Sunday, April 21, 2024

Peter Pan

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Mr. and Mrs. Darling are the proud parents of three wonderful children named Wendy, John, and Michael. Also part of the family are their nannies: a dog named Nana and a househelp by the name of Liza. The family lives a rather ordinary life in London without much fanfare, at least not until the arrival of Peter Pan. Peter Pan is a young boy who still has all his first teeth and is part of the Lost Boys, a tribe of youngsters like him who reside in Neverland. Peter visits Wendy’s room one night and convinces her, along with her brothers, to fly with him back to Neverland to be his and the Lost Boys’ mother. Despite the initial hesitation of Tinkerbell, Peter Pan’s fairy sidekick, they all make it back to Neverland and face off with Captain Hook, a villainous ship captain who has an axe to grind with the young boy.

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Fahrenheit 451

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In a dystopian future where houses have become fireproof, the concept of a fireman is repurposed to serve a more sinister role, which is that of starting fires instead of extinguishing them. The unfortunate victims of such raids are not people but rather books, which society and the current powers-that-be have deemed useless and too dangerous for everyone’s sake. Anyone caught harboring books gets a visit from the firemen and are put under arrest right after the arson, with some opting to burn with their library instead. One such fireman is Guy Montag, who comes home from work on a seemingly normal day running into an eclectic young girl called Clarisse who makes him reflect about his choices in life as well as his role in the status quo’s tyranny. Once he starts asking questions, much to the chagrin of his suicidal but mostly aloof wife Mildred, he begins to search for answers for a reality he does not remember ever signing up for.

Saturday, April 13, 2024

Beowulf

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King Hrothgar of the Danes has had a long and prosperous rule, but is now left to worry in old age as his great hall, Heorot, is terrorized by a monster named Grendel whose emergence from his lake is becoming more and more frequent as he feasts on the king’s men. The horror is felt throughout the kingdom and all hope now seems to be gone when a brave warrior from the north docks on the king’s shores. Beowulf comes from the land of the Geats and has a debt to pay to the Danish king dating back to their forebears. He gives his word that he will get rid of the monster. The king promises fortune and fame in exchange. True enough, he accomplishes his mission and everyone rejoices, celebrating his bravery and heroism, until Grendel’s equally monstrous mother decides to pay Heorot a visit to avenge his son.

Saturday, April 6, 2024

Hamlet

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One cold night at the castle of Elsinore in the Kingdom of Denmark, two guards see a ghost at the ramparts that they assume to be that of the previous king. His son Hamlet, prince of Denmark, is led to see his father’s ghost and ends up having a conversation with him. The old Hamlet tells the young about his brother Claudius, the new king, and how he murdered him so he could take over the kingdom and snatch his wife, Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. The young prince then undergoes a cycle of psychotic visions and rants, contemplating whether to avenge his father and depose his uncle. His madness spirals out of control, resulting in an accidental death and the souring of his romance with Ophelia, daughter of Polonius, the chief counselor of the king. The king decides to send his nephew to England for execution, but he eventually makes his way back to Denmark to settle things between them for good.

Friday, April 5, 2024

Mrs Dalloway

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Clarissa Dalloway goes for her early morning walk as she contemplates how her day will unfold. The wife of a politician, she is accustomed to hosting parties attended by the who’s who of London society. The beautiful yet mundane morning prompts her to reflect about the choices she has made in life, in particular her marriage to Richard instead of her childhood friend Peter Walsh, an Anglo-Indian who has proposed to her back then who is now on the verge of divorcing his wife to marry another woman he met in India. His unannounced visit in the afternoon comes as a shock to Clarissa, disturbing her party preparation and repair of her dress. Meanwhile, WWI veteran Septimus Warren Smith is suffering from PTSD after his harrowing experience in the war. His Italian wife Lucrezia gets the brunt of his husband’s hallucinations and misses home, wondering whether she made the right decision to marry him.

Saturday, March 30, 2024

Ilustrado

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Self-exiled “Panther of Philippine Letters” Crispin Salvador is found lifeless and floating on the Hudson River. His untimely death is met with nonchalance back in his native Philippines, quickly dismissed as a suicide by both his detractors and rivals alike. The investigators arrive at the same conclusion, but not everyone is convinced. One of those with doubts is Miguel, his protégé at Columbia who has become more than a close acquaintance through the years. The plot thickens when the student receives an email, presumably from his recently deceased mentor, asking him to fly back to Manila to find his daughter Dulcinea who might just be in possession of his unfinished obra maestra, a manuscript with the working title “The Bridges Ablaze” that promises to expose prominent figures back home. As Miguel deplanes, he is confronted not just by the quest for finding his teacher’s estranged daughter, but also by the life he has decided to leave behind when he decided to settle in New York.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Poor Things

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What’s supposed to be the end of a life becomes the beginning of a new one after a failed suicide attempt, albeit with some mental degradation involved that requires relearning the basics. Now known as Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), she becomes the experiment of renowned surgeon Godwin “God” Baxter (Willem Dafoe) who tries to treat her as a mere science project yet can’t distance himself enough emotionally to not serve as her new father figure. He enlists the help of his best medical student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) to chart her progress and is eventually designated as her fiancé after witnessing their fondness for one another. Due to the unique and delicate condition of his ward, God employs promiscuous lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) to draft a special nuptial contract. Out of curiosity, he goes out of his way to get to know the subject of the document and is immediately smitten by her, taking advantage of her naivety and convincing her to run away with him to Portugal, which serves as her first stop in discovering the world and, in effect, rediscovering life itself.

Thursday, February 15, 2024

I Am Not Big Bird

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Bank clerk Luis Carpio (Enrique Gil) is proposing to his girlfriend of five years only to be turned down because of his small dick and vow of celibacy before marriage that he is committed to. Feeling dejected, he turns to his two best friends for solace. July (Red Ollero) mans an internet card stall at some random highway while Macky (Nikko Natividad) is a closeted homosexual who is outed to his military officer father out of the blue after a botched hookup. Looking for an escapist getaway to avoid facing their problems in life, the trio decide to book a flight to Thailand in order to forget. They find themselves a tour guide in Prajak Tithi (Pepe Herrera) who lures them to a shady nightclub to be scammed. Things go awry when Luis is mistaken for legendary porn star Big Bird (Enrique Gil) who is wanted by his scorned business partner Deborah (Wipawee Charoenpura) for one final hit porn flick.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Madame Web

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1973. A pregnant scientist doing research on radioactive spiders in the Peruvian Amazon is betrayed by her guide and fatally shot. A group of tribesmen with spider-like abilities takes her in and saves her unborn child through a spider bite. 30 years later, Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) believes her life has turned out just fine doing the rounds in the foster care system. A near death experience as a paramedic triggers something within her, resulting in heightened senses and precognitive visions, one of which is the murder of three girls by a man in a black spider suit. Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) has not aged in the last three decades but is hounded by recurring nightmares of three young Spider-Women teaming up to murder him. Soon, all of their paths finally cross. Cassandra takes it upon herself to be the protector of Julia (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya (Isabel Merced), who will all grow up to be a different variant of Spider-Woman.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Mean Girls (2024)

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Homeschooled for much of her life, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) returns to America after spending most of her childhood in Kenya. She immediately feels out of place in a typical high school setting ruled by cliques. Eclectic duo Janis (Auli’i Carvalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) are about to reluctantly adopt her when the queen of the plastics herself, Regina George (Reneé Rapp), lays eyes on her. The rest is history. The trio hatches a plan to knock Regina off her ivory tower by turning her drones against her, namely: confidante extraordinaire Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Wood); and not-so-bright Karen Shetty (Avantika). As their scheme wreaks havoc on the unsuspecting high school populace, it is up to Math teacher Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey) and Principal Duvall (Tim Meadows) to do their best to patch up the delicate web of high school drama. Will their intervention be enough or does someone have to be run over by a big yellow school bus to drive the point home?

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Anatomie d'une chute

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German novelist Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller) is being interviewed by a student in her Grenoble home when Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis), her husband, begins playing disruptively loud music from their attic that effectively cuts the interview short. Their blind son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner) goes out for a walk with his Border Collie and later finds his father’s dead body on the snow when he comes back. As mother and son call an ambulance for what seems to be an accidental fall, the police enter the picture and an investigation begins with Sandra as the main suspect. As the prosecution presents evidence after evidence that what occurred might have been premeditated murder, the couple’s marriage and dirty laundry are displayed for an entire jury to dissect. Did he kill himself? Did she? Or was it an accident? Those are the questions, but the answers are simply too hard to come by.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Past Lives

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Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) and Nora Moon (Greta lee) have found a soul mate in each other early on in their lives, evidenced by their inseparable bond as adolescents in early 2000’s Seoul. Their puppy love is short-lived, though, as Nora’s parents find an opportunity to migrate to Canada. While the two teenagers attempt to keep their budding relationship alive despite being separated by time zones and an ocean, they eventually drift apart. 12 years later, he has just concluded his mandatory military service while she, on the other hand, moves to New York to pursue her dreams of becoming a writer. An unexpected Facebook comment reconnects the two and they immediately rekindle their friendship through frequent video calls, but never get to convince one another to actually meet. After falling out, another 12 years pass. Nora is now married to fellow writer Arthur (John Magaro) while Hae Sung finally gets the courage and the ticket to fly to New York, but is he 24 years too late?

Friday, January 5, 2024

Mallari

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1812. Doña Facunda Mallari (Gloria Diaz) arrives in Pampanga to accompany her son Juan Severino (Piolo Pascual) who will soon be ordained as that parish’s priest. They are welcomed by Maria Capac (Ge Villamil) who will be instrumental in the mother-and-son’s descent to madness. 1940. Photojournalist Johnrey Mallari (Piolo Pascual) meets an older Maria Capac (Vangie Labalan) and her assistant Conching (April Sangco) as he moves into the ancestral home. He finds out that he can time travel via astral projection to the past and future, observing the older Mallari in 1812 and meeting a boy from the future who is his descendant. 2023. Doctor Jonathan Mallari de Dios (Piolo Pascual) heads back to their ancestral house accompanied by Brother Lucas Alarcon Segundo (JC Santos) in search for answers as he is persistently hounded by a nightmare involving his fiancé Agnes’ (Janella Salvador) death.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Penduko

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Gifted with supernatural abilities, Pedro Penduko (Matteo Guidicelli) lives his life as a bum despite having good potential, using his powers for what would be considered as petty crime if discovered. Things change for him when he is stalked by a recruiter working for Hatinggabi, an agency hosting an underground magic academy and providing income opportunities for people like him. Headed by enigmatic Gat Blanco (Albert Martinez), the school consists of instructors teaching the likes of sensing spirits, creating talismans, and healing those who are maliciously attacked by other gifted individuals that use their abilities to inflict harm. Pedro trains with strong willed Liway (Kylie Versoza) who becomes his buddy as they transition from students to field agents. Meanwhile, their other classmate Saki (Arron Villaflor), who has dark inclinations, fails to graduate and is hired by competing agency Takipsilim, also headed by Blanco but conceptualized for more sinister purposes. In the end, Pedro comes face to face with his father Apo Tisot (John Arcilla), a powerful gifted individual who prefers to help rural indigents instead of capitalizing on his gifts.

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Kampon

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Married couple Clark (Derek Ramsay) and Eileen (Beauty Gonzales) would love to have kids and are constantly bombarded with questions as to when they will finally have one. The problem is his impotence. While they have already consulted various doctors at her behest, even the wonders of modern medicine just couldn’t help them. And so imagine her surprise when one rainy night they find a little girl named Jade (Erin Espiritu) at their doorstep who inexplicably bypasses the fortress-like defenses of their home to introduce herself as his daughter. Not only is Jade creepy, she also has some cryptic messages at hand, talking about how her mother Loreta (Zeinab Harake) could not “come back” and, thus, necessitates Clark’s help, even though she could not verbalize how. The plot thickens when the paternity test turns out positive and the couple are now forced to keep the kid. Soon enough, zombie-like individuals start haunting them inside and outside their house.

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Rewind

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For married couple Mary (Marian Rivera) and John (Dingdong Dantes), it was love at first sight. Their love story begins at primary school and continues to grow stronger through the years until it ends in a marriage proposal followed by a whirlwind romance leading to family life. Blessed with a piano prodigy for a son whom they name Austin (Jordan Lim), it should be happily ever after for this family of three, but life just happens. There are career promotions to pursue and childhood grudges to hold. After a vehicular accident claims Mary’s life, John is visited by the electrician she hired to install lights for his surprise birthday party, a guy named Jess (Pepe Herrera) whom he mistakes for Lods, his son’s moniker for Jesus Christ. But is he really? In any case, he grants him a favor so he can go back in time to save his wife, if he is willing to die in her place.

Monday, January 1, 2024

Family of Two

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Widowed single mother Maricar (Sharon Cuneta) has dedicated much of her life to raising her only son Mateo (Alden Richards). Now that he is almost in his 30’s and ready to take on life alone, he begins to question her unconditional love even though he is grateful for everything she does for him. When he finally gets the courage to ask his office crush Czarina (Miles Ocampo) out, they immediately become a couple. Issues arise when both of them are offered a lateral transfer to Singapore by their boss. She quickly says yes, but he is reluctant due to his mother. In preparation for such news, he decides that the best way to make the separation less painful for her is to have her continue her life without him at the center of it. And so he creates an online dating profile for her in hopes of finding her a love life. She doesn’t take it well. At first.

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