#local cinema

[ytcomments-archive]

[gaypiratesandangels]

you know you have no social life when you start to recognize the other regulars at you local cinema

[we-should-go-crazy-together]

Currently going through my local cinema's leaflet and circling the films I want to see this month like it's the Argos Christmas catalogue

[sawthefaeriequeen]

Various thoughts on “Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral“

1.I wasn’t expecting Goyo’s PTSD arc at all, but it makes so much sense for a 20-something who’s way too young to have led a fuckton of battles. “They were schoolboys/Never held a gun” and all that. Anyhow, it made for a great character study and emotional spine.

1.1 Goyo being haunted by the elder Bernal and other victims of war. Oof. I was holding my breath through every single attack. I only really know Paulo Avelino from heartthrob type roles (but of course, this was one of those rare times that casting a kilig-type actor as a historical figure was exactly right!) so I didn’t know what to expect, but he did a really  good job portraying someone in the constant grip of war flashbacks.

1.2 I’d read about the skinny dipping incident in…was it Joaquin or Kalaw’s book? I forget. There I was, thinking it’d be used as a comedic moment; boys just having fun before they head off to war, yay!…and then BOOM, a wild death foreshadowing appears! Oookay.

1.3 Really, it was all so very: I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory/When’s it gonna get me? I wouldn’t be surprised if Tarrog was inspired by Hamilton, which rose up (heh) in the time between Goyo and Luna’s releases.

2. Alejandrino was awesome in general. Alvin Anson makes some truly excellent I Am So Done With Everybody’s Shit But Especially  White Colonizers And A Certain Up-His-Own-Ass President faces.

3. Oh, Joven. The embodiment of “stale cinnamon roll, been in this world too long, too cynical.” He looked SO weary and jaded at the start of the film, so different from his bright-eyed and bushy-tailed self in Heneral Luna that I actually whipped out my phone midway to check if it was still Arron playing him. (It was.)

3.1 One of my favorite scenes was Goyo doing his peacock dance for Remedios contrasted with Joven going through all the love letters from all of Goyo’s exes. My friend and I were like “duuuude. That’s…that’s a lot of heartbroken girls.”

3.2 Other favorite scene was when they’re all exhausted and camped out in the mountain, and Joven looks on at the hopelessness but then catches Goyo’s journal-words about his love for his country and smiles. <3

4. Gwen Zamora was really good at being steely and firm and saying hell no to Goyo’s honeyed words, haha. I wish we’d gotten to know Remedios more. Also…am I missing something? Wasn’t her sister, Dolores, historically his actual sweetheart? Which they tried to account for by having her give him the sister’s handkerchief, but still*. Anyway, I sort of feel like she was speaking for the audience/Pinoys when she was saying that she wanted to love a Human Being and not someone who was a Hero and A Symbol.

4.1 *of course the likely historical explanation is that Goyo fooled around with both sisters. Snerk.

5. I also liked Felicidad and her classy shade-throwing a lot! I wanted way more of her. Clearly, Tarrog or someone else needs to shed the spotlight on women of the revolution. I’d kill for an introspective Gregoria de Jesus flick set in the early days of the Katipunan, let me tell you.

6. I thought I’d hate Julian, and then I really liked Julian? Idk. Loved the whole repeating exchange of “Sino ka?”/”Agila.” between the del Pilar brothers. Also, where the heck did he go there at the end? It just doesn’t make sense, storywise, to have a big brother mentor figure, only to have him just disappear. He should’ve been beside Vicente there, at the grave. Or heck, at least show a shot of him receiving the news that his beloved baby brother died holding down the line in a distant mountain.

6.1  I’m SO glad the actual “agila” symbol belonged to Goyo himself. For some reason, I thought it’d be (stupidass) Aguinaldo, lmfao.

7. Vicente was my favorite. Look, it’s not my fault Carlo Aquino is flipping great in everything he acts in, okay?! Anyway I love how he was the group’s conscience, and that he looks after Joven**, and that it takes only one look from him for Goyo to lower his fists…but that he is also a hardass who will absolutely cuss out and raise his gun at any comrade who tries to escape battle.

7.1 **which, um. Joven/Vicente is a ship, right? IT IS, RIGHT? I know a lot of folks came away from Heneral Luna with shippy feels for certain people, fictional or historical, and while I supported fandom having fun, I never really got similar ~feels…until now. The last straw was when Vicente told a dude that he was screwed if anything happened to Joven during battle, like. Ka Enteng. Dude. Calm down. Quell your heart eyes.  And “Brigada Joven,” seriously? Anyway, please tell me there’s fic!

7.2 (Shippy thoughts aside, I also kind of felt it was hinted that Joven wasn’t straight. Yeah, he could just be a flop at flirting with women, but then there’s that scene where he just sits back and dazedly watches all his guy friends skinny-dipping, and, uhhh. I dunno, is it just me?)

8. Speaking of ships, someone needs to make a We Are Never, Ever, Ever Getting Back Together crack fanvid starring Aguinaldo and Mabini.

9. The iconic Battle of Tirad Pass was both exactly what I thought it’d be and really not what I thought it’d be. I…hmmm. I’m gonna have to rewatch to form a more concrete opinion. I’m just gonna say that I’m totally satisfied with how the death scene was done, and the crushing defeat after.

10. When Garcia tells Goyo that leaders may come and go but this land is forever… well, pardon my French, but: fuck me. My heart.  My friend was crying through a lot of the film because, in her words “oh God, our country got so screwed and is still so screwed, and nothing has changed and is it ever going to change?” Yeah, big mood.

Much of this movie was about deconstruction and asking the question: what makes a hero? Was Gregorio del Pilar a hero? My answer to that is: well he certainly loved this country more than *I* do most of these days, and he died for it too.          

[salpetrova]

Το μπερλιν και το καλτσουρ

[sawthefaeriequeen]

Some relatable Moods from Goyo Ang Batang Heneral (2018):

-Gregorio “Anxiety attack? Guess I’ll drown. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯” del Pilar

-Alejandrino and his ever-present judgy “gtfo colonizers, and while you’re at it, take the President with you” scowl

-Those three swoony ladies at the piyesta, who are basically all of us lololol

-Joven looking all kinds of Tired after the events of Heneral Luna but still writing his way through it all

-always that slight dash of sibling jokeyness every time Julian calls Goyo ‘Agila’ (“Ahhhgila!” kuya gonna kuya)

-Felicidad snubbing Goyo’s ass because she felt his values were going sour, yesss, you go Feli

-Joven politely refusing to take a swim and just resting on the shore watching cute dudes stripping \o/

-Mabini shading everyone in charge through his pen, basically

--Gregorio “There’s a war going on or something, but my hormones!” del Pilar

-Remedios and all her “Goyo, you absolute ass, I know you’ve said that to other girls before (but sighhh you sure are pretty, gdi I hate you…)”

-Hilaria, despite being sickly and exhausted, ordering ol’ flat-top not to surrender, because she has her priorities better sorted than the President of the whole damn country

-Vicente storming out pissed because screw you, Goyo, I’m good at my job too; I know what that noise is

-Gregorio “Enemy approaching? Time out, I gotta daydream OH SHIT” del Pilar

-Garcia trying to troll the Americans, realizing they didn’t understand him, and then getting an English-speaking soldier to troll them for him

-Vicente screaming bloody murder at the first sign of abandonment

-Joven rolling down a wholeass mountain because fuck this shit, I’m outta here

and! finally!

-Rusca showing up at Tirad Pass fifteen minutes late with Starbucks tubo

[theappledorechannel]

WHEN THE LIGHTS GO DOWN

Could Appledore have a cinema again?

There was a time when every town had a cinema. Not a multiplex. A meeting place.

Saturday nights meant coats brushed at the door, sweets rustling in paper bags, the low murmur before the lights dimmed. Newsreels. Laughter that rolled through the room. Silence at exactly the right moments.

Appledore had that spirit too — stories projected onto a wall, shared reactions in the dark, strangers briefly united by the same frame of light. For a while, everyone was watching the same thing, feeling the same beat of a story unfold.

Some of that history is precise. Some of it is half-remembered, retold, gently embellished — as all good local history is.

But the need for it is very real.

In an age of endless choice and solitary screens, cinema matters more than ever. Because it slows us down. Because it asks us to sit still. Because stories land differently when they’re experienced together, without pausing, scrolling, or distraction.

Bringing cinema back isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about restoring a rhythm to the town — a place to gather, laugh, gasp, and remember who we are when the lights go down and the screen comes alive.

Tonight’s double bill is part of that quiet revival. A small act. A simple gesture. A big idea.

🎬 See you at the cinema.

[bythstuff]

ikaw pa lang ang minahal (1992)