Sunday, January 31, 2021

Midnight in a Perfect World

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Sometime in the near future, Manila is considered by many as almost-utopia, but not without its fair share of urban legends. With an overreaching curfew in place, certain parts of the city regularly experience an electrical blackout right after midnight, followed by the disappearance of some people never to be seen or heard of ever again. Buddies Jinka (Glaiza de Castro) and Tonichi (Dino Pastrano) are just leaving the residence of their drug dealer when they see a gang of goons enter the compound. The duo rendezvous with two other friends, Mimi (Jasmine Curtis-Smith) and nurse Glenn (Anthony Falcon), when the streetlights start to go off around them. Rattled, the group searches for one of Manila’s safe houses for refuge and to avoid being detained, at least until the next morning. As Jinka, Mimi, and Glenn find themselves in a safe house with a mysterious woman named Alma (Bing Pimentel), they notice that their friend Tonichi is nowhere to be found.

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Yellow Rose

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A Filipino American teenager from a small-town in Texas lives a rather sheltered existence. Her mother Priscilla (Princess Punzalan) is very strict and won’t give her the liberty other teens get to enjoy. But Rose Garcia (Eva Noblezada) has big dreams of making it in the country music scene. Armed with her guitar and sweet voice, she writes songs that reflect her struggles and current reality. When her friend Elliot (Liam Booth) invites her to Austin to watch country legend Dale Watson (Dale Watson) perform, she jumps at the opportunity, much to her mother’s hesitation. A night of music and drinking ends in a tragic note as they end their long drive back home to a scene she never thought would happen to them – that of her mother being dragged by immigration into a van en route to a detention facility for undocumented migrants. Faced with a new dilemma, she must now decide whether to go back to Manila or continue chasing her American Dream.

Friday, January 29, 2021

WandaVision: Episode 4


4. We Interrupt This Program
A disoriented Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) re-forms in a hospital post-blip, searches for her mother, and finds out she died years ago right after her disappearance. She gets reinstated in her position at SWORD (Sentient Weapon Observation Response Division), her first mission being that of a missing person who fled to a town in New Jersey called Westview. There she meets FBI officer Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), who has been briefed that the town didn’t exist prior and just popped up out of nowhere just recently. When Monica is sucked into the force field enveloping the town, her colleagues call for backup from various fields. One of them is astrophysicist Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), who detects broadcast signals from the town coming from a sitcom called WandaVision, starring Avenger Wanda Maximoff and android Vision, who died in Infinity War. As they try to send radio signals to contact Wanda, “Geraldine” is ejected from the village and crash lands on their base.

Friday, January 22, 2021

WandaVision: Episode 3


3. Now in Color
A pregnancy that should have taken months lasts barely a day. As Vision rushes to fetch the doctor for the childbirth, Geraldine drops by unannounced for a chitchat. Wanda attempts to hide her baby bump but is forced to reveal it as she prematurely goes into labor. With Geraldine’s help she gives birth to a baby boy she names Tommy, just as Vision and the doctor arrive. A few minutes later she goes into labor again and welcomes a second child, Billy. As she adores her newborn sons, she remembers her own twin Pietro, whom Geraldine tells her was killed by Ultron. As Wanda confronts her about what she just said, she notices her sword pendant. Outside the house, the neighbors try in vain to tell Vision something, but simply can’t. Just outside Westview, a breach in the sky opens through which a flying Geraldine is expelled. As she lands on a field, helicopters and patrol vans rush to the scene, revealing a perimeter set by the entrance of a small town seemingly confined in a magical bubble they are trying to penetrate.

Sunday, January 17, 2021

WandaVision: Episode 2


2. Don't Touch That Dial
Wanda and Vision prepare a magic skit for the town’s Talent Show to better fit in at Westview. She befriends neighbor Geraldine (Teyonah Parris) and tries to win the approval of queen bee of suburbia, Dottie Jones (Emma Caulfield Ford), but a freak accident with a radio calling out her name and asking who is doing “this” to her ends up with bloody hands. Earlier that day, Wanda finds a toy helicopter in the front yard, its red/yellow motif sticking out like a sore thumb in the predominantly black and white environment. Vision tries some chewing gum at the boys’ neighborhood watch meeting, causing his inner mechanism to malfunction. Seemingly drunk, he unwittingly reveals his abilities at the talent show, but is deflected and hidden by Wanda’s own powers. As they get home, Wanda grows a baby bump out of nowhere. The two hear a noise outside and find a beekeeper in white emerging from a manhole. Wanda says NO and rewinds to the baby bump moment, as they start to transition from black and white to full color.

Saturday, January 16, 2021

WandaVision: Episode 1


1. Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience
Newlyweds Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) move to a nice suburban home. He now works for a computational company, touted by his colleagues as responsible for 300% increase in productivity. They liken him to a machine that gets the job done quickly. He vehemently disagrees instead of taking it as a compliment. The two prepare for an event marked with a heart on their calendar, not really knowing what it is. She thinks it’s their anniversary, but he later discovers that it’s a dinner date at their home with his boss and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Hart. With the help of nosy neighbor Agnes (Kathryn Hahn), Wanda prepares a dinner in vain but manages to pull through. As the dinner small talk begins, the couple is grilled with probing questions about their marriage, to which neither of them has any answers. As the duo celebrate the success of their first house party, the screen zooms out, revealing that the two are literally starring in a television sitcom being watched by an unknown individual holding a remote in a control room.

Friday, January 15, 2021

Promising Young Woman

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Cassandra Thomas (Carey Mulligan) is someone many considered to be a promising young woman. Being one of the best students in med school, everyone expected her to graduate on top of her class and become a doctor. That changed when an unfortunate incident led to her dropping out. Flash forward seven years later, she now works at a coffee shop and still resides with her parents who are starting to get concerned about her future. She also frequents bars on a weekly basis pretending to be too drunk to function and waiting for a nice guy to take her home, many of whom end up trying to take advantage of her. Her modus operandi and raison d’être are put to the test with the arrival of Dr. Ryan Cooper (Bo Burnham), a classmate of hers back in the day who is keen on dating her now. Will she take a detour or continue dwelling on the past and carry on with her revenge plot?

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Locked Down

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Couple Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are way past their honeymoon stage and are ready to go their separate ways, except that they can’t because of the current lockdowns imposed in London. The two are forced to cohabitate despite their newfound animosity for one another. She is the CEO of Miracore in the United Kingdom and has just been asked to fire her entire team due to redundancy. He has been recently furloughed due to the pandemic but is being asked to report to work again due to manpower shortage. Prompted by the current circumstances, the two are forced to reevaluate their lives. She is tasked to retrieve a £3 Million diamond at display at Harrods and it so happens that he is the assigned van driver from the freight company handling its transport. With protocols breached and security less stringent because of the pandemic, they realize that their chances of stealing the diamond and getting away with it is much higher than they actually thought.

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Pieces of a Woman

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Newlyweds Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are expecting their first child together, a daughter they plan to name Yvette. He hails from Seattle and works in construction, his current project being a bridge he plans to complete with his team just in time for his daughter’s birth. She comes from a family of three women from Massachusetts and always seems to be in loggerheads with her mother Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn), who does not really approve of her husband. Excited to be a grandmother, she buys the couple a minivan, much to his chagrin. As Martha goes into labor, Sean calls the midwife assigned to them to assist in the birth, except that she has an emergency and is not available that night. Enter Eva (Molly Parker), another midwife they barely know yet have no choice but to trust. As what is supposed to be the happiest moment of their lives becomes their worst nightmare, the pair tries to piece together what remains of their broken family.

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