Babel

4 interlocking stories all connected by a single gun all converge at the end and reveal a complex and tragic story of the lives of humanity around the world and how we truly aren't all that different. In Morocco, a troubled married couple are on vacation trying to work out their differences. Meanwhile, a Moroccan herder buys a rifle for his sons so they can keep the jackals away from his herd. A girl in Japan dealing with rejection, the death of her mother, the emotional distance of her father, her own self-consciousness, and a disability among many other issues, deals with modern life in the enormous metropolis of Tokyo, Japan. Then, on the opposite side of the world the married couple's Mexican nanny takes the couple's 2 children with her to her son's wedding in Mexico, only to come into trouble on the return trip. Combined, it provides a powerful story and an equally powerful looking glass into the lives of seemingly random people around the world and it shows just how connected we really are.

Viewers  need to know that this film includes explicit, traumatic violence, especially by gunfire and especially involving young children. In one incident, a boy shoots a rifle at a tourists' bus from far away, accidentally hitting a young mother; she bleeds and becomes increasingly weak through the rest of the film. In another, authorities shoot at a father and his two young sons. When a nanny is lost in the desert with two young children, the kids become badly dehydrated and very sick. To shock some boys, a high school student shows off what's under her school uniform skirt. She also discusses her mother's suicide and considers it for herself; at one point she stands on a high rise balcony, frightening her father. The same girl later appears naked before a policeman (there are two shots of frontal nudity). A boy masturbates. Characters drink, smoke, do drugs, and use profanity, especially "f--k."

Thought this is a provoking adult movie, this film reminds us that life doesn't always tie things up with a neat ribbon, that all is not as it may appear and that love doesn't always conquer all. That being said, there is enough of redemption and forgiveness in the film to make it a possibility for older and young people.

RATING: ★★★✰✰

"Minsan Lang Sila Bata" (They Can Only be Children Once)

Minsan Lang Sila Bata is a Filipino documentary film featuring the lives of random children from different parts of the Philippines, facing the same predicament of living life of tiring labor to cope with the harsh realities of poverty.Child labor raises national concern but to provide resolution to it is not easy because of the complexity of the problem. As the documentary pointed out very well, the children, although unattractively thin and bony, frail and helpless are being persuaded by their parents in order to help the family rise above the struggle of poverty. The parents (which were not mostly featured in the film) were pushed by circumstances to make such decision for their children (who are clearly not in the proper age and condition to handle arduous jobs).

It was not easy being child laborer. The work was hard and the environment was not friendly for their young breaths. The money was too small even for their small hands to hold. The blood, the sun and the dust are all penetrating not just in their skin but also in their hearts.

I can never blame them. Why didn’t they refuse and insist that they should be holding toys and pencils instead? They were caught in a situation that they could not escape. Of course, before they think of theirselves, they have to think for the welfare of their family. They love their parents.

I can never blame their parents. (The children didn’t blame them too.) They love their daughters, they love their sons — those are given. However, why didn’t they sacrificed or at least became wise before planning to raise sons and daughters? But they are already there… breathing. Love per se can not put rice on their plates.

RATING: ★★★★★

Pride and Prejudice

In Georgian England, Mrs. Bennet raises her five daughters - Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia with the purpose of getting married with a rich husband that can support the family. They are not from the upper class, and their house in Hertfordshire will be inherited by a distant cousin if Mr. Bennet dies. When the wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley and his best friend Mr. Darcy arrive in town to spend the summer in a mansion nearby their property, the shy and beautiful Jane falls in love for Mr. Bingley, and Lizzie finds Mr. Darcy a snobbish and proud man, and she swears to loathe him forever. This is the beginning of their wonderful love story.

viewers need to know that the movie includes discussions of marriage for money. Set in 19th-century England, it offers a mostly gentle, sometimes incisive critique of class and gender systems. Characters drink at a party, make mild sexual allusions, and argue with one another concerning money and romance.

This film is excellent! No sex scenes and I don't remember any violence. Just a heated argument between a woman and another woman. There is some kissing scenes and some obvious sexual tension, but nothing inappropriate to watch by children. There was such a sense of decency and honor between men and women. It invoked plenty of conversation and enlightenment. The story line was well written and edited, and the cinamatography is amazing.

GREAT MOVIE!

RATING: ★★★★✰

Little Miss Sunshine

A little girl called Olive has a shot at winning the Little Miss Sunshine pageant and her whole crazy family has to accompany her going there, travelling hundreds of miles together in a van. Her dad is a motivational speaker and would-be bestselling how-to-fix-your-life author who is secretly terrified of failure. Her grandpa is a grizzled and aggressive user of hard drugs, thrown out of his retirement home for bad behaviour and now living with his unwilling extended family. Olive's teenage brother Dwayne refuses to speak. While Olive's Uncle Frank is a deeply depressed gay who is recovering from a suicide attempt. Indeed, she has a dysfunctional family.

Now, if you have plans of showing this at home, parents/guardians/whoever-it-is need to know that this family road trip movie includes sexual slang and references to drugs, mostly by the grandfather. Pornographic magazines (only the covers are shown) and a comedic striptease figure are also into the plot and that characters discuss depression and suicide (Uncle Frank has cut his wrists before the movie starts; his bandages are visible). There are conversations about "winning" and "losing," as measured by financial success. There is also a character who dies about halfway through the film; the family then wraps up his body and carries it in their van to their destination. And lastly, characters curse (several "f--k"s), and the mother smokes a couple of cigarettes.

This movie is inappropriate for young tweens and teens.This isn't "just another family road trip comedy", as I thought it would be--this was DARK, QUIRKY COMEDY at its best. The acting was brilliant though, the characters were unusual and the ending was touching and unpredictable. It gives a lesson that family should stick together and nobody should be left behind.

 I watched this movie with an open mind, but really didn't enjoy it.

RATING: ★★✰✰✰

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros

The movie is about an effeminate 12-year-old kid who dutifully plays mother to his criminal father and older siblings. A kid with a very vivacious personality who surely captured my attention as an audience.  

Maxi was rescued from a group of local thugs (tambay) late one night by a kind police officer- Victor. His attraction to the kind-hearted and trustworthy Victor soon finds him torn between the criminal behavior of his family and his desire to follow a more honorable path in life. He then experienced a crisis of conscience after befriending an honest (and sizzling HOT) cop.

A thumbs up for Direk Auraeus Solito for making a movie that begins as a vibrant, hilarious celebration of all things, capturing – especially in a makeshift fashion show sequence characterized by outlandish outfits – the young diva strutting his glory.(hooray Maxi!)

Even though preteen sexuality is a sensitive subject, director Auraeus Solito handles it with dignity, never becoming exploitative.

I must say that this movie is one of the finest Filipino films, shimmering with folkloric charm without softening its view of the harshness and injustice of life and poverty. It also captures the street life of Manila's slums where the excitement of first love also exist.

RATING: ★★★★✰