Lead Character's Top Ten Favorite Movies of the Noughties

I'm lazy so I will not bother telling the story why I love these movies. I would just have to list them all. Happy New Year, Lead Character fans! ;)

10. Mga Pusang Gala (2005), Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil

9. This Is England (2006), Shane Meadows

8. Y tu mamá también (2001), Alfonso Cuarón

7. Requiem for a Dream (2000), Darren Aronofsky

6. Engkwentro (2009), Pepe Diokno

5. Rachel Getting Married (2008), Jonathan Demme

4. Closer (2004), Mike Nichols

3. Lost In Translation (2003), Sofia Coppola

2. Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (2005), Auraeus Solito

1. There Will Be Blood (2007), P.T. Anderson

Runners Up:
Das Leben Der Anderen (2006), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Amores Perros (2000), Alejandro González Iñárritu
Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Danny Boyle
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003), Peter Jackson
Love Actually (2003), Richard Curtis
De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté (2005), Jacques Audiard

Sci-Hi '99 10-Year High School Reunion Live Blog

Just got here at Microtel for our Tanned @ Ten, Sci-Hi 99's 10-year high school reunion.

Present so far are Paul Y, Carina, Joy M., Joy B., Abigail Cruz, Julius C., Simpay, Den2x, Anna Monisit (whose first comment is that I'd gone chubby!!!), Anbern, John Misa, and of course, yours truly.

Polyne L. and Marlou Q. were sent home for not wearing all-white.

Here's a snapshot of me and Joy B. on our way to Microtel.

4:54PM: More people have arrived: June Ediza, Joan T., Ethel Jo, John Maunes.

5:03PM: The arrival of the Naning Girls: Joy P., Aileen O., Kristine E., Shereen (is this how her name is spelled? I'm so sorry Shereen!), and Michelle M. OMG, Michelle M. looks effing hot. Honest!

5:10PM: Things are quiet for now. Probably because we're all hungry. I, for one, am VERY hungry.

Thanks for the comments, Tim! Wish you were here! Ma-micture sa ko. Joy B. is chatting right now with Tim and Chiqui on YM. Julius hinted people will be thrown into the pool later. I hope not. I cannot take my shirt off because of large, distinct hickies. It's a hot mess.

5:18PM: Cathy G. just arrived. They're singing "Maayong buntag kapamilya" to her (or at her? Hehehe).

Here are more pictures:

Kristine Echica, I'm sorry for calling you a bitch earlier! You're very nice. :)

5:33PM: We're about to start. Joy B. will be leading the prayer, Prayer for the Nation by Ferdinand Marcos - the very 30-minute prayer we used to recite back in high school during flag ceremony on Mondays and flag retreat on Fridays.

Re: Chiqs, what do you mean you and Tims are facing the wall? OMG! I know what you mean now. I'll find the laptop giving you the broadcast!

Time lapse: OK I think it's fixed now.

Josua Sacedon just arrived.

5:44PM: Here come Kenneth, Punky, Debbie, and Toni. :D They are greeted with yells.

Joy fucked up the prayer a couple of times. Polyne then gave a welcome speech.

Now, games.

I'm so hungry!

Erratum: Punky is not here. Must have seen his doppleganger.

6:02PM: Just got voted Funniest in Class, much to Kenneth's dismay. He thinks he's the funniest. Won a Victoria's Secret Lotion. Woot!

More people just arrived. No, we haven't eaten yet. Glency's here. Still stunning as ever. Thomas E is here, too. She's also stunning. I was absolutely stunned. I think I spotted Don Fruto (Wala ka na Don Fruto!). Kette Espinas also got here. Some people say he looks a bit like Joy Marpa now. I am yet to acknowledge that.

6:16PM: Just finished playing games. Dinner now. Will take a break.

Later!

6:48PM: Done eating. Can't believe I finished in just 20 minutes. People are still talking, reminiscing. More people got here since my last update. There was Czarnie, James Mangubat, Rodney, Mutia Dakila (or Dakila Mutia?). Not sure yet what the organizers have in store for everyone next.

8:08PM: Beer drinking contest, girl edition:

June won. Shameless!

4:22AM: We're at Glency's. Drunk and tired. Only a few people remain. Will post updates by tomorrow when I wake up. Need to copyedit and put captions on pictures.

I'm very sorry Andrea if we logged off the webcam before you got home. VERY VERY SORRY!!! Thanks for the lechon, though. ;)

Lead Character Is a Kid Who Doesn't Fit In, Among Other Things

By admission of Lauren Leto, creator of this very neat site Texts from Last Night, Lead Character is a kid who doesn't fit in, a smart geek, a workaholic seeking validation, and at the same time a girl who keeps journals whose significant other grabs him (or her?) under the table in order to shut him (or her?) up whenever someone else at a dinner says something absolutely ridiculous and wrong.

Lead Character is thankful that by being stereotyped by his favorite authors, he now knows more about himself.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Lead Character is not a Jesus person, but is thankful nonetheless for the celebration of Christmas.

(Lauren Leto should also point out that if you love Richard Dawkins and J.D. Salinger at the same time, you are a non-Jesus person who enjoys Christmas.)

Engkwentro (2009)

Most movies that I really love only won me over because of their ending. It doesn’t matter much to me if while watching it all I can say is that it’s mediocre. When the ending bowls me over, I will say it’s a favorite. PT Anderson’s Magnolia was just a great movie for me until it ended, and I immediately thought it was a work of genius.

Such is a similar case with Engkwentro (English title: Clash), debut film of 22-year-old Pepe Diokno. It was just OK for me, but then the ending made me gasp. It’s already December 13th, and I finally saw my favorite movie of the year.

The movie opens with words over black: “In the last decade, over 814 people have been killed by state-sponsored vigilantes in the Philippines. Many of the victims were children.” This made me shift in my seat. A movie made by a 22-year-old with political agenda; man, this is going to suck. When I was 22, all I cared about was booze, among other petty things.

But I was wrong. About twenty minutes into the movie, I completely forgot about its political agenda. I sat up, realizing that that entire twenty minutes had been one long take, only to get cut around ten minutes later. I wouldn’t say it was all that effective. It was clumsy at best, but still, the effort was astounding.

I am not a big fan of indie movies shot digitally. The shaky camera work is usually nauseating. Worse, the lighting is compromised. In Engkwentro, when it’s dark, it’s really dark. I’m not sure if Pepe Diokno had a cinematographer, or if the cinematographer just called in sick when they did those shots. And even if this technique is supposed to heighten the realism of it all, all I can feel is annoyance. In the movie’s chase/fight scenes, I was tempted to climb up the projection booth to adjust the contrast, brightness, and perhaps play it all in slow motion.

What makes Engkwentro a rare gem, though, in the world of crappy Pinoy indie movies, is that it doesn’t wallow in shock value. If anything, its supposed “shock value” is nothing but lame. As the camera goes around a labyrinthine slums area, it catches nothing special. Sure, kids are smoking cigarettes and weed, drinking beer, playing around with a gun, but none of those things are anything to be so shocked about. In this day and age when filmmakers are up to their asses pushing the envelope, Pepe Diokno chose to simply sit on it, which isn’t a bad thing. There is something else that the young director wants to push across: a message. Vigilante killing is wrong. And I am reminded of this by the end of the movie, when that hitman whispers to a sobbing young boy, describing how calm and quiet the sea is, right before the cold-blooded gunshot. This one scene, I thought, was chilling.

Best part of watching the movie in SM Cinema 8, though, was waiting for it to start. There were only two of us in the movie house. Apparently, New Moon has more importance to the Filipino moviegoing community that virtually no one bothered to watch Engkwentro. And what do you do when there’s no one else in the theater and what they play is Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”? Dance, of course.

Paper Cup

My eyes traverse this whole side of the earth
in a paper cup.
I have emptied it a minute ago--
black coffee I almost spilled
when you asked me something
unanswerable

And yet I did answer
the same time I reprimanded myself
for having emptied the cup too soon.
I didn’t want to startle you
so I stayed silent about coffee particles
that have settled to the base:

They refuse to dissolve, continents of them
like how it must feel
to stay self, particulate
despite intimations of promises
I cannot dare unmask.
And I bask

At how well I hid from you
the strangest information of
their motility when I tilted the container--
paper cup whose rim I tore up
when I told you something
incomprehensible

Like time.

Latak (English Title: Residue)

From the opening lines of this trailer alone, I can tell that this movie is going to rock my world. The main character goes “How could you do this to me? My God! I trusted you. How could you do this to me?” For me, the delivery is just so powerful it closely competes with Mark Lapid’s delivery of “Oo! Inaamin ko! Saging lang kami! Pero maghanap ka ng puno sa buong Pilipinas, saging lang ang may puso! Saging lang ang may puso!” (“Yes, I admit it! We’re but bananas! But you can search all the trees in the entire Philippines, only the banana has a heart! Only the banana has a heart!”) in the movie Apoy sa Dibdib ng Samar (Flame at the Heart of Samar). I can just prophesize that Latak will offer this century a new addition to classic movie lines, like “You’re nothing but a second-rate, trying-hard copycat!” and “Here’s looking at you, kid.” Yes, even through the trailer alone, I can tell that Latak is going to be a classic in Casablanca magnitude.

And don’t even get me started with the synopsis. On the movie’s Multiply site, it poses you the question: “What if your nightmare faces you?” Immediately after reading that single line, I asked myself, “What if indeed?” And what I got were chills down my spine. I do not ever want to find out. This movie is just so profound and I’ve only seen the trailer! The site goes on with the following:

When a young director Andrew Locsin discovers the cruel betrayal of his lover and friends, his vice triggers a destructive entanglement of his dark past.

An ordeal that was haunting his unconsciousness and
 graphic memories, surfaces. Thrown into a mix of
 spine-chilling hallucinations and paranoia he comes face to face with the mysterious ghosts of a mother and a girl. With no one
to
trust, the demons in his nightmares appear in his fight for survival in a horrifying doomed reality.

Extracted from a tumultuous true to life events, the film
will take you into the dark side of grim reality.

I don’t know about you, guys, but that just screams Fellini to me. I mean, wow. This might even be better than a Fellini as I slept through 8 1/2. But this one, Latak. . .even the trailer moves me so deeply that whenever someone does something wrong to me, say, a Starbucks barista gives me my chai latte grande instead of venti, I'd want to tell him/her: "How could you do this to me? My God! I trusted you! How could you do this to me?"