Blossoming is a fine queer film and one of the best films produced in the Philippines in decades...

captures the street life of Manila's slums like no other film

Veering from adorable and light to bleak and tragic, Maximo Oliveros is all over the emotional map, but in a realistic way, sort of like life itself.

Yet after all of the muck has been racked, the film's saving grace is the marvellously compelling navet and too-early reality-test of its star. Perhaps if queers were the majority there would be less senseless death and more fashion conscious citizens!

One of the finest Filipino films, shimmering with folkloric charm without softening its view of the harshness and injustice of a life of poverty.

One of those all-too-rare films that handle preadolescent queerness with intelligence and unflinching honesty.

Preteen sexuality is a sensitive subject, but director Auraeus Solito handles it with dignity, never becoming exploitative.

The newcomer Nathan Lopez delights as the flamboyantly gay Maxi, the youngest son in a family of thieves who falls in love with handsome police officer.

A unusual and potent portrait of the Filipino undersoul.

The film is alarming, endearing, and utterly unflappable.

This debut feature by Filipino director Auraeus Solito is a neatly observed take on Manila street life.

A neorealist coming-of-age story infused with the pulse-pounding anxieties and excitement of first love.

A 12-year-old boy's initiation into the adult world where even those who seem virtuous are capable of giving into the enticements of money and power.

The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros is a lo-fi Technicolor ode to this memorable protagonist, a neorealist homo noir.

An unusually low-key Filipino drama whose neo-realist air generally triumphs over the script's violent, tearful contrivances.