A struggling family from the provinces discovers that morality can be both absolute and relative as they suffer each others' pains and vices while awaiting the court decision in the mother's charges of bigamy against her estranged husband. The Pineda family operates a ramshackle movie house specializing in second-run sex flicks: 58-year-old family matriarch Nanay Flor oversees the operation while trading shifts in the ticket booth with daughter Nayda, son-in-law Lando, and adopted daughter
Jewel, and Nanay's nephews Alan and Ronald paint the billboards and run the projector respectively. It's been two long years since Nanay accused her estranged husband of bigamy, and today is the day that the judge will finally deliver the verdict. Now, as the usual service boys and gay hustlers start streaming in for the steamy double feature, Nanay attempts to get everything around the theater in order before heading off to the courthouse. It's not an easy task and the money is tight, so when a fleeing purse snatcher dashes into the theater with two policemen in hot pursuit, Nanay knows that this day will be as stressful and unpredictable as any other. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I'm not sure what director Brillante Mendoza was thinking. Maybe the intentions were honorable, focusing on graphic realism with an unflinching eye for detail, but the auteuristic style is small compensation for the utter lack of substance and motivation. The setting is a run-down porn theater in the slums of Angeles
(Philippines). Serbis takes us behind the scenes, from one amoral act to the next, exposing the poverty and hopelessness of those involved. Okay, I get it. If you go through the countryside turning over rocks you're bound to see a few creepy-crawly things. What else would one expect? The shortcomings of the characters seem to be the apex of the story. There's little else to latch on to. I found myself wanting the plot to go somewhere but it just doesn't. The technique is sound but, on the whole, the film is little more than tabloid cinema. Given Mendoza's reputation, I was completely disappointed.
June 23, 2009
Randy Tippy
Super Reviewer
"Serbis" is about family which is also the name of the dilapidated adult theater(bathrooms flood, goats invade, etc) in Manila that is owned by Flor(Gina Pareno) who is pursuring legal action against her husband that could net him at least two years in jail. Complicating this is her son planning to testify on his
behalf . While most of the family helps out in one way or another, her daughter Nayda(Jacklyn Jose) manages the theater and sells tickets while her young son runs loose. The theater shows pornography of a heterosexual inclination but almost all of the clientele are gay men who use the darkness to have sex away from a government that at the very least frowns upon such activity. To punctuate this, there is a religious procession towards the end. All of which is fine and good. If only there was more of substance, then "Serbis" might have truly had something going. Instead, there are too many shots going up and down staircases and a disturbing subplot about a boil. Next time, stop for a second and catch your breath.
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