'Violent Night' - Gory Night, All is Fun, All is Wild

Often times, Christmas movies especially in the country are always associated with a heavy family drama with a big confrontation as its climax. Then there are few horror movies, thanks to MMFF. This film festival that literally opens during Christmas day knows that horror is a fun and perfect genre that bonds cousins and siblings together in a jampacked theater. Then there are way more unconventional holiday movies that pop out from time to time--the Krampuses, the Office Christmas Parties, the Die Hards, and now Violent Night, the newest and craziest semi-origin film about the real Santa Claus we've never seen before. Played by David Harbour, Santa is now jaded, old, cranky, but he still has reindeers, he still has gifts to give, and he still has a list of people who are naughty and nice.

Photo Credit: Universal Pictures

The film is set during Christmas eve when Santa is supposed to go house-to-house to give the nice kids their awaited gifts. His silent night turned unexpectedly violent when he enters the mansion of the corrupt, filthy rich Lightstone family who's being hostaged by criminals searching for their stolen millions of dollars.

Given the title, it's truly entertainingly violent. Not only in its action, but even in its script. The Lightstone family's matriarch played by Beverly D'Angelo has a lot of savage things to say about her family, and her children who now have families of their own also have their personal banter for each other. Their crisis is even more magnified when their lives are threatened by these robbers, apathetic, pointing at anyone to be killed first.

Yet, ironically, it still captures the Christmas spirit. As Santa enters the scenario to the family's rescue, they realize each other's importance. Thanks to the youngest and only nice Lightstone Trudy, they were forced to believe in their family and even believe the magic of Santa. These scenes are supposed to be heartwarming but you're already busy laughing and being disgusted by its gore to be touched, which is a welcome reaction for anyone who likes to have silly fun at the movies.

As again, it's terrifically violent. It speeds up during its intense, bloody but fun action scenes and slows down when it shows Santa Claus' origin which is less about him being a saint and more of him being a hardcore Viking, which again shows why he could fight off criminals with such power and intensity. David Harbour's aesthetic and characterization as Santa could even qualify as Jeff Bridges' The Dude.

The best parts, however, are the evident homage to Die Hard and especially Home Alone. Think of Macaulay Culkin Kevin's fun and homemade booby traps but make it way more sadistic and brutal. Some A Quiet Place moment even comes to mind.

Violent Night overall may not be the perfect Christmas movie to watch with conservative relatives. But if your family likes to laugh and banter with (and at) each other, this is a foolproof popcorn flick. Doesn't hurt that the blood in this could even be thicker than your family blood ;).

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A Universal Pictures International feature, Violent Night is NOW SHOWING in PH Cinemas.

Rated R-16 by the local censors board. 

'Plan 75' - A Quiet Contemplation of Life and Death in Dystopian Japan

The film's premise is simple. It's an imagined time in Japan where the elderly aged 75 and above can choose the time of their own deaths. It's a government program where it's advertised as something positive and is akin to the country's culture of suicide--their way to get burden off of their families, or so they say. 

Plan 75 carefully dissects this culture by opening it with a brutal suicide, not of an elderly person, and then proceeding it with an introduction of the protagonist Micho who's at 78 struggles to find an apartment, a stable job, and love and care from loved ones. Life ain't easy for the other characters--a Pinay nurse (Stefanie Arianne) working in Japan who needs more income for her daughter's surgery living in the Philippines; and a Plan 75 employee who coincidentally received the processing inquiry of his old widowed uncle he hasn't seen for years.

Photo Credit: TBA Studios

The simple premise becomes complicated once it introduces the lives of these several strangers. The narratives seem disjointed at first until the film reveals that they're interconnected with each other one way or another because of the program. It's a long, quiet journey to get there and I am not quite sure it showed the importance of each characters to the story in the end.

Micho, played by the wonderfully subdued veteran Chieko Baisho, seems to get the complete focus and storyline treatment as a senior citizen brimming with life despite her misfortunes. Her character alone could achieve the film's message about life and death in Japan but the film is also busy showing different ironies for the Pinay OFW and a Plan 75 employee who tries to stop his uncle from availing the program. The result sometimes ends up being uneven especially for the Pinay character whose existence is only to make a point about another character’s life, and another country’s culture and government.

Still, there's a lot to admire in this quiet film. The film captures a consistent melancholic vibe which enhances its life-affirming ending, at least for some of the characters. It's also very clear about its stand about the program and there's a warm abundance of love about life even when its subject is also evidently depressing.

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PLAN 75 opens in Philippine cinemas nationwide on Dec. 7.

'Bones and All' - Luca Guadagnino's Bloody Refreshing Blend of Romance and Gore

Bones and All is one of those movies that has a certain cinematic magic or what I would call, cinemagic :3, for how it's able to blend poignant scenes of romance and disgustingly morbid gore and make both of those aspects work at the same time, while giving the whole vibe of the movie another certain flavor that makes it distinctive as a whole.

Photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

There is no surprise there when you have a confident helmer in Luca Guadagnino, re-teaming with his muse Timothée Chalamet, adding yet another memorable character to his resume. Whether it's Guadagnino's skills or Chalamet's charisma or both, it doesn't matter as Bones and All has that cinemagic, soaring as one of the bests of the year so far.

In Bones and All, a young woman named Maren (Taylor Russell) is forced to live on her own until she finds sanctuary in a young man living what seems to be a nomad life, Lee (Timothée Chalamet). They join together for a roadtrip odyssey until young love dawns on them and the reality of their situation bites ruthlessly.

It's a unique movie that involves blood, coming-of-age, and love, only a few like Guadagnino can blend its otherness perfectly. Supporting actors and characters of Mark Rylance and Michael Stuhlbarg (reunion with Chalamet and Guadagnino) provide effective horror through their creepy performances. Stuhlbarg's resemblance with Joaquin Phoenix actually helps. While Taylor Russell and Chalamet's young romance accompanied with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' soundtrack score deliver the sensitivity and heart of the film. Put them together and it's a tender juicy fresh kind of movie we rarely see in each of its own genre.

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Bones and All opens in PH Cinemas, November 23.

MTRCB Rating: R-16

'Triangle of Sadness' - Ruben Östlund's Riotous Take on Differing Class and Power Play

Watching this with a crowd of Filipinos, no less than the scene stealing star of the film Dolly de Leon literally in the middle of the theater, is already a memorable cinematic experience by itself. So to witness this riotous ride of double Palme d'Or-winning auteur Ruben Östlund's take on classes and power is truly an overwhelming reward I can imagine for any Pinoy cinephiles. Not to mention, that it's  bring compared to Joey Gosiengfiao's iconic classic <i>Temptation Island</i> which is a reminder for me to finish it the next time I bump into a copy. Lastly, its third part which is set in an island gives off major Survivor vibes, not only in its setting, but most of all in its outwit, outplay, outlast theme of survival. Case in point, this is a movie for me even when I have some reservations with some of its aspects.

Photo Credit: TBA Studios

Triangle of Sadness is divided into three parts which could all stand on their own as short stories although these parts are related to one another and has connected themes about class and gender roles that Östlund tells in the least subtle ways. The first introduces two influencers who boost each other's IG followers, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya played by the late Charlbi Dean. It revolves around their character's lovers quarrel that's rooted from the bill of the fancy dinner Yaya suggested for both of them. A seeimingly tad shallow issue from the onset but the takes and insights by Östlund are bitingly valid as it went on.

The second part finds the two lovers in a yacht where other rich passengers aboard. Here Östlund continues his takes on gender roles and extends its satire on philosophies about class, power, and politics. This isn't new. Currently, there's even The White Lotus that tackles the same themes but Östlund takes it to the literal extreme involving numerous projectile vomits and overflowing of shit. Apart from the two drunken face-off of words heard throughout the ship from a filthy rich Russian and the yacht's American captain that admittedly could probably be cut in the film and it would still work.

Finally, in an ironic fate for some of the passengers, they find themselves in an island where they're stripped off of the luxury they're used to have with them 24/7. Although in a film like this, irony is part of what to be expected. And here's where our unsung Filipino actress Dolly de Leon start to shine where her character Abigail, a toilet manager OFW, starts to command the survivors and refuses to give up the power she's started to gain. Same can be said with the actress who's stolen the spotlight from any of them and never holds back even in the film's last few seconds.

These three parts are riotous and no one from the audience who will see it will come out of it unscathed of the shit, the vomit, and thankfully the laughter it's intended to grant. It's not all laughs though when some of its commentaries are truly dark and alarming. Story of our lives told in three wild parts.

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Triangle of Sadness opens on Nov. 30 in the Philippines nationwide.