This review may contain spoilers
It hooks you up... somehow. It needed some better writing!
In all honesty, as soon as I pressed "play" to this movie, I was feeling unsure. The first few scenes looked not only low-budget, but also low-camera-quality. Luckily. it gets better... somehow.PLOT (6.5/10):
Nathan is a lifestyle photographer. While in a bar, his attention gets instantly caught by a guy named Emman. They locked eyes and flirted from afar... but nothing happens.
Emman is a student and an activist. He's part of a movement that seems quite organized, but ultimately FAILS in give to the audience plenty enough information about itself. I'm not from Philliphines, so I have no idea if that movement is real or if its goals are clear enough for them which is why they didn't bother to explain better.
While in rallying against tuition fee increase, Emman and Nathan met, and the "love story" begins. About this scene in particular, I have no idea why Emman run away with Nathan in his car. There's more people involved struggling against ONE security guard, and no one else ran, just the two of them. We didn't even see the two of them struggling together, or Nathan "rescuing" Emman. So that was really bad executed.
PLOT TWISTS [PT] (8.5/10) (Warning: Heavy Spoilers):
The twists and turns were actually the best thing about this film. The movie relies heavily on flashbacks to tell the love story that has already ended, but we don't know that right from the very beggining. You surely can suspect that, but you still don't know why.
PT N°1: The student movement (in which Emman is envolved) wants to take some congressman to justice for some scam (that the movie fails to explain). That congressman turns out to be Nathan's "godfather". In other words, his mother's lover. Later, we learn that the mother is also persecuted by law.
PT N°2: Being in two different stages of life and two opposites sides of a conflict wasn't enough, because, at the end, Nathan seems to be willing to support Emman. They have already professed their love for each other at this point, and those lovey-dovey words: "You are mine!". But, wait... it's time for a new reveal! ... Emman already has a boyfriend. It is implied that he has been in a relationship way before meeting Nathan. This third person (Vince) even gives allowance to Emman and pays his tuition!
PT N°3: As soon as Nathan learns that he has being played by Emman, he dumps him. I was actually impressed but this realistic depiction of a person with a minimun of dignity, who was strong enough to get out of a relationship after being deceived this way. He didn't really "fight for his man", which is the usual route in this kind of movies. So I really loved this.
I'm OK with "open relationship" and "Throuples". But those two have something in common: previous agreement of both or three parties. If you learn that your partner has another person along the way... there's no way in hell I'm gonna be OK with that. This is why the second half of the movie got way more enternaining for me.
PT N°4: Some people never stay for midcredit or postcredit scenes. Well, I'm not one of those.
By the last scenes of the movie, Emman keeps asking Nathan for another chance because he loves him very much... however, he also loves Vince and he's not willing to give up on his sugar-daddy. Emman keeps insisting "I'll be back", but after Nathan says something like "Drop Vince, and then come back"... well, Emman just leaves without saying a word and Nathan cries. The End.
.... Then, came the midcredits. Someone knocks on the door. Nathan thinks "oh, Emman came back". But no, as soon as he opens the door a familiar face gets inside the house. The pizza guy (Ivan) from very early in the movie, in the scene when Nathan and Emman met and then went to Nathan's house for netflix and chill. In that particular scene, we see how the pizza delivery guy just enters to the house, giving a sense of familiarity with the place and with Nathan. Now, in the very last scene of the movie, we learn that Nathan and Ivan are in some kind of relationship. They say and do somethings that at the very leadt implies they are "now", but it makes you question if they have been together all along.
WRITING (6/10)
The writing involving the main couple is ok, quite realistic sometimes (specially the whole breakup and after breakup). They hit the clishes and even tried some risky choices.
The writing that involves the student movement and the organization, the politic scam/corruption was bad.
ACTING (7/10)
It's kinda mixed, honestly. Some better than others, There's also the problem of some characters being written better than others. So, overall:
- The actor playing Nathan was, PERFORMANCE-WISE, the best. I'm not saying it was a strong performance, but was more than enough. Maybe his loud crying could improve, but his silent crying was on point! By the end of the movie, I believed his words, and I believed he has dignity, which is way underrated.
- The actor playing Emman was so-so. Sometimes good, sometimes not. I didn't get the level of emotion that he was trying to portray. Still, I'm not saying it was bad, just "not as good".
- The actor playing Raven fine. He's whole objective was to be flirtatious at the beggining (to fuck with Emman, which didn't showed to us, but I believed it happened) and then, flirtatious again with Nathan when he was brokenhearted (and, yeah, also fuck him... which we did get to see). Meaning, he wasn't a major character, but his performance was really convincing. Also, really nice ass.
- The actors playing Nathan's mother and Congressman Ignacio were... meh. Average performances, but the script didn't alow them to shine in any way or form.
- The actors playing Ruel and the Organization Leader were no good. I blame the writing. They didn't speak much, specially Ruel, but they failed to make an impression.
- The actor playing Vince was just OK.
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