Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros
(The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros)
Directed by Auraeus Solito
Written by Michiko Yamamoto

It was enough of a challenge to just sit through and watch, especially when I knew I could be watching Glee or something equally entertaining instead of torturing myself with substantial life lessons. The grainy visuals and the not-quite-cleaned-up sound were just as much representative of the truth as they are part of the charm of independent cinema. Truly, independent cinema is unlike anything else.

The film hit closer to home than any other—perhaps for the obvious reason that it was, in actuality, closer to home. Where else would you find star shaped plastic lanterns and Christmas lights you know—you just know—someone went through bulb by bulb to find the loose one and bring the entire set back to life after finding it in someone else’s trash? There were other familiar scenes, of course: a poster of Claudine Baretto and Vilma Santos, neighbors betting daily in jueteng or Lotto, yellow and green striped taxicabs, tabo and balde baths in the morning, and the sign of the cross before family dinner.

For a movie about a twelve-year-old, it was heavy. It was dark and slightly depressing. It dealt with morality, poverty, desperation, hunger (and not just the kind that the scarcity of food fails to fulfill), death, responsibility, sacrifice, family, loyalty, betrayal, and the blurred lines between right and wrong. Oh, and a tiny tinge of sex, but only in little hints.

Maxi Oliveros needed to grow up fast, as dictated by the circumstances (a late mother and the need to scramble around for money to survive), but within him is still a young, innocent child, who has yet to learn so much.

It’s confusing for the viewer who needs clear cut lines. The stereotypical hero isn’t, and the family that seems to have such skewed values formed only through intense rationalizing. But then you’re also forced to realize that these values come about as a result of real need. Towards the end, even the very straight (and not necessarily in terms of sexual orientation) police man fails to hold on to the values that the silver crucifix perpetually hanging on his neck reminds him never to let go of.

This was difficult.

Saving Face

Saving Face
Written and Directed by Alice Wu

You would think that tradition only lived where it was born. And you would be wrong. It follows you wherever you are; it’s not something you can separate yourself from. Surely something will give you away—the way you speak, the way you dress, the way you struggle to keep your shoes on when you enter a house because you’re just so used to taking them off, your slit eyes.

Wilhelmina grew up in the States, but was raised Chinese. She grew up in a liberal culture, and has assimilated into a kind of life that seems perfectly normal—except it doesn’t; at least not for her family.

Her widow mother, comically portrayed as a stubborn yet deeply understanding woman, drags her to regular get-togethers of the Chinese community, where Wilhelmina is expected to find her future husband. (Why, her mother asks, is she wearing men’s clothes again?) It is at these get-togethers that we see how high the expectations are to fulfill what has been dictated by tradition, culture, and elders.

Along the course of the story, Wilhelmina does meet someone, a childhood friend she has forgotten, and something begins between her and Vivian. Wil holds back. Vivian tells her, in a line I cannot forget, “you’re too scared to look the world in the eye and let it watch you fall in love.”

Together, mother and daughter learn about each other, learn to support each other, and learn to stand up for themselves. In a way uncharacteristic of the expected subtleties, they break away from the restricting concepts of arranged marriage, sexuality, and shame.

I appreciated the character of Wilhelmina’s African-American best friend, a laid back guy who thinks Wil worries too much. He gives comic relief that is welcome but unnecessary (this is a very light story), and it is for him that all the nuances of Chinese culture need to be explained.

Also, I enjoyed how the Chinese culture was illustrated, but I wouldn’t be able to tell whether or not it was accurate. Our Philippine culture, though, did seem quite similar, albeit much less blatantly imposed. Culture is just as much part of one’s identity as sexuality is.

Everything is intertwined.

Luna

Luna
Julie Anne Peters

Coming out is something that each individual has to go through, whether homosexual, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, heterosexual, or anything else. It’s just far more subtle when who you are inside happens to be the same as who people can see outside. For Luna, it’s not that easy.

Luna cover

Luna is transsexual teen who was born in a boy’s body, but wishes more than anything to live in the body where she belongs. She faces discrimination, bullying, and is misunderstood with her life under the magnifying glass of critical peers and a very conventional family. But at least she has her younger sister Regan to help her through.

Regan doesn’t just watch as her brother Liam morphs into her sister Luna at ungodly hours, prancing around in their shared basement in dresses and makeup. She keeps Luna’s secret, knowing it matters more than anything else possibly could. It’s a heavy burden that she describes as feeling like a suffocating jacket she can’t seem to take off. But she loves her sister, and it pains her to see Luna unhappy.

When Luna finally decides it’s time to tell their dad the truth about herself, Regan worries. Regan is always worrying about Luna; it’s as though her whole life has revolved around protecting her. Flashbacks tell bits of the story, little things that Regan remembers and now sees through a different light.

The entire story is told through Regan, which I felt was the best way it could’ve been told. The book doesn’t attempt to get deep into Luna’s mind—only as far as Luna allows Regan. (Also, it shows the truth of how sexuality is no longer a personal matter; it affects so many of the people who surround you). In this way, we understand just how complicated it really is, just how difficult it is to understand transsexuality, but also how difficult it is to be someone you just know you’re not. The trouble lies in who the rest of the world think you should be.

I’m still undecided—was it happy ending? With so much at stake, you’re bound to have to give something up.

Don’t you know, you’re the girl I always wanted to be.

My Heartbeat

My Heartbeat
Garret Freymann-Weyr

Ellen has been in love with James since the seventh grade. She loves her brother Link (James’s best friend) just as much. The three of them have a close-knit relationship, the boys sharing a special bond Ellen accepts she isn’t part of. Ellen has just started ninth grade at the school James and Link are about to graduate from. One of her new friends casually mentions that she thinks James and Link are a couple.

So Ellen wonders. Finally, she asks them, but still she doesn’t get a clear answer—because neither of them is sure.

My Heartbeat cover

As they each begin to understand further, an interesting point is brought up. James tells Ellen that she was their insurance. So long as she was around, they were safe—nothing that shouldn’t be happening would end up happening.

My Heartbeat is a story of fear and expectations, and what it means to really know someone. There are unwritten social laws yet to be understood, and a mind with a heartbeat yet to be formed. It’s a love triangle that you don’t even realize is there until you take a step back and stop to think. It’s a love triangle where each one truly loves the other two, and that, I think is something to be admired.

Together and apart, they deal with their own issues. From all sorts of rebellion, to music, to advanced math, running seven miles every morning, searching for happy endings, sketching strangers, and learning to see—to really see, the three of them develop subtly but beautifully.

James has experienced much more than either of the siblings, in terms of sex and life in general, and speaks with wisdom that he doesn’t acknowledge. Ellen and Link are both under the guidance of a pair of loving parents: a mother with the ability to understand what is unsaid, and a father who wants nothing more than for his children to develop their own minds (so long as they conform to certain boundaries).

There is no lack of love in this story.

In the words of one of the characters, a good book is a reflection of some kind of truth. This was a good book.

Lost and Delirious

Lost and Delirious

You’re given an exclusive girls’ boarding school, checkered skirts and maroon blazers, a wide-eyed sheltered blonde skinny girl and her two older roommates who have a world of their own, and you know exactly what to expect.

Lost and Delirious was based on a novel entitled The Wives of Bath by Susan Swan.

Mary is the new girl suddenly exposed to long-existing traditions within the school, and she has to find her place. Slowly and unaware, she is drawn into the lives of Tori and Paulie, and inevitably exposed to the relationship the two have. They made an effort to involve her in their plans. She grows so used to them, and they get used to having her around. She sees, but she doesn’t understand.

In words that can only be described as innocent she narrates the tale in her quiet voice, thinking that when she sees her roommates kissing, they’re practicing for boys. She only has preconceptions, and misconceptions, but makes no judgments. While she doesn’t seem to understand, she accepts wholeheartedly, almost without even thinking first.

The couple faces its own challenges in the form of boys, teachers, and most especially, family. Tori and Paulie are only a couple in secret, but when Tori’s younger sister catches them in an extremely suspenseful scene, everything changes.

While Tori deals with fitting back into what is demanded of her, Paulie tries her hardest to fight for her love as she deals with other problems beyond losing Tori. Mary becomes confidante to both girls, but this time around, separately. Listen to their conversations, because they let you forgive each of the characters for their actions.

Beyond pressure and expectation looms something so much greater. Whatever it was, it was an emotion so uncontrollable, overpowering, irrevocable, maybe irrational, but just the same, true.

The idea of just how easily the expectations of a teenage girl’s parents and peers can push her to follow a given mold is magnified. Ultimately, the movie illustrates how a love so great can become someone’s sole purpose for living, no matter who opposes.

What happens, then, when your reason is gone?
So the story ends. I rush into the secret house.