True Grit is one of my favorite western stories ever told and although I loved the Coen Brothers 2010 remake and having never read the book by Charles Portis it left an everlasting impression on me. This version stars John Wayne, Kim Darby, Glen Campbell as our unlikely trio, directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Hal B. Wallis. Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) arrives at Fort Smith to take her father's body back home to Yell County but ends up staying to settle her father's affairs, and sets out to find the man who killed him she hires the unorthodox U.S. Marshal Reuben 'Rooster' Cogburn (John Wayne), but the presence of the Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Glen Campbell) who is also in search of her father's killer Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), for committing a different crime complicates things. Cogburn and La Boeuf plan to ditch Mattie but she catches up and is permitted to ride along. Together the unlikely trio goes deep into Native-American territory to find Chaney and Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall) and his gang.

Review: Joker

There is no punchline. 

I can't recall another film that's received a lot of heat before it came out due to the main character being a very popular villain in pop culture like the Joker.  I have no doubts that once the audiences see it over the weekend it'll get everyone talking about it especially those like me who were reserving their judgement until the film came out. Media outlets have already given out warnings that the film is dangerous and might influence certain groups of people to start mass shootings. To be frank, the talk around the film since before it came out made me feel like I've already seen it because of all the controversy surrounding it. People's fears are justifiable but one can't help but feel that this applies more to American audiences because of their history in mass shootings. Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Douglas Hodges and Dante Periera-Olson and directed by Todd Phillips. A failed stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) walks the streets of Gotham City looking for connection, bullied and rejected Fleck slowly descends into madness and murder which ushers in his ascension as Gotham's Clown Prince of Crime.

Top 5 Anticipated Films Coming Out in Late-2019

We're finally in the second half of 2019 and as disappointed as I am at the films that came out this year at least we have a few anticipated films coming out soon. So far in the first half of 2019 we've been subjected to highlights of the year such as Avengers: Endgame but later this year is where the ball really gets rolling as well as the variety of films that's about to come out soon. I've been looking forward to some of these anticipated films for a very long time, and also some have gone under the radar but became part of my list.