Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 123

Every movie we see #84: The thrilling pseudo-science of Lucy

77. Bwaya. 78. Ronda. 79. Children’s Show. 80. 1st Ko Si 3rd. 81. Dagitab. 82. Separados. 83. The Janitor Luc Besson’s Lucy takes off from the old canard that humans use only ten percent of their brain capacity. Some people would be lucky to have ten percent of a brain. It is silly, exciting and […]

Reading year 2014: In George R.R. Martin’s Westeros prequel, the thrill of battle and the horror of war

Dangerous Women, all new tales of powerful women from Jim Butcher (We love The Dresden Files), Diana Gabaldon, Lev Grossman, Brandon Sanderson, George R.R. Martin et al. Edited by GRRM and Gardner Dozois. Hardcover, Php1399 at National Bookstores. We were so excited to read the new George R.R. Martin novella, a prequel to A Song […]

Lauren Bacall, 89

Here she is, saying goodbye in To Have and Have Not.

Cinemalaya X: The Economics of Indie Cinema

At the Cinemalaya awards night last Sunday, the talk was less about the art and craft of film than intellectual property rights and economics. The previous day, filmmakers from the 8th and 9th editions of the annual indie film festival discovered that their films had been uploaded to YouTube in their entirety. The films were […]

Robin Williams is dead.

He was found dead in his house, an apparent suicide. We practically memorized Robin Williams Live At The Met, and still use his jokes in everyday conversation (“It was dark, it was light, it was dark, it was light,” “…pants so tight you can see what religion they are,” etc). We suddenly remembered that New […]

The Piollow Experience, a bekimmentary

A Bekimmentary by Allan Carreon and Deo Giga We sent the Minister of Propaganda and the Lord of the Thesaurus to the press launch for the E! News Asia special on Philippine King of Heartthrobs Piolo Pascual. Here is their report. Lord of the Thesaurus (LOT): Ohmygawd! I just came from the bathroom. Guess who […]

Deficits are not limits: The defective heroes of Guardians of the Galaxy

Leagues and legions of superheroes are usually effective as a direct result of the union of each member’s unique abilities, whether they include super-human strength, lightning-speed, telepathy, or other powers that individually define each of them as a deserved hero and collectively create an unstoppable force. In Guardians of the Galaxy, we’re introduced to a […]

Cinemalaya X reviews: K’na the Dreamweaver, #Y and the triumph of the milieu

K’na the Dreamweaver. “You must see the big picture,” the old dreamweaver tells her granddaughter, and the filmmakers follow her advice in this beautiful movie that makes us want to book a ticket to Lake Sebu right now. #Y. “Having no right to be unhappy is not the same as being happy,” says Miles (Elmo […]

Cinemalaya X reviews: Mariquina, Sundalong Kanin

Mariquina – A shoemaker commits suicide, and as his daughter looks back on his sad life we wonder why he didn’t kill himself sooner. A good movie with fine performances, we just weren’t in the mood. Sundalong Kanin – An epic subject treated like an amateur theatrical: one character delivers a speech, the others look […]

Cinemalaya X review: Super Nova

When we were kids, we tuned in every week to a TV show called Chicks to Chicks. The very title marks it as an artifact from the early days of women’s liberation, when attractive women were routinely referred to as young chickens. It was the martial law era, so any discussion of politics or unpleasant […]