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Serbis

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Serbis (2009)

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Reviews Counted:25

Fresh:20

Rotten:5

Average Rating:6.6/10

Consensus: This darkly comic family drama finds ways of being viscerally graphic and intellectually stimulating at the same time.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for sexual content, nudity and language

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Jan 16, 2009 Limited

Synopsis: Filipino director Brillante Mendoza brings a frank, gritty immediacy to SERBIS, a multi-character, day-in-the-life portrait of a family-run movie house in the Philippines. Only this isn't your... Filipino director Brillante Mendoza brings a frank, gritty immediacy to SERBIS, a multi-character, day-in-the-life portrait of a family-run movie house in the Philippines. Only this isn't your typical movie house. It's actually a downtrodden venue that shows graphic double features and allows the clientele to make their own sexual connections in the dark shadows. Today is a very important day, for Nanay Flor, the family matriarch, is going to discover if she won a years-in-the-making bigamy case against her husband. Meanwhile, her children are involved in dramatic situations of their own. Alan has just learned troubling news about his girlfriend, and Nayda is married but attracted to her cousin Ronald. As the day develops and the verdict comes down, the Pinedas struggle to focus on the daily tasks associated with the theater, even as their own personal conflicts threaten to overwhelm them. Shot on video, SERBIS recalls films from the Dogme 95 movement. Mendoza and screenwriter Armando Lao have clearly constructed these dramatic situations, yet they are shot on consumer video with such energy that the film often feels like a documentary. Mendoza pulls no punches, showing multiple scenes of behind-the-scenes sexuality that are even more graphic than the X-rated behavior unfolding on the cavernous theater's silver screen. SERBIS provides a realistic, unflinching glimpse into this hyper-sexualized world. [More]

Starring: Gina Pareno, Jaclyn Jose, Julio Diaz, Coco Martin

Starring: Gina Pareno, Jaclyn Jose, Julio Diaz, Coco Martin, Kristofer King, Dan Alvaro, Mercedes Cabral, Roxanne Jordan

Director: Brillante Mendoza

Director: Brillante Mendoza
Screenwriter: Armando Lao
Story: Armando Lao, Boots Agbavani Pastor
Producer: Ferdinand Lapuz
Composer: Gian Gianan
Studio: Regent Releasing

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Reviews for Serbis

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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The number of characters involved leaves the plotlines strung out and little emotion for the audience to cling to.

Full Review Source: Eye for Film | comment Comment
07/04/09
Amber Wilkinson
Amber Wilkinson
Eye for Film

film feels like it has more to say but can't get the wording right

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
07/01/09
Chris Cabin
Chris Cabin
Filmcritic.com

A gritty little drama that leaves you feeling like you might need a shower.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
05/22/09
Liz Braun
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

While it has its gag-inducing moments, director Brillante Mendoza's film about a three-generational family that lives in and operates a rundown porn theatre is more sweet than twisted.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
05/22/09
Liam Lacey
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

That calling-attention-to-the-idea-that-we're-watching-a-movie device is at odds with the realism of the story, but it does a nice job of illustrating the central question of Serbis: Which is going to fall apart first, the Family or the family?

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
04/10/09
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

You have been advised; proceed accordingly.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
04/09/09
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Enthralling. A vivid portrait of a family seemingly involved in only their own problems who have been infected by the filth and enervation around them.

Full Review Source: Windy City Times | comment Comment
03/20/09
Richard Knight
Richard Knight
Windy City Times

Unflinching, graphic depictions of illicit sex and boil-lancing are memorable, but the family's moral ambiguities and sense of lost prestige are what fascinate the most.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
02/27/09
Stan Hall
Stan Hall
Oregonian

Part-telenovela, part outlandish screwball comedy, part soft-porno, but completely without a road map, Serbis evokes Pedro Almodóvar, Tennessee Williams, and 1940s and '50s Hollywood.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
02/26/09
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Serbis has the feel of a documentary, but a documentary can't accomplish what "Serbis" does: Take us to a corner of the world where sex and regret are so intimately entwined.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
02/20/09
Jonathan Curiel
Jonathan Curiel
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A unique and artistic treatment of gritty family survival but one that will turn away viewers with its carnal setting and sand-blasted treatment of the human condition.

Full Review Source: Monsters and Critics | comment Comment
02/05/09
Ron Wilkinson
Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

Often drags with too many poorly developed characters its convoluted, unfocused plot. If it were more character-driven and had a sharper screenplay, it would have been a much more captivating drama.

Full Review Source: NYC Movie Guru | comment Comment
02/01/09
Avi Offer
Avi Offer
NYC Movie Guru

This isn't a family -- or a film -- you'll ­easily forget.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
01/30/09
Elizabeth Weitzman
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The Filipino movie Serbis is gentle, bawdy and at times rambunctiously, ticklishly rude.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
01/30/09
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A scraggly, messy, often aimless, and yet consistently amusing and engaging work of black comedy-cum-social-realism.

Full Review Source: The Screengrab | comment Comment
01/30/09
Nick Schager
Nick Schager
The Screengrab

Though [director] Mendoza doesn't care to resolve all of the many subplots he's jugging, the film gives a complete picture of a family, a business, and a city in disarray, and the looming fallout.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
01/29/09
Scott Tobias
Scott Tobias
AV Club

Rather than settling into a contemplative groove, Serbis bristles with live-wire intensity; neither the characters nor the camera stay still for long before something new propels the story into the next chapter.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
01/29/09
David Fear
David Fear
Time Out New York

Specialty audiences may appreciate this downbeat Filipino drama about an impoverished family trying to hold it together while running a porn theatre, but its unvarnished sex scenes won't play for mainstream tastes.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
01/29/09
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
Film Journal International

As a twitchily sensational series of interconnected images, it’s an awesome nugget of faux-trash gold.

Full Review Source: New York Press | comment Comment
01/28/09
Simon Abrams
Simon Abrams
New York Press

The Filipino answer to Slumdog Millionaire!

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment 1 Comment
01/27/09
Kam Williams
Kam Williams
NewsBlaze
 
 
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