ALL FILM REVIEWS
‘Primetime’ REVIEW: The Seduction of Moral Certainty
Lance Oppenheim’s ‘Primetime’ suggests that moral certainty can reveal something ugly in the people who possess it as easily as in the people they condemn. Human beings want justice, but we also enjoy the relief of knowing exactly who the villain is, especially when that certainty allows us to feel innocent by comparison. Hansen spends the film looking across the room at men he believes have exposed their true nature; by the end, the camera has turned the same question back on everyone watching.
‘Digger’ REVIEW: An Uneven but Compelling Portrait of Climate Guilt
Disaster becomes easier to live with when responsibility can be distributed until no one feels personally accountable for what happened. ‘Digger,’ directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, is most interesting when it examines that instinct, especially the human desire to turn catastrophe into argument, entertainment, or history rather than confront the choices that created it.
‘Mono No Aware’ REVIEW: The Meaning of Temporary Things
‘Mono No Aware,’ directed by BC Amparado, begins from that awareness and turns it into a study of loneliness, work, memory, and the ways people become distant from one another long before death makes that distance permanent.
‘Edjop’ REVIEW: The Defiant Act of Remembering
Directed by Katski Flores, ‘Edjop’ looks at Edgar “Edjop” Jopson through both his political life and the daughter who grew up largely without him. This gives the film an intimate perspective on a familiar historical figure, although its personal approach sometimes comes at the expense of the political history surrounding him.
‘Tayo Lang Ang Nakakaalam’ REVIEW: The Weight of What We Know and What We Don’t
David R. Corpuz’s ‘Tayo Lang Ang Nakakaalam’ looks beyond HIV as a diagnosis and examines the conditions that can make seeking help difficult in the first place.
‘Backrooms’ REVIEW: The Horror of Familiar Spaces
Adapted from his popular YouTube series, Kane Parsons' ‘Backrooms’ is less frightening because of its monsters than because of what it presents about memory. The endless maze becomes a reflection of memory itself, trapping its characters inside imperfect versions of the past that they can revisit but never truly return to.
Y2Cinema 2026 OMNIBUS REVIEW
The fifth edition of Y2Cinema features films from emerging Ilokano student filmmakers that capture the theme of memory and nostalgia. Taking place last February 16, 2026, at Mariano Marcos State University’s Teatro Ilocandia, the eight featured short films tackle friendships, moments of love, and the shaping of identity.
‘5 Centimeters Per Second’ REVIEW: The Distance That Time Can’t Resolve
Yoshiyuki Okuyama’s ‘5 Centimeters Per Second’ stays faithful to the original and expands on what made Makoto Shinkai’s film resonate, reflecting on life after two people grow apart.
‘A Special Memory’ REVIEW: Love, Memory, and the Depth the Story Never Reaches
‘A Special Memory’ asks what happens when love must compete with forgetting. It’s a powerful premise, though the film never fully explores the emotional depth behind it.
3rd PeliCuliat Film Festival OMNIBUS REVIEW: Competing and Non-Competing Films
Now in its third year, the PeliCuliat Film Festival keeps Kapampangan stories at the center; family, love, grief, social realities, and history shaped by emerging filmmakers.
‘Wuthering Heights’ REVIEW: The Romance of Erosion
Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ favors atmosphere over brutality; visually striking, emotionally suggestive, but hesitant to fully embrace the ruin it gestures toward.
‘Unmarry’ REVIEW: The Cost of Unmaking a Marriage
‘Unmarry’ by Jeffrey Jeturian explores annulment as a grueling negotiation with law, memory, and selfhood. Anchored by strong performances, the film is restrained, compassionate, and at times, heartbreaking.
37th Gawad Alternatibo OMNIBUS REVIEW
The Gawad CCP Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video, commonly referred to as Gawad Alternatibo, remains a testament to the enduring power of alternative cinema as a space for voices that push, question, and reimagine. Across narrative, experimental, documentary, and animation short films, this year’s lineup brings together works that move away from familiar formulas and instead sit with stories that are often overlooked, uneasy, or hard to pin down. These films are grounded in lived experience, shaped by personal, political, and social realities, and made with an intent to question how stories are usually told. For 37 years, the Gawad Alternatibo continues to champion alternative filmmaking as a form of resistance.
‘Bar Boys: After School’ REVIEW: The Hardest Lesson on Dreams, Loss, and the Pursuit of Justice
‘Bar Boys: After School’ follows former dreamers who have already crossed the finish line they once chased, only to find themselves facing a different kind of uncertainty. Ten years pass, and the film places licensed lawyers beside struggling students, showing how ambition does not vanish with success but takes a new shape. The film carries familiar lives forward and opens the story into a reflection on fatigue, compromise, and a form of hope that persists within a system that fails to meet people halfway.
Pelikultura 2025 OMNIBUS REVIEW: ST Shorts Premiere and #BuhayElbi
Pelikultura: The CALABARZON Film Festival returns for its 2025 run with new stories and forms of storytelling about Southern Tagalog. The festival is more than a celebration of Southern Tagalog’s pride and diversity, but also a reminder of how cinema is a form of resistance that mirrors the lived realities of the people living in the region. ST Shorts Premiere and #BuhayElbi are the festival's main highlights, highlighting stories about the region as well as homegrown storytellers from Los Baños, where the festival started. Pelikultura continues to become a platform for regional filmmakers and a catalyst for driving regional cinema representation.
‘Showgirls’ REVIEW: Divine Camp Takes the Limelight
‘Showgirls’ leans hard into Verhoeven’s excess, satire, and sharp camp. Its neon world runs on illusion, and that noise turns into a strange pulse. The film pushes forward, slipping between critique and absurdity, and still leaves a mark that sticks.

