Philbert Dy
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philbertdy.bsky.social
Philbert Dy
@philbertdy.bsky.social
190 followers 12 following 150 posts
Filipino film critic. Amateur semiotician. Head of publications at QCinema International Film Festival.
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Everyone Knows Every Juan ('25 Alessandra de Rossi): Script could have used some pruning, but it's formally audacious, and the performances make it fun.
Quezon ('25 Jerrold Tarog): Spells things out a little too much for me, but it's otherwise a really entertaining dissection of a very flawed man.
No Other Choice ('25 Park Chan-wook): Painfully funny. A really smart dissection of the cutthroat nature of Capitalism.
Paglilitis ('25 Cheska Marfori): Mostly a bummer, on several levels.
Republika ng Pipolipinas ('25 Renei Dimla): A touch overlong, but I'd still die for President Cora.
Bloom Where You are Planted ('25 Noni Abao): A great, truly moving documentary. Fully expect that the MTRCB is going to give it an X.
Raging ('25 Ryan Machado): Easy to acknowledge its considerable merits. I wish it pushed further.
Open Endings ('25 Nigel Santos): Slowly fills a sapphic powder keg, then eventually lights a match.
Cinemartyrs ('25 Sari Dalena): Not convinced that fully worked, but you have to appreciate the absolutely bonkers attempt.
Child No 82 ('25 Tim Rone Villanueva): The plot doesn't really work moment to moment, but it's fun.
Padamlagan ('25 Jenn Romano): Very well composed, though it felt slight.
Warla ('25 Kevin Z. Alambra): Its best bits reminded me of Eduardo Roy Jr. Wish it had more structure, though.
Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan ('25 Dustin Celestino): An interesting reckoning, even if it gets painfully literal at times.
The Smashing Machine ('25 Benny Safdie): A strong, very human portrait of the totally insane world of professional fighting.
Selda Tres ('25 GB Sampedro): Kind of insane? Could have a been a serious examination of the deficiencies of the Philippine legal system, but ends up being a comedy that's so much about a crush that goes nowhere.
Minamahal: 100 Bulaklak Para Kay Luna ('25 Jason Paul Laxamana): It's mostly a nothing burger. I think there might be something to this Ashtine Olviga, though.
Altar Boy ('21 Serville Poblete): Sweet enough by the end. There's a lot of it we've seen before, though.
Jeongbu ('25 Topel Lee): Gets kind of interesting in the last stretch, but it's far too late by then. Suffers from trying too hard to hide an obvious twist.
Madawag and Landas Pantungong Pag-Asa ('25 Joel Lamangan): Means well, I suppose, but it doesn't add up to anything.
One Battle After Another ('25 Paul Thomas Anderson): Gigantic. Anderson reminds us that he's one of the best to ever do it.