Michael Moore has made some angry but effective documentaries this decade but I think he has made a gem out of "Bowling for Columbine". The thing of it was, the documentary was right and people should take notice.
Sometimes I think the main goal of a documentary is to move people and make people act. "An Inconvenient Truth" slammed the truth in front of our faces and I think it was successful in opening our eyes at the pending issue that should alarm us all.
Warner Herzog created a masterpiece of sorts when he made "Grizzly Man". Instead of just telling the story of Timothy Treadwell who lived along grizzly bears, something that lead to his and his girlfriend's uneventful death.
Talk about capturing beauty, "Heima" is aurally and visually beautiful and all was captured into one film. The songs of Sigur Ros was utilized to full blown beauty and it was stunning and engrossing.
Scared and scarred the hell out of me after watching it. It was creepy, and it got my heart hard thumping for hours. "Zoo" tells the story of a group of people who had sex with their horses and think it is a nature thing. Damn. It still gives me the chills when I think about it.
A simple story could go a long long way, and I think that that is where the beauty of the movie lies, is that it was a simple story told exquisitely well. "Ratatouille" is a rat story who followed his dream of becoming a chef. It was funny and is one of Pixar's most original work to date.
Master Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" puts most CGI movies to shame. I do not know how colorful it must be to linger around Miyazaki's imagination, the movie seems to be overflowing with it, yet you do not feel like you are drowning, in fact, after the experience, you crave for more.
"Triplets of Belleville" is a one of a kind animation. The movie for me proved that sometimes words need not be said all the time to get your story or your message across, all you need is a great story, a wicked concept, an original music and lyrics and that is what the movie was, and it is a one of a kind experience.
I sometimes question how come people talk and think like what they did in "Waking Life". I can only imagine the thought process that may have happened while creating the script of the movie. And how it was told is a completely different arduous task, and it is quite remarkable.
Pixar has had a spectacular decade, and I think that Pixar had peaked it's creativity and greatness in 2008 with "Wall-E". "Wall-E" is a love story of robots with an environmental side story. The thing of it was, the movie was sending a green message across (green not foul but earthly green) but it was told in such a way that you are entertained and in the end you will be urged to move. This remains to me as Pixar's finest.
I really am addicted to Mike de Leon's works right now that I almost completely stopped my Lino Brocka quest. Last week I once again scoured a DVD store near where I always go to cool down, Philippines is such a fucking desert right now. Anyways. So I looked for some DVD, the usual. There are the usual crap movies. So I went to the Filipino section. Then I saw this Pinoy classic movie section and I was immediately drawn to the "Batch 81" VCD. See that, VCD, cheap ahoy. I think that after days and weeks looking at Mike de Leon's profile in IMDB I would right then an there notice that that VCD is a Mike de Leon work, so I hurried and bought right ahead.
"Mysterious Skin" lands the last spot in this list, and it was a toss up between this and "The Hours". But I think Araki's work here was far more adventurous and more daring. Araki has done the superb job and overcoming that obstacle of the source material being un-adaptable but Araki has transformed it to something that is his signature own.
I could only imagine how the script of "Requiem of a Dream" would look like. It, like the movie, maybe very scary. But there was much work put into this, it is impressive and at the same time unsettling in its grim look at pill popping mothers and drug addicts. It was morose, dark, and hopeless, and it gets its message across really well and piercing at that.
"Brokeback Mountain" is an epic love story telling. To take a story that you can read for about an hour and stretch it to a two hour feature film may seem like risk because it may come off as boring or glacial but instead, it never felt that way. The short story was limiting, as to the character development, but the script was rich and stunning. There were some differences from the source material but it stayed faithful to its words, and captured every bit of emotion; the sadness and the love, everything and wonderfully put to screen.
"The Class" to me felt like it was a documentary, it felt like someone took a camera and placed it a classroom and taped everything that happened. You would not even think of it as something that was adapted from a book because everything that is happening felt very actual and real. And that is where the magic of the script lies, everything felt like it was adlib-ed or impromptu. Think Altman but in a delinquent-ish french class setting.
Adapting "Infernal Affairs" seem to me as an arduous task. First, "Infernal Affairs" is a masterpiece in its own right, and second it is hard to take something that is already great and take your spin into it, and make it your own. William Monahan did just that in "The Departed" and not only did he made it his own, he made it even better (personally I think it is better), took some liberty of changing and adding characters to cater to the American audience, and it paid off extremely well.
"Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula Sa Kamulatan" is a fragmented story about the happenings in Manila's underbellies. But the main story was about this dorkish boy (played by Carlo Aquino) who got beat up by four guys who ganged up on him when the dorkish boy passes by them when they were drinking. Then several stories webbed from there. I do not want to get in the other stories.
She already has a star career but it kinda fizzled. I do not get why the other "Darna" is getting more attention when in fact Angel Locsin is a far better actress. She should continue her streak, she won raves for her TV performances, she should carry that to the big screen. She needs that one role to prove that she is indeed on of the best actresses of her generation.
I have only seen a little of her. Tess Antonio has appeared in acclaimed movies such as "100" and "Kimmy Dora". But she had very little screen time. But I do admire her comic timing. I think that she is a very good comedic actress, but I sense something more, give her the break that she deserves and I know we will all be in awe.
She has constantly appeared here and there in movies and she never fails to deliver. Her personal best for me was her Cinemalaya winning performance in "Room Boy", and I think that she needs to give another performance that would headline her and make use of her greatness.
I mostly see her on TV, and from what I have seen, I can say that she is a good dramatic actress. However I have not seen her give a WOW performance both in TV and in the big screen. But I can't wait to see her in the hands of director Adolf Alix, I think she has it and she will wow us all.
Max Eigenmann started the decade right with Adolf Alix's movie "Romeo at Juliet". She sizzled and stole every scene she was in. Even though she was just supporting, she made the role more interesting, and it was she that you want to see more of. The Eigenmann clan sure is made up of great talents.
Park Chan Wook may have seen something in Mercedes Cabral that made him choose her to be in his Cannes entry "Thirst". I think she has not been given enough break for her to showcase her acting prowess. I will be waiting in line for that movie that would make everybody say that she truly is a star.
I love Alessandra de Rossi to bits, on and off camera. She is a great actress with a great bubbly personality. You can tell that she is never boring. She made a rousing performance with "Hubog" playing a retarded sister to her real life sister, the performance I think was spot on perfect. Ditto her performances in "Mga Munting Tinig" and "Azucena". She is a great, great actress, and deserves great great roles and I now this decade will surely showcase that.
Like, Che Ramos who we will get to later, Angeli Bayani is a stage actress that is also making waves in the big screen. She made major splash after winning for her role in Lav Diaz's epic movie "Melancholia". In a way, I think that she is an underused actress, she is great even if the screen time is scant. I remember her the most in "Ang Laro sa Buhay ni Juan". I can't wait what she does this decade.
Winning two lead acting performance in a film festival that is only five years old is quite a remarkable feat. Her performance in "Endo" remains as one of the best acting performances by an actress for the past decade and I know that she will continue one superb performance after another. Ina Feleo should be headlining movies now. I demand it!
I know that this will not come as a shock that I would pick Che Ramos as number one in this list. Why not? She is a great actress. Also, from what I have heard she is also great on stage. She gave a highly memorable big screen debut in "Mangatyanan" and she was extremely great albeit short screen time in the short film "Faculty". I am really itching to see her more on screen.
"Pisay" has been an elusive movie for me. I failed to see it when it got released in 2007. I planned to see it in 2008 but I failed to see it again because it was fully booked. I had greater chance to see it last year, the problem was, I was allowed to see it but my tagalongs were not allowed to see it because their ticket had less priority, which I think is just plain stupid. Anyways. This year it got released on DVD. It costs 500 pesos. It is very costly. However, I still paid just to see it. And I end up falling deeply in love with the movie.
I said to my friends before, when we are talking Filipino movies, that the Philippines has a very very rich history that would be very good if told in a movie. But rarely have I found a historical Filipino movie that is at least good. They could get too sentimental, too didactic or too fake. But that was not the case for Raymond Red's "Sakay" about Filipino hero in the American colonization era, Macario Sakay.
It is obvious that he would be in the list. But to have him be in number one in this list would be too redundant for me. I want to see more great actors have greater careers. But then again I can not be not excited to see how Coco Martin career goes this decade. He had a great decade (last decade) and I know the sky is the limit for this actor. I just wish that he does not NOT do independent movies anymore because that is where he excels at.
He dances and he acts, Romalito Mallari should have a great decade ahead of him. Now only if producers and casting directors would take notice of him. He was phenomenal in "Dinig Sana Kita" and deserves awards citations for that performance. I wish that he continues acting, on stage or on screen. He is not just an inspiration to all deaf mute artists but he is an inspiration to all.
For some reason I think, like for Coco Martin's case, Jason Abalos does greatness in independent movies. He proved that he is a great young actor after his superb performance in "Endo", and he was awarded accordingly. I can't wait for him to do plum or plum-er roles such as what he did in "Endo".
"Magnifico" kid is all grown up now and now all he needs is a superb role to bring him back in the awards arms. I am kinda am puzzled why his career did not go all the way up as I expected it would be, he should have that career, with that acting skills to boot. I wish that he makes another magnificent performance, then again, he is still young, and I am confident that his star will shine brighter this decade.
Following the footsteps of their great actor of a father, Bembol Roco, Felix Roco seems to be making his own mark as well. He is a star on the rise and I think that with better material, we have another superb young actor that could potentially outshine the "known" young actors famous in the Philippines today. He was superb in "Engkwentro", and I hope he does a far stellar follow up to that.
You guys all know how I am amazed of how a great of a natural actor Neil Ryan Sese is. But I think that he needs to prove more of his acting greatness in a lead performance. He did that in "Huling Pasada", and he was great in it, But I want, is just more of that. That said, his supporting roles are great also. Check him out in "Mangatyanan" and "Sanglaan".
Sid Lucero gave one of the finest performances of the last decade. Personally I think that his performance in "Selda" was the best acting performance by a Filipino actor last decade. If I would rank my favorite actor performances of that decade, I would rank him second to Heath Ledger. It was that good! I am really excited to see him banner a movie again.
He was superb in 2008's "Carnivore", and I kinda wish that he gets more challenging role for him. I kinda dug his TV5 series that got canceled, I really do not know why that got canceled when it was very good. Anyways. back to him. Carlo Aquino was a talented child actor in the 90's and I think that he proved that he is great still when he grew up. I wish he continues on his track. I can't wait to see what he does next.
Right now, all I am wanting to see from him is that he makes a comeback to the movies. I have yet to see him do another performance that is a par his greatness in 2000's "Deathrow". I think that this year alone he will be back in an Adolf Alix movie. I hope that the movie and his performance would confirm my belief that he is one of the best actors of his generation.
I am desperately wanting to see more of him this year, more so, this decade. He was here and there last decade, in several films and in some short films (exceptional in Imahenasyon). I think that he kinda stole the show in "Tulad ng Dati" no matter how small the part was. He kinda lingered even after his appearance in the dream sequence. I kinda wish that he had more screentime in "Selda". But I really liked him in "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros". So here's me hoping that he graces us with his greatness again this decade, and more more please.
I've noticed that I have been watching mostly drama lately, maybe that is one factor why I am feeling so dramatic lately. So to see that Mike de Leon, yes him again, created a sort of musical comedy, would be a real treat for me. And it really was, "Kakaba Kaba Ka Ba?" is a visual, and a cinematic treat.
Still on a detour from watching Brocka films, I saw "Sister Stella L.", yet another Mike de Leon. I know it seems quick but after watching the previous de Leon movies I have seen, I am now a big fan.
Lav Diaz's movies are very hard to find. Believe it or not, as much of a fan I am, I have only seen three Diaz movie, one of them is this, "Burger Boys". This movie I think is Lav Diaz's first feature film which tells the story of a group of boys writing a script.
Watching Mike de Leon's "Kisapmata" reminded me of 2009's "Precious". There was this monstrous parent, but in "Kisapmata"'s case it was the father, and their child feared them and desperately wants to move out of their house. But I am not going to talk about "Precious", let me focus on "Kisapmata".
