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BLITZ REVIEW
James Taylor in Manila redux, 30 years later
by Juaniyo Arcellana - April 11, 2024 - 12:00am
Good things come to those who wait, not least to James Taylor and his fans who turned the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena on April 8 into one giant folk house and speakeasy when the artist-musician had a sequel show to...
Letter to a ruined country
by Juaniyo Arcellana - April 2, 2024 - 12:00am
The more I listen to Khavn and the Kontra-Kino Orchestra’s The Woman Who Went Mad, the more it sounds like a love letter to a ruined country, hypothetically our own, what with its sparse instrumentation, vocals...
Friends still here and friends no longer with us
by Juaniyo Arcellana - March 3, 2024 - 12:00am
I know this is late, but received word of director Tikoy Aguiluz’s death on the eve of an out-of-town trip, and so was unable to attend his wake.
So long to Sky Cable
by Juaniyo Y. Arcellana - February 15, 2024 - 12:00am
News is out that Sky Cable will sign off by month’s end, making it the second major broadcast carrier and communications conglomerate to write 30 in as many months, after CNN Philippines last January. PLDT’s...
Lino Brocka, National Anarchist: Archivist’s delight
by Juaniyo Arcellana - December 6, 2023 - 12:00am
Screened early this year at the Rotterdam film festival, Khavn dela Cruz’s Lino Brocka, National Anarchist had a run at the recently concluded QCinema festival, every bit a tribute to the late filmmaker who...
Let’s hear it for boygenius
by Juaniyo Arcellana - October 20, 2023 - 12:00am
There are times when you hesitate to write a review because after having done so, you’re likely to put away the reviewed piece, especially if music, as if over and done with. Not so much with the band boygenius,...
Page-turner set in turn of century Manila
by Juaniyo Arcellana - October 4, 2023 - 12:00am
Walking through Megamall on a Tuesday afternoon with an elder sibling, shortly after a death in the family, would take us to the basement nook Book Sale and a novel by British writer William Boyd going for little...
Essential truths, unspeakable grace
by Juaniyo Arcellana - September 1, 2023 - 12:00am
A scene or two always stands out from a Lav Diaz film, and in the case of Essential Truths of the Lake recently premiered in Locarno, it is the procession of religious novices reciting what sounds like a local version...
Dilang-putol: Cat got his tongue
by Juaniyo Arcellana - July 8, 2023 - 12:00am
Now that we’ve reached the age of pre-censorship and the use of postmodern tools of communication, such that any stray report may or may not disintegrate into false news at the click of a mouse, consider that...
Post-pandemic music: Monochrome, Superego, The Garceaus
by Juaniyo Arcellana - June 17, 2023 - 12:00am
What has three years of pandemic wrought?
Brockas’ Manila by Night sends regards to cutie-cutie
by Juaniyo Arcellana - March 31, 2023 - 12:00am
Return of the primitive is what first comes to mind upon hearing the Brockas’ Manila by Night, the latest long-playing album of the band of filmmakers, who happen to pick up musical instruments, write songs...
Not a release: Latest from the Brockas
by Juaniyo Arcellana - January 25, 2023 - 12:00am
Filmmaker Khavn dela Cruz messaged to say that two of his latest films will have their premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 5, and the band Brockas of which he and other directors from the...
Revenge of the spoken word
by Juaniyo Arcellana - November 30, 2022 - 12:00am
No two bands can be as different and poles apart in their approach as Jack of None and The Brockas. Both are driven by the spoken word as main inspiration for most of their compositions, which can range from frenetic...
The Passionate Strangers: Remembering Eddie Romero’s film starring Valora Noland  
by Juaniyo Arcellana - November 4, 2022 - 12:00am
An old friend and high school batchmate now teaching film in South Korea, going by the alias Ynnocence, sent some months ago films personally requested for a re-viewing and re-evaluation, which included Eddie Romero’s...
Gone with the waves in Venice and San Isidro
by Juaniyo Arcellana - September 11, 2022 - 12:00am
One might say Lav Diaz’s latest film, Kapag Wala Nang Mga Alon (When the Waves are Gone), was constructed around a photograph taken during the drug war, the Pieta-like cradling of a user/pusher victim by his...
Katips says don't dream it's over A Katips says don't dream it's over  
by Juaniyo Arcellana - August 13, 2022 - 12:00am
There are thousands of untold stories of a yet unfinished revolution, and writer-director Vincent Tañada has quite a few in his counter-musical of the underground scene, set during the height of martial law,...
Isang Salaysay ng Karahasang Pilipino: Light, shadow, dialectics
by Juaniyo Arcellana - August 9, 2022 - 12:00am
The latest Lav Diaz film has just made its premiere screening in the Marseille festival, and if European audiences have seen bleak, they haven’t really looked deep into the Filipino void.
Last of the ponggols
by Juaniyo Arcellana - February 3, 2022 - 12:00am
Into the Chinese New Year and still the biggest story was the return of the Metro Manila Film Festival to actual brick and mortar theaters and movie houses last holiday season, netting a few gems including Big Night...
Kun Maupay Man it Panahon: Parallels of misfortune
by Juaniyo Arcellana - January 4, 2022 - 12:00am
Certainly Kun Maupay is not your regular film fest fare, but MMFF’s latest edition and first in actual theaters since the pandemic although in limited run is irregular as it can get, although a modestly sized...
On QC roof deck, sounds of a conservatory
by Juaniyo Arcellana - December 15, 2021 - 12:00am
In this case, one involving a certain roof deck in Quezon City, any first line might have to do with sounds of a conservatory, the UP College of Music, where a walk past it during childhood would bare multiple diverse...
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