Cinemalayo

I’ve always loved indie movies. I love movies that tell stories without resorting to eye popping razzle dazzle effects and worse inutile dialogue (“I’m hotter than you”, belch!). Yes indie movies can sometimes try too hard to be “indie” but if you give me 200 bucks to watch another installment of THAT vampire love story (somehow vampirism and love story does not bite me, pun intended) franchise, I’ll use that money to buy pirated Lav Diaz’s movies in Quiapo instead. Diaz’s movies might’ve been full of hubris, but he makes it up with gravitas (sitting through a 12- hour Lav Diaz movie is the verbatim definition of hubris in the dictionary. Look it up.).

And so, as my preamble goes, I met Jalberti at CCP to take a dip into Filipino Indiecinephelia (such an insert word here !).

Since Cinemalaya is on its 6^th year, they amped up their serving by dividing movies into various categories e.g. new breed, director showcase, shorts, etc. As if we do not know the newbies from the tandercats?! So andaming pagpipillian, what na? As usual, I have troves of theories to rely upon whenever I get into these schiznitz moments. For this one, I go by the Flock is right or your fucked theory. Meaning, one should go with the direction of the herd unless you want to be branded as pasaway. So I told Jalberti, let’s watch the movie with the longest line! Normally, Jalberti on a full stomach would raise an objection to such absurd communal theory but hunger is such a dumbing pill, he acquiesced.

So off we go to get in line for Two Funerals by Gil Portes since it had the longest line then. On hindsight, even if my theory was correct, my method was flawed since we didn’t check the other theaters if their lines were longer than ours, alas dispensa Jalberti.

Two Funerals is a (screwball) dark comedy about the mix-up of two cadavers that were victims of a bus accident in Gapan, Nueva Ecija. Since it is an indie movie, the pre-requisite good acting was present. The story was also good but as Jalberti said, it was bordering on Magical Realism already. Again, I have no compunction if a movie has elements of both, but this is an indie movie for chrissakes! An indie movie plus dark comedy plus magical realism is not only redundant, it reeks of self-indulgence! It’s like Jejemons having their own dictionary!?

Anyways, after the movie, since the director was sitting just a row below us, I clapped with the pretension of politeness (I was afraid that he might see me being haughty and slap me silly). Jalberti did not clap; he was too polite to patronize the shenanigans of direk. I admired Jalberti’s resolve at that moment.

And that was the end of our filmfest adventure. The movie drained too much from our brains that it manifested into hunger so we had an early dinner at Jubilee and then spent the rest of the afternoon discussing about poverty and “tirahan”. Topics typically spread-eagled in Cinemanila but was relatively absent on this year’s roster.

On another note, what’s with the increasing ticket prices. In 2009, it was only 120, now it’s 150. That’s around a 25% increase ha! I understand the producers need to recoup their expenses but increasing the prices somehow defeats the commercialism candor of these movies. If my math is right, 2011 prices would be at 180 level if the trend continues. Foreign film ito?

P.S. I live in Fairview. So going to CCP on a Saturday for me is malayo. As in Cinemalayo talaga (corniness and italics mine).