Starting Over Again ~ Review

by: Uel Ceballos

This movie will not bring out the hopeless romantic in you but it will change your perspective about things in life, especially in love. The kind of perspective that most of us have been experiencing but keep on denying: the perspective of reality. If you’re one of those who are still not getting over with their past ex, those who haven’t had a closure with their past relationship, those who still hope for second chance, then this movie perfectly fits for you.

Starting Over Again has a strong ensemble who cracks the wit out of us (Toni Gonzaga), squeezes our heart with dazzling charm (Piolo Pascual), and sends chill to our spine with subdue yet very effective acting performance (Iza Calzado). This film is a comedy drama flick with heavy context on human relationship, not only romantic love relationship but family relationship as well. I admired the way that the screenplay is written because it enabled a very serious matter be brought up into film in a light mannered approach. Surely you would think of this film as some feel good movie that will send you out the cinema smiling and very much thrilled by the love story you’ve justwatched. Uhmm…well, yes it will make you feel like that, but the other way around, not for reason that you are thinking now.

What can I say about this film? Starting Over Again will make you hope in love, fear in love, doubt in love – but most importantly it will make you look in love on a realistic side. Starting Over Again has the unidealized love story that is emotionally ruthless; yet offering generous spectacles of the happy kind of love affair that didn't work but is now subjecting for possible second chance. It will certainly open up your past wounds (if there’s any) that no one can really determine on how you would feel after;at some point this movie is quite unpredictable and maybe that's what makes the great difference from the other typical chick flicks. As they say love is lovelier for the second time around ... the film says that yes it is, but it's more painstaking as well. 

Indeed, Toni Gonzaga gave herself out here, sharing to us her great knacks for comedy. Piolo Pascual who has proven his acting skills in his past projects gave what is being expected from him in this dramedy film. His charm never fails; his screen appearance is a great sight to behold as always. And Iza Calzado, what else can I say for this lady, she only got few moments here in this movie but she’s as remarkable as ever. That particular scene, wherein for couple of seconds she never speaks a word but her eyes alone notably do all the talking – you don't hear a word but you hear the powerful sub-context of her silence, very-Iza-Calzado and I really loved it. And of course the other artists in their supporting roles have done a great job here that added to the beauty of the movie.

The film narration with its series of flashbacks is done with balance; as it able to build up the emotions at perfect pacing, and deliver the climax at right timing. As with the psyche development of the characters, Iza’s character wasn’t strongly established which is may be the reason why at some point of the movie she appeared off and unrealistic. However, Iza’s acting prowess is able to make up for that flaw in the character development. All the rest I think are intentionally delivered in their respective manners for the purpose of strengthening the twist and justifying it after, of which I believed, was given enough justice at the end of the movie.

I love the way they ended this film. Not a perfect one, but deeply and strongly felt. So for this movie I’ll give a rating of 8 Espresso Shots and I look forward seeing more realistic films like this one!

The Monuments Men ~ Film Review

by:Uel Ceballos

The Monuments Men is neither your action-packed kind of war account nor the suspenseful narrative kind of history film that would make your heart beat in thrill and excitement. However, it carries with it a noble intention and a highly significant event that is worth showing to the whole wide world. Though given with mixed to negative reviews by film critics, it’s quite undeniable that Monuments Men got two major features that would certainly place it in the line of this year’s notable films. First, it got a powerful casts who all have a respected name in the film industry. Second and the most important thing, the film reveal the unknown event to which the whole world owes the recovery of the stolen Western civilization art treasures during the Nazi ruling. If not for the Army Unit nicknamed as “Monuments Men” during the World War II, there will be no more ancient arts to be treasured today because these would be either destroyed forever or stolen by the people who reigned during the war period. It is just timely at this point of humanities’ advancement and continuous development, that we take into each and everyone’s awareness the details about the silent heroes who have risked their lives for those pieces of arts that we greatly value and admire today.

Directed and starred by George Clooney himself, The Monuments Men is created with subtle intention for drama and action. Nonetheless, with the narrative of that particular event as the main focal point of the story, the emotions are naturally developed during the progression of the film. Mainly because the past itself is already a bunch of emotional elements that whenever it is stirred, recounted, or remembered, everyone who witness does feel that strange connection onto something that happened or existed from long time ago, thus we people can't help but get into that nostalgic feeling. People’s lives are all interconnected through numerous links and channels, regardless to where part of the world they are or to what era they have lived, each and everyone are connected to both the past and the present. That is exactly the same way I have felt while I’m watching The Monuments Men, the attached feeling to the arts treasures which I only read on books but never yet see and touch. I have never known or even heard about these Monuments Men who helped recover the lost and stolen arts from the paintings, sculptures, jewels and other arts antiques made from the old times. It was never written in the history books (well not in the books that are used in school), and it was never taught in school that there were heroes who saved these artworks from the Nazi’s (unless maybe if you're majoring in arts or humanities). Who would have thought anyway that there were men who were willing to risk their lives for a piece of art? But, it is worth it? The answer is given in the movie.

The Monuments Men may lack an excellent screenplay and cinematography but nonetheless it has delivered a strong context for arts history. Not the kind that would compete to films with aesthetic spectacles and creative execution, but rather a film that is worth keeping for the future generation to see.  The film carries with it an important narrative of the people who have played essential role but scarcely remembered and recognized for their heroic deeds.

I would review this film not by the criteria of how excellent the film is made but by how the message is effectively delivered and infused to the audience. Therefore, being an audience myself, I admit that the film was not flawlessly carried out with its sequences not all smoothly transitioned, but it did affect me and moved me in a special kind of way. In fact, I’m quite more inspired now to study more about humanities.

I urge you to not be affected by the reviews that you read online but go and see this movie for yourself to judge on your own account. I must warn you though to not expect more of artsy film but to rather focus to the context of the story which I believe is the film's strongest characteristic.  

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ~ Film Review

by: Uel Ceballos

The 2013 film Secret Life of Walter Mitty brings an unforgettable experience that would make you embrace even more the great splendour of life. The movie is a remarkable motion picture that engaged the viewers to its inspiring concept of adventure and exploration. It is effective in firing the mind and emotions to grasp the idea of getting out of your comfort zone and discover what else out there are in store for you in the world.

The story is focused on Walter Mitty who works as negative asset manager at Life Magazine.  His mundane existence is suddenly transformed when for the very first time in his long career he happened to misplace (that what his boss and other co-workers thought so) a very important film negative, the negative 25. The negatives are sent to Walter by the photojournalist Sean O’Connell including a wallet gift for Walter for his excellent works. Sean O’Connell says that the special photograph, negative 25 should be the cover for the magazine’s final print issue. Now the great problem is that Walter cannot find the negative 25 among other negatives that Sean O’Connell sent. Sean O’Connell cannot be reached and Walter’s corporate transition manager Ted (bearded guy they call him) is pressuring him for that negative.

In this film you will be privileged to go along with Walter Mitty in his journey of finding Sean O’Connell. And where do you think Sean O’Connell is? Using the other negatives as his leads to Sean’s whereabouts Walter gets ready his backpack and his travelling journal. You wouldn’t believe that in the midst of Walter’s monotonous life, he would suddenly gets out of his dungeon to travel the Greenland, survive the eruption of volcano Eyjafjallajökull, and conquer the Himalayas Mountain.

The cinematography of the film is brilliant and stunning. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is delivered with its overpowering grand designs that serve as splendid backdrop to the film’s significant message. Its vibrant spectacles will make you thirsty for your own life’s adventure. The concept of the story is quite touching and it would make you proud of whatever you do in life as long as you do it with the sincerest dedication and passion as Walter Mitty does with his profession.

Ben Stiller who directed and at the same starred in the film has brought to life a Walter Mitty that is both funny and admirable. This film is really a potential motivation to those who are longing to break their dreary existence, and go out in the world to meet greater challenges and discover much more beautiful things just like what Walter Mitty did. Even Walter Mitty himself is greatly overwhelmed by all things that he has found out in his extraordinary journey. He left New York for that unplanned travel and came back as a different person.

Sean Penn who did the role of Sean O’Connell has short but very noteworthy appearance in the movie. He has effectively imbibed the character of a photojournalist who imposes an unbearable influence not only to the characters in the film but to the viewers as well. 

Just because of that missing single piece of negative film, Walter Mitty is forced to travel. Sean O’Connell says that the special negative film has captured the quintessence of life, that it should take the cover space of Life Magazine. Walter Mitty got no single idea what’s in the negative but all he wants to know is where it is placed by Sean.  

You know what, that negative 25 is worth the description that Sean gives. When I finally see it, I was moved by its perfectness, no, not really the technical perfectness of the shot but the enigmatic attitude of the picture. The negative 25 shot was taken capturing the abstract concepts of zeal and passion over something that makes a person more alive than ever. If you want to know what the negative 25 is all about, see the movie and you wouldn't regret it that you did!

For this movie that has inspired me even more to go out, explore and travel the world, I’ll give it a rate of 10 Espresso Shots. 

Upstream Color ~ Review

by: Uel Ceballos

Shane Carruth has deeply engrossed me to the ambit of his film Upstream Color as its baffling twist captivated me right from the very start. Most often than not, I find experimental films to be manipulative in its abstract domination, injecting the cunning style of film to flummox the viewers but with a little success to stir them both mentally and emotionally. However, Upstream Color is far way different. It is experimental in a perplexing way of film art but at the same time comprehensive of all the entrancing emotions that would hold the viewers’ interest from start to finish. Upstream Color is visually stunning, mind challenging and emotionally satisfying – it will get you fully occupied with its involved narrative.

Upstream Color is the life’s story of two individuals whose paths are intertwined with the same mishap. Jeff and Kris are both victims of the parasites that are engendered by the man who is casted in the film as “The Sampler”. Another victimizer is involved, “The Thief” who is shown in the beginning of the movie drugging Kris to hypnotize her and steal her fortunes. The film has incorporated the parasitic creatures as the drugging element that would draw the main characters together in a certain sort of odd familiarity. The use of pigs in the film wherein the “Sampler” has performed operations to connect the identity of the person to his or her new pig counterpart is also a bewildering spectacle. Shane Carruth has added a precious treasure to the list of remarkable Science Fiction films, of which who knows may actually happen somewhere in the future. Okay you may don’t want to imagine it anyway, having and feeling the roundworms visibly crawling beneath your skins then a stranger would perform an operation on you and you’ll just find yourself sharing your individuality with a pig.

This may sound disgusting to you, but Upstream Color is a must-see movie that demonstrated science being weaved to the dramatic existence of two people. I can’t stand the sight of all crawling creatures especially the like of nematodes and its other relatives. I’m having goose bumps in seeing a bunch of them than in seeing a certified ghastly horror film.  But then I got hold of its relevance to the film’s science element and braved their appearances on the movie and I never regret that I did. If I stopped from there I wouldn’t be able to see the full of the movie wherein a different kind of love story is eventually developed between the victims, Jeff and Kris.

Not everybody’s sort of love story, but this is definitely one of the sweetest and most moving depictions of love that I have ever seen. The parasites encounter has placed Jeff and Kris on such wreckage wherein they end up grasping endlessly for the missing fragments of their identity. But on such ruins they have found one another, and with their mental condition failing them due to unknown traumatic and confusing experiences from their past, they have come to a relationship tied strongly by bond of true love. This bond is not supported by any rational ideas as they have seemed to adrift forever in the mystery of their past, but they face things together despite the uncertainties, clutching mainly to their sense of feeling because that's the most trustworthy instinct that they got. Jeff and Kris live their lives with the undetermined past haunting and torturing them, they force their way to move forward hoping against hope that they soon unlock the elusive secrecy before they get completely estranged from their sanity.

A beautiful American experimental film that would make you wish to see more of Shane Carruth's films and his incorporation of science and abstract film style. 

A closer look behind SLAMMED's poetry line. ~ Book Review

by: Love Esios

I feel like my whole mental and emotional being have been set to expect loss and tragedy in every final chapter of dystopian novels I've been reading for the past few months. That's why it's a good thing I've found a nice breather in this Colleen Hoover masterpiece.

It's not every day that you'd come across a novel that contains the right mix of love, friendship and kinship coated by poetry while the music of The Avett Brothers are setting the mood in the background.Sure, it's one of those typical love stories. We have here an 18-year-old girl named Layken who lost his dad in an accident, forced to leave her comfort zone to go all the way to Michigan with her mom and younger brother to supposedly live a much simpler kind of life. From across their new home lives the dashing, good-looking boy in the person of Will, who is almost got the same fate as her --- losing both parents to accident and left alone raising a younger brother. And so just like any other love stories, they met, there was spark, and they got electrocuted. (Okay, that was a lame joke!) Kidding aside, I don't think I need to say more. You don't need to be a scientist to know what will happen next.

The characters of Layken and Will and their love story might sound very conventional to most of you, but there is something more about how Colleen Hoover brought the art of poetry, music and love together in this literary piece. I personally enjoyed how she injected humor in the very tough facade of Layken's character. How, in a way, she mirrors each and every one of us in facing struggles and struggling to come out of it. I kinda like how Will became an example of chivalry in this story. How a good-looking man can also have brains, too! I think any woman would like to have a man who's very charming, handsome and strong yet has a heart so compassionate that a piece of poetry or a sad melody can make him soften up even just a little bit. Though, just like most romantic novels, I feel like I there are some moments when  I was actually looking for some  more masculinity and toughness in Will's character (though I know if that's the only thing I was looking for, I should've just read A Game of Thrones and immune myself on the egotistic attitude of male characters in that book).

I think this novel just proved how hopeless romantic I am. It awakens the flame of poetry in my heart. It even made me want to watch and join poetry slam! :D Yes, it is a typical love story. And who knows, perhaps it's YOUR typical love story, too. :)

I'd give 8/10cups of latte for this. Enjoy! ^___________^

The Great Beauty ~ Film Review

by: Uel Ceballos

Watching “The Great Beauty” is visually and psychologically nourishing as it makes you feel like travelling to a world that embodies the full elements of humanities. The title itself strongly speaks for what the movie is all about and it will never fail your expectations. The film is the great beauty itself. I’ve seen lots of other movies that feature Italy, particularly the Rome with all its exquisiteness and extreme majesty. But none had given me that strange overwhelming sensation over such a splendour beauty. None had hit me with such effect until Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty”.

The film is focused to Jep Gambardella, a journalist who has just celebrated his 65^th birthday. He’s a socialite who had once written a famous novel during his twenties but nothing follows after then. He works writing cultural columns and engaging himself to nightly parties. Upon reaching his 65^th year, Jep has finally come into this sort of rethinking things over and looking back to the past events of his life. Jep is undergoing into this stage that everyone of his age is experiencing – assessing his life which eventually give way to the transformations of views and beliefs, paving the path to new realizations. This is the sort of movie that will make you look deeper into your own life just as Jep did, regardless of your age at the moment. Paolo Sorrentino has inspired a story of an ageing journalist and socialite, incorporating it to the soul-searching process of an individual which occurs through the interwoven accounts with the various beauties of life.

Jep Gambardella, in spite of what he has become, of what status he has achieved through all his hard works, is still feeling unfulfilled. He’s maybe a socialite who sleeps at hours wherein the ordinary people are already waking up, a 65 year old man who was adopted by Rome and showered by its magnificence, a man who had established his name in literature after a successful novel, but Jep Gambardella is missing something and he has finally come into that sense to look for that mislaid piece.

If you’re an artist or you love arts and appreciate it in its various forms and aspects then you’re going to love this movie to bits. The Great Beauty showcases Rome in its finest gorgeousness and mystifying works of arts that flowed in undeniable opulence. In truth, everybody can do that, incorporating a potential story with the intention to exhibit the elegance of the city – the Rome itself is already a sumptuous element that would make up for a classy remarkable film. However, Paolo Sorrentino had executed it in the most unique way, weaving the film with dazzling visuals, striking score, extraordinary performances and unusual sequence of events that would make you all eyes and ears to the movie. The film consists of flashback series as Jep remembers his past which mainly comprises of his first love and his struggles to understand life in its most complicated nature.

Paolo Sorrentino has given the film an enigmatic central character and he has assigned it to Toni Servillo who did an absolutely knockout performance. ­Toni Servillo’s acting has moved me. He had played well the inscrutable character of Jep Gambardella – incomprehensible at some moment, sometimes going blank at all and then all of a sudden, the emotion will outburst from totally zero level to 100% of deliverance. Imagine witnessing such unexpected turn of scene with the poignant soundtrack and stirring acting performance that evokes mixed emotions from the audiences’ part. It’s hard to completely illustrate the film’s magnificence through words alone, unless you see it yourself that’s the only time you’ll fully understand what I’m saying. Everything in the film speaks of beauty, from the stunning visuals, haunting breed of modern classical music and stirring techno-pop, to awe-inspiring cinematic techniques, The Great Beauty is absolutely one of the greatest movies of its time!

So there, let’s cheer on it with the perfect 10 of Espresso Shots!

Gravity ~ Film Review

by: Uel Ceballos

I love the Gravity film because it granted me the experience of the outer space. I’ve long fancied to be an astronaut and this film had somehow brought my fantasy into its closest reality. Gravity’s execution was breathtaking. It will take you to the world you hardly ever knew (unless you’re a major in Science, you’re an astronaut yourself or something that is related on it) – in the outer space where the greatness of our Creator is truly magnified. From the start to finish, you will never stop wondering on the outer space’s awesomeness despite its unfriendly nature on human. The VFX team had surely exerted lots of efforts and creative juices to make the setting appeared with seemingly undisputed authenticity.

The grandeur views on Gravity is the movie's main selling point as the fantastic depictions of the space stirs the curiosity of people with respect to what lies there beyond the celestial elements. The film was given the title “Gravity”, and 99.9% of the scenes happened in abyss wherein the gravity does not exist. You would see here how the astronauts move in the void as if they are swimming in the underwater. The space is enthralling and terrifying at the very same time. Like the vast desert or the deep ocean, the space’s mysteriousness is inviting yet the potential dangers that it can impose upon you is far superior and innumerable. Everything that you see in the film is seemingly genuine however, if you keep thinking about its digital creation and manipulation, you wouldn’t be able to benefit from the marvelous spectacles that Gravity has in store for your sight. Gravity is a great beauty to behold but it also presents a different kind of thrill that will make you hold your breath up to the end of the film.

Gravity is a sci-fi thriller film that is focused on Dr. Ryan Stone on her first shuttle space mission. While in the mission with the veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski and the rest of the team, a Russian missile hits on non-operational satellite which causes the reaction of high-speed debris coming over to their location. Space debris had hit the Space Shuttle Explorer where Dr. Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski are and this is the start of the suspenseful series of events that will make you gasp for air. Not to exaggerate things but you will certainly share with Stone’s struggle here as she almost run out of oxygen while working on her way to survive the unforgiving outer space.

George Clooney’s character here has only a short time exposure but he has done it with the expected excellence. Though clad in heavy spacesuit with his face vaguely shown behind the helmet and only his voice justifying the character, he has still made the character likeable and charming in a remarkably Clooney-way. His charm still got its irresistible effect even on such a limited role. His role though short, is very significant to the entire movie as the story of Gravity wouldn’t be strong enough without that character of Kowalski in it.

Only that the entire film is focused on the space drama, putting only to second importance the life’s story of the two main characters. There is the effort though to establish it through the conversation of Stone and Kowalski, but it was very less that their emotional and psychological status wasn't fully developed. The psyche of the characters was not completely established through the story thus I couldn’t tell to what level of appropriateness had the characters justified their decisions and actions. Devoid maybe of the emotional elements with respect to the characters’ inner feeling but Gravity has indeed delivered an incomparable suspense space drama spectacle.

For this wondrous thrilling movie that made me hold my breath and gasped for air, I will rate it with 7 shots of Espresso!