4 Days (2016)

Should have been a short

This should have been just the least 30 minutes. Literally, the entire emotional epicenter of the story is captured, and beautifully so, in those last 30 or so minutes. If you want to enjoy this movie... my recommendation is to just FF until you see the mom in the dorm room and then just watch from there. Because then, suddenly, it's a fantastic short about coming out versus staying in the closet and being ready versus being out and the pain of being held in the closet but also the fear of leaving and it's really, really powerful and emotional.

The rest of the movie is not that. It's so, so slow up until this that it hurts this ending because by the time you get here you're just... done. And not in the good way. Not, like, being on one character's side.

If this were a thirty minute short, I would probably rewatch all the time. I do, actually rewatch those last thirty minutes occasionally because they're so good.

So... semi-recommended?

Read More

I don't know what to say

That's just my title I do know what to say...The 1st 42 minutes were painful. I didn't get that it was one day (VD's) over 4 years until the very end. I kept thinking when does the 4 days play into this? So I don't like to criticize someone's effort to push the art form. Great idea but it didn't manifest well for me. As others have said there is way too many dead scenes that seem to go on forever. ha-ha it was only 4 days....anyway, Sebastian did a great job looking younger then older...did he loose wait for the last year? Mikoy also looked different each year not really older in year 4 but different. I have to say I did think that Mark was a bit hard on Derek on the 4th day. There was no reference about talking about this before the 1 year anniversary, I think for substances sake it should have been mentioned either way. Anyway, he got his way but geez is that the message we want to give here? Explode on your closeted partner to get him to come out? Maybe this should have been a short. I do have to say I do have some sort of satisfaction from experiencing this movie, most of it was during my typing of this review. Think about it....

Read More

A bit of berger Hawaii in a Filipino way. The tension wasn't like that, but I appreciate the effort. The story takes place on a university campus where Mark and Derek are roommates and where they discover their first love together. For Pinoy movies with a gay theme, the film is very "chaste", and that's probably how it should have been. The main roles are played by two singers and it is the first time for both of them to play the main acting roles, and the interesting thing is that certain scenes had to be improvised by both boys. Sebastian Castro is a famous YouTuber and gay singer, and Mikoy Morales even composed and sang the music for the film. Friendship, affection, love(?). For me, a solid Pinoy movie that would sound better with a translation or dubbing (ha ha), which is definitely not going to happen.

Read More