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Yellow Rose
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Thankfully, the film hits all the right notes, cleverly avoiding the pitfalls of the American Idol-style rags-to-riches trope by venturing into more serious territories.
Posted Feb 22, 2021
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Lingua Franca
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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It's also an empathic portrait of a man whose bid at redemption hinges on going against everything that Trump-era America stands for.
Posted Jan 25, 2021
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Fan Girl
(2020)
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Oggs Cruz
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It is relevant and necessary, especially in this day and age where questionable idols do not just mouth quotable quotes to earn kisses from their leading women; they also govern.
Posted Dec 28, 2020
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You Animal!
(2020)
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Oggs Cruz
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Hayop Ka! is mostly bark, and barely any bites.
Posted Nov 02, 2020
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Onward
(2020)
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Oggs Cruz
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Sure, it is brimming with mirth and overflowing with so much positivity. However, it also feels a tad mechanical, in a sense that this is exactly what is to be expected from Pixar.
Posted Mar 11, 2020
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Sonic the Hedgehog
(2020)
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Oggs Cruz
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The property is better off as a videogame where if the character gets too bothersome with its antics, one can simply put a stop with the push of a button.
Posted Mar 02, 2020
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1917
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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It is a brilliant appropriation of the pains and aches of war for the purpose of creating something that is pure cinema.
Posted Mar 02, 2020
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Spies in Disguise
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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It's not a masterpiece, but it's far from being just a distraction or worse, a complete waste of time.
Posted Jan 28, 2020
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The Grudge
(2020)
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Oggs Cruz
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The film badly needs an edge, one that isn't borrowed from a film from more than a decade ago.
Posted Jan 21, 2020
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Jojo Rabbit
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Jojo Rabbit is lovely from start to finish. It is unflinching in its allegiance to joy and mirth, no matter how depraved and depressing human beings and their actions tend to be.
Posted Jan 20, 2020
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Cats
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Clearly, Hooper's film, while riddled with glaringly awful mistakes, is not bad at all.
Posted Jan 18, 2020
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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
(2019)
|
Oggs Cruz
|
All in all, The Rise of Skywalker is more like the fall of the saga and everything it once stood for.
Posted Dec 23, 2019
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Marriage Story
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
|
Marriage Story is a tremendous achievement. It balances the requirements of a stirring relationship drama and its bold statements on the corrupting system that preys on the misfortunes of failed lovers. It is brave and poignant. It is undeniably precious.
Posted Dec 17, 2019
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Charlie's Angels
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Charlie's Angels will undoubtedly be more memorable for its clever subversions than its sparse pleasures.
Posted Nov 19, 2019
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Terminator: Dark Fate
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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While the film doesn't really absolve the franchise from its many greed-fueled entries, it at least allows the franchise a bid at some redemption.
Posted Nov 03, 2019
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Zombieland: Double Tap
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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It's undeniable that Double Tap is still amusing, but now that the gimmick has lost its novelty, all the fun feels slight like punchlines you've heard a long time ago but can't really remember.
Posted Oct 29, 2019
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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Like the appendix and the male areola, Joachim Ronning's Maleficent: The Mistress of Evil is an unnecessary creation.
Posted Oct 20, 2019
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Gemini Man
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Gemini Man mistakes somberness with seriousness.
Posted Oct 14, 2019
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Joker
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Joker indeed flourishes in abject vileness. It fetishizes the full extent of human savagery and rationalizes hate in a society that has become too crowded for its own good.
Posted Oct 08, 2019
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Dark Is the Night
(2017)
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Oggs Cruz
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Madilim ang Gabi is the most expansive of Alix's very many films, and in a way, it is this sprawling and almost meandering quality that makes it coercive in its motives.
Posted Oct 04, 2019
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2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten
(2016)
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Oggs Cruz
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At the hands of first time feature film director Petersen Vargas, Laxamana's screenplay blossoms into a work of gorgeous sentimentality.
Posted Oct 04, 2019
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Ad Astra
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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It isn't a film that you admire from afar, since its effect and affect are universal. It reaches for the stars only to arrive at the very hopeful point that even the dangers of the universe cannot disrupt or distort our imperfect but invaluable humanity.
Posted Sep 25, 2019
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It: Chapter Two
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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It Chapter Two is comparably a lot less focused and vastly more distracted effort, with Muschietti clearly having difficulties in cohering all of his film's scary parts to tackle his daring take on trauma.
Posted Sep 09, 2019
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Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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The film is an unadulterated ode that only Tarantino can make, one that blends cynicism with reverence to form a portrait where beautiful faces are never at odds with grime, alcohol and giddy murder.
Posted Sep 02, 2019
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Hello, Love, Goodbye
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Nevertheless, Hello, Love, Goodbye is still fine entertainment, one that doesn't dumb down the issues it puts forward for the sake of a standard happy ending.
Posted Aug 23, 2019
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Parasite
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
|
The journey from the first scene to the end is perhaps the most intricate, most scathing, and surprisingly most accessible portrayal of class struggle put into film.
Posted Aug 19, 2019
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Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Hobbs & Shaw will inevitably be forgotten once the next and more outrageous Fast & Furious entry comes along. Its wit and charms are temporary, and as light and generic as buttered popcorn.
Posted Aug 05, 2019
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Midsommar
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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It disquiets and disarms. It bursts with bizarre beauty, blending it with the odd and the absurd, enunciating that the world and the humans that inhabit it are more mysterious and complex, and that is scary.
Posted Jul 29, 2019
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The Lion King
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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In a market full of unnecessarily expensive things like Supreme-branded red bricks and Jesus-shaped Cheetos, Jon Favreau's The Lion King is king.
Posted Jul 21, 2019
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Aurora
(2018)
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Oggs Cruz
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Aurora had promise. Sadly, it ends up dead in the water.
Posted Jul 19, 2019
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Sunday Beauty Queen
(2016)
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Oggs Cruz
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It is celebratory of the simple pleasures that remind us that in a world of inequality, there will always be that one day of the week when ordinary people can be queens.
Posted Jul 19, 2019
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Respeto
(2017)
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Oggs Cruz
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It is all exquisite bleakness, a portrait of words falling and failing resulting again in an act of violence that is both warranted but empty.
Posted Jul 19, 2019
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Apocalypse Child
(2015)
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Oggs Cruz
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It is deliriously beautiful film, deliberately paced so that its idyllic vistas of small town familiarity can breed acute emotionality.
Posted Jul 19, 2019
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From What Is Before
(2014)
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Oggs Cruz
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What Diaz has done is to distill centuries of the country's sorrows and agonies into a fascinatingly fractured narrative that will never ever leave you.
Posted Jul 19, 2019
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A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery
(2016)
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Oggs Cruz
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Diaz's 8-hour opus could be a meditation on love, on its permutations and defining role in the eventual formation of the nation.
Posted Jul 18, 2019
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The Woman Who Left
(2016)
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Oggs Cruz
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Ang Babaeng Humayo is a bleak and blistering portrait of the human condition.
Posted Jul 18, 2019
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Neomanila
(2017)
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Oggs Cruz
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There are times when the film becomes overindulgent, but still, Red always goes back to his commitment to the humanity that has been made obscure by all the vulgarity and violence that has become woefully prevalent.
Posted Jul 18, 2019
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Balangiga: Howling Wilderness
(2018)
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Oggs Cruz
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This is a film that can only leave you in awe of how it manages to be stunningly beautiful without betraying the hard truths and ironies it ingeniously cultivates.
Posted Jul 18, 2019
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Ma' Rosa
(2016)
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Oggs Cruz
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The horror of Ma' Rosa lies in its ability to unflinchingly portray a shocking universe. It tops the cruelties already dealt with by a society forced to accept economic inequity.
Posted Jul 17, 2019
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Alpha: The Right to Kill
(2018)
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Oggs Cruz
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Sadly, Alpha, despite all the advances in Mendoza's craft, feels old.
Posted Jul 17, 2019
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Honor Thy Father
(2015)
|
Oggs Cruz
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As it is, it is a marvelously engineered film, one that is carefully paced to give way to an ending that is as emotionally wrenching as it is oddly elegant.
Posted Jul 17, 2019
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Season of the Devil (Ang Panahon ng Halimaw)
(2018)
|
Oggs Cruz
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Diaz may be using the Martial Law as a metaphor for the country in a state of strife, but it is as obvious as day that his call to arms is for the present.
Posted Jul 17, 2019
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Heneral Luna
(2015)
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Oggs Cruz
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What is most fascinating about Tarog's Heneral Luna is that it does not place its intent ahead of its craft. The film is beautiful to gaze at.
Posted Jul 17, 2019
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Goyo: The Boy General
(2018)
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Oggs Cruz
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Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral is rich and elegant work
Posted Jul 17, 2019
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Dark Phoenix
(2019)
|
Oggs Cruz
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Dark Phoenix ends a franchise's fairly successful run in an exasperating note.
Posted Jul 16, 2019
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Men in Black: International
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Men in Black International is a film that won't have people begging for a continuation. It just pales in comparison to its livelier and more ingenious predecessors.
Posted Jul 16, 2019
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Rocketman
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Rocketman is not the film that will send the genre into orbit. Its pleasures, however, are enough to give its audience a long-enough high.
Posted Jul 16, 2019
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Toy Story 4
(2019)
|
Oggs Cruz
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In a world where bonds, roles and stereotypes are being broken, the film's fervent preoccupation with characters realizing that there is more beyond what they originally perceived as their purpose of being feels timely and relevant.
Posted Jul 16, 2019
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Ma
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Ma isn't a bad film. It just isn't very convincing.
Posted Jul 16, 2019
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Spider-Man: Far From Home
(2019)
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Oggs Cruz
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Far From Home, beyond its veneer of comic book goofiness, bears realities that are worth pondering.
Posted Jul 16, 2019
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