A film is a story narrated with moving images and characters acting out the words that complete the entire picture. If letters are the writer's tool to weave a narrative, it is the director's camera that captures the heart of a film.
It was suppose to be a lecture day at J. Wendell Capili's class today. However, instead of him talking about the merits of good writing, he asked everyone to watch Jay, which was about to be shown at the UP Film Center this afternoon. His instruction came as a pleasant surprise, for much as I would like to attend the Cinemalaya Indie Film Festival at Diliman, work had kept me busy from seeing these films. Bloggers have written good reviews about Jay last week. (which in my sheer bitterness of not being able to go to CCP to watch it, I decided not to read their entries) However, word of mouth tells that Baron Geisler had a stunning performance in the film which earned him the best actor award in the festival. Add to that the constant prodding of friends who eat and breathe art films and you would see me giggling as I stood in the cue outside the theater before the film showing.
Art Films are not my expertise. I don't even know how to critique one with Bayaning Third World, Crying Ladies and Masahista as my only comparison. Despite these limitations, I somehow understood why Jay was acclaimed by critics when I watched it. Please bear with me as I try to give a modest review of the film, for I myself had a hard time processing the story due to its immensity despite its plot's simplicity.
At first glance, Jay is presented like a TV documentary. The female narrator introduces the would-be characters which is the family of Jay Mercado - a man stabbed to death inside his apartment in Manila. The documentary interviews the people close to him to give the audience an idea about who this person was. Talk about character sketch. We learn from the interviews that Jay was a gay man and the reason behind his murder was prostitution. As the documentary closes in to reveal the killer, the narrator cuts the story to announce a commercial break. There is no commercial break of course. Instead, the scene switches to a story behind the documentary revealing that the documentary is actually a prologue of the main story.
The scene opens with Jay Santiago (Baron Geisler) arriving in Pampanga with his TV crew to follow the events shortly after Jay Mercado's brutal murder first broke out to his family. From the first hours of the funeral to the capture of the killer a few days later, we see the characters' struggle to cope up with the lost and acceptance of a family member's death. With Geisler's character as the unsympathetic protagonist, the scenes reveal how the interview for the documentary really took place. I will not reveal how the story was treated, but rest assured that everything is taken lightly.
Like I confessed at the beginning of the entry, my lack of film exposure limits my ability to present a comprehensive review of Jay. The dialogue did not make a strong impact on me, suggesting that it was weak from the beginning. However, there were so many unintended comic moments throughout the film that it took away the seriousness of the subject. The screenwriter failed to develop some of the characters - especially Coco Martin, who I supposed had a supporting role for this film. Baron Geisler, who presented himself as the TV producer who showed artificial sympathy to the family he was following spent more time exploiting the unfolding human drama for his personal gains. This makes Jay a film with no heroes or moral ground to stand on.
Despite the film's minor shortcomings, it broke new grounds in introducing cinematic shots that narrated the story without using strong dialogues to make a point. I still could not forget how the camera pans on Geisler as he shed a tear while forcing the mother of the victim reenact her reaction the first time she saw Jay at the morgue. If there was any real humanity in that film, I believe that scene sums up everything.
Jay is a story within a story that tells how human drama can be twisted or exploited to create exaggerated scenes for someone's personal goal. It also tells how people will obligingly do the extremes in hopes of getting media exposure that is prized by everyone these days. Cast in different light, it is a film that parodies the prevailing media culture which emphasizes on getting the story without any regard or sensitivity for those people whose lives were suddenly altered by a tragic event.
As the story comes to a close, I thought Jay will suffer a disappointing predictability with Baron Geisler falling victim to the same butchery that lead to Jay Mercado's untimely death. But like most Indie films, unpredictability makes a work of art stands out among the rest.
I'd leave you to watch it from beginning to the end.
It was suppose to be a lecture day at J. Wendell Capili's class today. However, instead of him talking about the merits of good writing, he asked everyone to watch Jay, which was about to be shown at the UP Film Center this afternoon. His instruction came as a pleasant surprise, for much as I would like to attend the Cinemalaya Indie Film Festival at Diliman, work had kept me busy from seeing these films. Bloggers have written good reviews about Jay last week. (which in my sheer bitterness of not being able to go to CCP to watch it, I decided not to read their entries) However, word of mouth tells that Baron Geisler had a stunning performance in the film which earned him the best actor award in the festival. Add to that the constant prodding of friends who eat and breathe art films and you would see me giggling as I stood in the cue outside the theater before the film showing.
Art Films are not my expertise. I don't even know how to critique one with Bayaning Third World, Crying Ladies and Masahista as my only comparison. Despite these limitations, I somehow understood why Jay was acclaimed by critics when I watched it. Please bear with me as I try to give a modest review of the film, for I myself had a hard time processing the story due to its immensity despite its plot's simplicity.
At first glance, Jay is presented like a TV documentary. The female narrator introduces the would-be characters which is the family of Jay Mercado - a man stabbed to death inside his apartment in Manila. The documentary interviews the people close to him to give the audience an idea about who this person was. Talk about character sketch. We learn from the interviews that Jay was a gay man and the reason behind his murder was prostitution. As the documentary closes in to reveal the killer, the narrator cuts the story to announce a commercial break. There is no commercial break of course. Instead, the scene switches to a story behind the documentary revealing that the documentary is actually a prologue of the main story.
The scene opens with Jay Santiago (Baron Geisler) arriving in Pampanga with his TV crew to follow the events shortly after Jay Mercado's brutal murder first broke out to his family. From the first hours of the funeral to the capture of the killer a few days later, we see the characters' struggle to cope up with the lost and acceptance of a family member's death. With Geisler's character as the unsympathetic protagonist, the scenes reveal how the interview for the documentary really took place. I will not reveal how the story was treated, but rest assured that everything is taken lightly.Like I confessed at the beginning of the entry, my lack of film exposure limits my ability to present a comprehensive review of Jay. The dialogue did not make a strong impact on me, suggesting that it was weak from the beginning. However, there were so many unintended comic moments throughout the film that it took away the seriousness of the subject. The screenwriter failed to develop some of the characters - especially Coco Martin, who I supposed had a supporting role for this film. Baron Geisler, who presented himself as the TV producer who showed artificial sympathy to the family he was following spent more time exploiting the unfolding human drama for his personal gains. This makes Jay a film with no heroes or moral ground to stand on.
Despite the film's minor shortcomings, it broke new grounds in introducing cinematic shots that narrated the story without using strong dialogues to make a point. I still could not forget how the camera pans on Geisler as he shed a tear while forcing the mother of the victim reenact her reaction the first time she saw Jay at the morgue. If there was any real humanity in that film, I believe that scene sums up everything.
Jay is a story within a story that tells how human drama can be twisted or exploited to create exaggerated scenes for someone's personal goal. It also tells how people will obligingly do the extremes in hopes of getting media exposure that is prized by everyone these days. Cast in different light, it is a film that parodies the prevailing media culture which emphasizes on getting the story without any regard or sensitivity for those people whose lives were suddenly altered by a tragic event.
As the story comes to a close, I thought Jay will suffer a disappointing predictability with Baron Geisler falling victim to the same butchery that lead to Jay Mercado's untimely death. But like most Indie films, unpredictability makes a work of art stands out among the rest.
I'd leave you to watch it from beginning to the end.
---
photocredits: Baron Geisler's Multiply
Next UP Screening: August 6, 2008 - 7pm (Subject to confirmation)
No comments:
Post a Comment