The best films of Year 2001

Last Saturday, I ran my list of the best performances of the past year. Below are my choices for Best Picture. Once again, please note that I’m no longer including Jeffrey Jeturian’s Tuhog in the list because it already won Best Picture in last year’s Urian Awards.

Gatas: Sa Dibdib ng Kaaway. Set during the Pacific War, the film is about a fisherman’s wife (Mylene Dizon) who serves as a wet nurse to the motherless son of a Japanese officer. The material is beautifully conceived and handled very well by Gil Portes. The only problem is that the film (produced by Crown Seven) obviously works on a limited budget and this shows on screen with the very few uniformed Japanese soldiers we see in the movie and the bad production design. Despite the budgetary constraints, Gatas is still well-made and deserves to be included among the best films of 2001.

Live Show. Undeniably the most controversial movie of 2001 (although it was completed in 2000, but released only last year), this film by Jose Javier Reyes is another retelling of the lives of sex performers — better known in the carnal trade as toreros and toreras. After Chito Roño’s Private Show and Curacha: Ang Babaeng Walang Pahinga, there’s really nothing more you can add to this theme. Despite the overused material, Joey Reyes is still able to make Live Show interesting to the viewers. (No, it has nothing to do with the sex scenes because all these are presented clinically on the big screen).

Maybe it has something to do with the dialogues. (Joey Reyes is very good at writing dialogues). And then, there are the performances of the cast members who are all relatively new in the movies — save for Daria Ramirez, who plays the mother of the lead star and narrator, Paolo Rivero.

Produced by Regal Films, Live Show is not necessarily the best film of the year, but it certainly should be included among the best of 2001.

Minsan, May Isang Puso. Since this is one film that nobody saw (it was immediately pulled out of the cinemas after it opened to empty theaters in May last year), I have to give synopsis of this Jose Javier Reyes Film.

Minsan casts Carlo Aquino as a teenage boy whose family used to be middle class. Their reversal of fortune happens after the father gets sick and becomes a vegetable confined to his bed. Although the mother, Jaclyn Jose, works in an office, the family just couldn’t make both ends and meet and this forces Carlo to drop out of school and work us a bakery assistant.

His employer (Ricky Davao) happens to be a foul-mouthed grouch who seems to be carrying the load of the world on his shoulders. Later, it is revealed that Ricky Davao isn’t really all that bad. He’s only feeling bitter and guilty after his wife and son die in a vehicular accident — with him behind the wheel.

The movie focuses mainly on the relationship between Carlo Aquino and Ricky Davao and how they eventually help each other get on with life.

Produced by Regal Films, Minsan, May Isang Puso is in my list of the best films of 2001 for a lot of reasons. One is the super performance of all the stars in the movie particularly Ricky Davao, Carlo Aquino and Jaclyn Jose. Even newcomer Dimples Romana does very well in the movie as Carlo Aquino’s sister who cannot stand their miserable condition at home.

The film’s chief asset, however, is its screenplay (also by Jose Javier Reyes) which helps make Minsan, May Isang Puso a truly outstanding dramatic movie that tugs at the heartstrings.

La Vida Rosa. From Star Cinema, this Chito Roño opus is done film noir style. It is about a couple of con artists (Rosanna Roces and Diether Ocampo) whose lives are always in danger because of their illegal trade. The film benefits a lot from the uniformly excellent performances of the cast members, led by Rosanna. It is also rich and multi-layered – as shown by the different facets of the heroine (she can also be a compassionate human being and not a bad egg all throughout the film). Each scene in the movie is carefully handled and done in the most inventive manner by Roño. Definitely one of the finest films released last year.

Batang Westside. Shown at the Cine Manila last December, this is the legendary five-hour film by Lav Diaz. Set in New York and New Jersey, it stars Yul Servo as a young man who follows his mother (Gloria Diaz) in the US only to end up dead. The rest of the film’s five hours is devoted to the investigation (by Joel Torre) of Servo’s murder and, along the way we see the kinds of lives (not so exemplary) led by some Pinoys in America.

Batang Westside is a great film; it is insightful and very intelligent. It also boasts of wonderful performances by Servo, Torre, Diaz, Priscilla Almeda and a host of relatively unknown actors from theater.

Five hours, admittedly, is a long time to sit through a film. But it is never boring (on the contrary, something exciting happens practically in every scene).

As far as I know, this film will again be released commercially in May. Try to catch it and you’ll be proud of this Filipino movie.

Bagong Buwan. Through this film, the Manila population perhaps now has a better understanding of the plight of our Muslim brothers in Mindanao. Done on a grand scale, everything about this movie is impressive: technical elements, script, direction and performances. Unfortunately, the film has the tendency to be preachy and comes out like a lecture movie. However, there is no denying that this is one of the more important and significant films not only of the past year, but probably even of the previous decade.

Hubog. A socially relevant movie, this Joel Lamangan masterpiece realistically paints the miserable state of Manila’s poor. Shot in one of the city’s most depressed areas (the Basco Compound off Port Area), the viewer can practically smell from his comfortable seat in the theater the filth and the wretched condition of the slum community. This is exactly the type of film Lino Brocka would have wanted to make had he been alive today.