My January 2025 movies and books:

Now watching: CHEDENG & APPLE (2017, Rae Red)

"Following her husband’s death, Chedeng, 66, decides to come out of the closet. Her best friend Apple, 63, beheads her live-in partner in a fit of rage. Bound by friendship, the women, together with the severed head, set off on an adventure."

now watching--

HAMLET: THE DRAMA OF VENGEANCE (1921, Svend Gade), the only adaptation brave enough to ask "what if Hamlet was trans?"

The 10 best books I read in 2024:

From INGEBORG HOLM (1913, Victor Sjöström)—

Obsessed with Leonard Nimoy's fingerless driving gloves (?) in the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers here:

now watching: ENGKWENTRO (2009), the debut film from Pepe Dionko, who has gone on to make recent award-winners GOMBURZA and ISANG HIMALA.

Watched an Arnold Schwarzenegger last night:

There are certain leading men in Filipino cinema I've just never liked. Robin Padilla is one of them.

But watching 1993's DI NA NATUTO this afternoon, and this line reading, in this costume, with this look...

I get it now. It finally clicked. #filmsky

In any just universe, this would be the most beloved film ever made. Gal Gadot would be in talks to star in a a ninth FILIBUS reboot. Little girls would dress as Filibus the Mysterious Air Pirate every Halloween.

Now watching: the most beloved Filipino horror ever made—

SHAKE, RATTLE & ROLL III (1991, Peque Gallaga)

Now watching: THE OLD MAID (1939, Edmund Goulding). Starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins, but, *much more importantly*: based on the novel by my all-time favorite writer: Edith Wharton.

watching: ANG PINAKAMAGANDANG HAYOP SA BALAT NG LUPA (“The Most Beautiful Creature on the Face of the Earth”), 96, Ceslo Castillo.

“A strange but beautiful young woman washed ashore on an island becomes the desire of all men.”

A remake of the 1974 film of the same name—also directed by Castillo!

The 10 films I have seen the most:

The Matrix
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Naked Gun 2 1/2
Terminator 2
Jingle All the Way
They Came Together
Holiday Affair
Speed Racer
Airplane
Smallfoot

Letterboxd’s year-end breakdowns of my movie-watching habits always make me smile. All hail Joel Torre and Ricky Davao!

I have a sincere desire to use this site just to talk about movies. Not The Other Thing.