The Barbie Cinematic Universe Through the Years

I was given the freedom to write a review about any movie or show that I wanted, so of course, I saw this as an opportunity to sit down and spend an hour typing out my thoughts on Barbie and her many adventures, but specifically the one in Barbie and Her Sisters in a Great Puppy Adventure (2016).

Barbie movies were a constant in my [pirated] DVD collection. My parents gave me the freedom of handpicking movies for us to bring home every Sunday afternoon. Every DVD cover with a tall, white, blonde animated woman was already in my 6-year-old self’s hands ready to bring it over to my parents. I still remember the feeling of seeing a Barbie movie I know I didn’t already own in our suki vendor’s collection and making my whole family rush to go home for me to watch it.

Obviously, I went on to explore other movies and genres over the years and ended up abandoning Barbie for some time. One bored summer morning, I decided to look up recently released Barbie movies and, because I had nothing better to do, I bingewatched all movies from 2012 to 2017. I’d say I’m pretty experienced with the Barbie movie format and the dilemmas that recur in every single one (I mean, it’s not that hard to figure out as it is a kids movie that’s meant to be inspiring or packed with lessons), but these new ones feel a bit different.

Firstly, the animation was surprisingly really good. I say surprisingly because all the characters in Barbie movies are known to have very stiff movements. Though, I’m not sure if it was a conscious choice all along because these were in reference to the Barbie dolls after all. Either way, it was definitely an improvement. It’s really something to think about — how animation is rapidly developing nowadays and how real the fake can look. Obviously, Barbie doesn’t look too real in this particular movie (I do wish her dogs were actually real, though), but you can still see how they put in the extra work to make the puppies a little cuter and more realistic with their fur and how it reflects light.

The voice acting was still very cliche and over the top, but over time, I learned to look past it if I wanted to enjoy the movie. It is interesting how I now find these movies that were once super inspiring and addictive to movies that actually kill my brain cells. I knew the plots they used were never too complicated or groundbreaking, but for some reason, I thought Barbie and Her Sister in a Great Puppy Adventure would be different because it was made an entire decade after the initial set of Barbie movies I watched. This was a mere compilation of cliches. The antagonists were two men with country accents, one was lanky and another was chubby but they were equally dumb and clumsy. The puppies had collars that already matched their personality. One had a pink collar with silver beads, so it was pretty clear she was the one that Barbie was going to adopt; another had a black collar with spikes, so that was the tomboyish one. The ‘adventure’ part obviously came in the form of a treasure hunt around town. This treasure had the capability of saving the town from closing down or going completely bankrupt, so of course, the sisters took it upon themselves to be the heroes of their story. It was cute, however, how Barbie never spoonfed her sisters throughout their whole hunt. Assuming it’s the same Barbie in all the movies and, at this point, has over 203985 different talents/skills/jobs, one can say she is definitely capable of unlocking all the riddles and clues alone. She was too powerful of a character, so she stepped back and spent time with her best friend, Christie.

Barbie and her friendship with Christie was one of the only things that felt different with this particular Barbie movie. I mean, it’s pretty undeniable that they’re close, but one may think if they’re really just best friends. I guess this is partly due to me watching with my close friends and us making a joke out of the whole thing, but I did see how the two could be girlfriends. Hurray for LGBTQ+ representation in Barbie (Sorry, Ken)! Besides this, it was pretty weird how they were now using tablets and iPhones in the Barbiesphere. Although, it was pretty annoying how they milked the millennial traits of being tech savvy and social media-obsessed. One of the sisters, Stacie, updated her blog in real-time throughout the whole journey and loved a good selfie—but I guess it’s all part of the times. They made use of a metal detector app to find the treasure; I was a little pissed off at this because of how unrealistic and a convenient cop-out it was to not make things too hard, but upon doing more research, those apps apparently exist, and yes, they work.

It’s nice to have Barbie movies like this balance out super heavy ones like BuyBust (2018) or Metro Manila (2018). Clearly, they differ in target markets and genres, but because of its sentimental value and general good vibes, I see them to be staples in my movie collection. Looking past its basic and predictable elements, Barbie and Her Sisters in a Great Puppy Adventure will still be one of my favorite Barbie movies. This is not only because of my experience watching with friends, but because it allowed me to keep in touch with my childlike side while also reminding me of how simple life used to be and still can be. To be able to enjoy the movie, you really have to let go of all technical errors and criticisms and—essentially—dumb down. It’s fun to have content like this available for us, or just me, to draw happiness from. It may just be what we call as mababaw na kaligayahan, but it’s happiness nonetheless, and sometimes it’s just what I need after a long and heavy day. When there are movies like Schizopolis (1996), Sorry to Bother You (2018), and Lost Highway (1997) lying around, you really need Barbie movies to keep you levelled.

A Not-So-Lovely Love Letter to Los Angeles

When Repo Man (1984) ended, I was quite shocked by how it wasn’t as weird as I thought it would be. This is, of course, in comparison to the previous movies we’ve watched in class. Oddly enough, I’ve learned to love the weirdness of other movies, which made this pretty standard and unmemorable.

Something that was interesting though was how well it captured the era and Los Angeles. It kind of reminded me of La La Land (2016), the so-called “love letter to Los Angeles”, but it was the kind of world and time Sebastian would want to be in—one not too consumed by modernization yet. In some way, I see Los Angeles in Repo Man to also be like a character in itself. The town’s personality was really seen in this movie, so that’s a nod to their cinematographer and production design team. It showed the rough end of Los Angeles, a slight contrast to the usual depiction of the city as a goldmine of opportunity and glamor.

It might be a little too oversimplistic, but I see this to be kind of like Sebastian’s own la la land because it was a simpler time with its yuppies, convertible cars, drag races down Los Angeles’ Sixth Street Viaduct, talks by a burning barrel, and having one’s teenage years being the true golden years. These characters might be a little more rock-and-roll than jazzy, but I can see how Sebastian would be made fun of less for being the old soul that he was in La La Land’s setting. It was also more violent than what Sebastian probably would have wanted, but hey, these punks were just trying to live their best lives (unlike Sebastian, the sell-out that joined John Legend’s jazz pop band). It’s also not to justify their crimes, but it did seem pretty common at the time since there wasn’t a lot of reaction from bystanders or even the ones robbed.

I liked the scene where these two men driving the alien car stopped over at a convenience store and ended up having their car stolen by some other punks. They knew they couldn’t do anything about it so they just drank their shakes and watched the car drift off. It was also weird how these robbers had a thing for convenience stores. Pretty much all the robberies they showed in this movie were held in convenience stores or small groceries. I guess it was to also emphasize the products in the scene, which were all labeled according to what they were. I appreciated this choice because if it were just random brands, it would have just blended in with the background. I see this as one of the many marks of the era teased in this film. It could be seen as an outcome of consumerism and rise of mass production during the 1980s, or it could have just been some added peculiarity to an already-strange film.

This generic aspect of goods in the movie was also mirrored by Otto’s two-dimensional brainwashed parents. It felt like Otto’s whole world outside his repo man duties was stagnant and boring. Plus, having this juxtaposed with the thrill and excitement he felt on the job emphasized how he loved being a repo man and how it served as his escape.

If I didn’t watch movies like Schizopolis (1996), Trainspotting (1996), and Futureless Things (2014), I would have been super freaked out by the alien car because of how weird of a plot device it was, but because I was desensitized at this point, I found the twist slightly underwhelming. It was funny, however, how the weirdest character of them all was the car’s “chosen one”. It was like a Captain America-Mjölnir moment but definitely more epic (yes, the Repo Man version).

Though I may not have found this movie to be too great, my experience watching it was still not that bad of an experience. Its humor was on point, the dialogue was good, and the production design was admirable. Repo Man had a lot of ups and downs in terms of quality. It was just unfortunate how the downs outweighed the good.

Black Mirror writers betraying me for 52 minutes straight

Black Mirror (2011) stands as one of my absolute favorite shows of all time. Shut Up and Dance definitely falls under my top 5 episodes from the whole series. This episode has one of the best plot twists I’ve ever seen in both television and cinema (i mean—it’s at par with the ones from Jane the Virgin). Throughout the whole story, I was rooting for Kenny, the lead, because it seemed like he was such a nice guy that was just unluckily caught doing something he was ashamed of. Seeing as he was that young and he still deeply cared about his image, it was understandable that he went above and beyond just to have that video of him not leak.

Alex Lawther’s performance in this episode was so good and convincing that I was moved to tears each time he had to do something extremely humiliating for whoever was watching him. I was on edge for the whole 50 minutes because I really felt bad for the kid, and with this unknown messenger bombarding him with commands and questions, it could’ve gone anywhere. He was also just a kid incapable of defending himself so he really could have died at any point in the story. It was also an episode of Black Mirror, so of course there had to be some type of twist, I just didn’t know what.

Nearing the middle of the episode, I did wonder why Kenny cared that much about the video leaking to the point that he risked his life time and time again just to move on to whatever the next phase was. Though, I eventually just let him be because of his age and the vulnerability that comes with it. In contrast to the crimes or secrets the other characters had, it seemed like Kenny’s was the lightest. Yet, he was still forced to do the most extreme of things like robbing a bank alone and even killing a man. “How bad could it be?” was a question that kept entering my mind throughout this whole thing.

The writing in Black Mirror episodes is always so well done. They do things in ways I wouldn’t have even thought of. Especially with my attempt at writing screenplays for my other COM class, I have this newfound appreciation for storytelling and its reflection in writing. They time points of conflict, vulnerability, and of course, change (in the form of plot twists) with absolute perfection. It’s what has kept me watching, even if it did mean I had to put aside some homework.

Rewatching the episode, I didn’t notice how the pedophile bomb was dropped earlier than when I caught it the first time. It was in a conversation with one of the men obeying orders from the same messenger. I guess it was meant to be a vague clue as to what Kenny could have possibly done that got him in this whole mess—that or I was really just too blinded by my pity for Kenny and how I saw him as a protagonist with a good heart in an unfortunate situation. Apart from this, the more direct reveal came a few moments after Kenny fought with the same guy. Troll faces were sent around and we find out that the messenger still leaked all the videos of the people involved despite them doing what they were told. The phone call with his mom sent immediate shivers down my spine.

“What did you do, Kenny?! They’re saying it’s kids! That you’ve been looking at kids!”

This was when I knew that Black Mirror was not a show to be messed with. I was so mad yet impressed by how they were able to make me root for a pedophile for a full 50 minutes. It was so well-written and well-executed that I had to let the whole credits roll for me to take the time to reflect on what I just watched. They really fooled me. I would most definitely not classify this as an easy watch, but for some reason, I still keep coming back to it because it’s that great of a masterpiece. It’s a definite must-watch for everyone.

Not your average telenovela

Whenever people ask for TV show recommendations, my first reply is always Jane the Virgin (2014). I first tried watching this show a year after the first season was released because I kept seeing good reviews from critics. I was intrigued by the 100% it got on Rotten Tomatoes, so one summer afternoon, I finally decided to watch it on Netflix.

Jane the Virgin has gracefully perfected the art of plot twists. The writers are somehow always able to pull off the addition of new antagonists or just added drama episode after episode. I don’t think I ever sat through a whole episode without squealing or screaming at least once. This show has the best writing I’ve ever seen. It is most definitely hard to pull off in the soap opera or telenovela format because plot twists get old real fast, but they’re still able to manage.

Jane is a third-generation Venezuelan-American that lives with her Venezuelan immigrant grandmother, Alba, and her mother that already grew up in the States, Xiomara. The whole show was always grounded in family and seeing as it was in their culture to be family-oriented, it wasn’t too hard to relate with the Philippine context. Because of our history with Spain, our culture was never too different from that of Latin America, which was why this show was able to resonate with me on a much deeper level. Whenever Jane was caught in some sort of conflict about herself, her career, or her lovelife, she always turned to family. Her grandmother and mother always dealt with Jane’s problems with tough love. They never shied away from giving their honest, sometimes cold, opinion and/or telling Jane off (sometimes, they would ignore each other for long periods of time), but because love for family is unconditional, these problems would always be resolved and their love for each other would never be lost. It’s also important to mention how Jane grew up in a household that was very Catholic. Her grandmother is like every other Filipino mom heavily devoted to the religion; the type to turn to prayer with the slightest glimpse of conflict. This quality of her childhood and current household never strayed too far away from the plot and was always there to ground Jane’s morals and decisions. Because Jane and Xiomara were born into a time and country where religion was given relatively less importance, they were a bit more progressive with their religious beliefs as compared to Alba, so it was nice to see that contrast in the show because I, too, see it in my own household.

Jane the Virgin is a self-aware telenovela, so it pokes fun at the format and satirizes a few of its elements like the romanticizing of super normal moments and slowing down footage of Jane’s male leads whenever they enter the room. Even with the telenovela format I’ve grown to hate, this show was able to not overdo it and mixed in enough elements to make it some sort of “organized mess”. There was a lot going on, but it wasn’t the kind where you’d lose the plot and not know what was going on anymore (unlike some of the movies we’ve watched in class, to be honest). While watching Jane the Virgin, I was frustrated with the fact that our local telenovelas could easily share this kind of good writing and not have every plot twist feel like it was forced (i.e. Ang Probinsyano). Of course, the production value and consistency of episode releases are different, but in an ideal world, I do hope the Philippine TV industry is able to reform itself into something that values quality over quantity.

I will always be in awe of every single branch of Jane the Virgin’s production. From its premise conception down to the superb acting of Gina Rodriguez, Justin Baldoni, and Yael Grobglas among others, Jane the Virgin really changed the game for TV shows for me. Right now, it takes the place of #1 on my list of favorite shows. I imagine it’s hard—probably even impossible—for any other show to top this, but I’ll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for it.

Fakery’s layers

Coming from Lost Highway (1997), I was more engaged in the story of F for Fake (1973) because it dealt with how the concepts of expertise, fakery, and credibility could be constructed and questioned. Like Lost Highway, this movie dealt with multiple perspectives. Though narrated through the voice of one, there were multiple stories intertwined to form one story. The different subjects of the documentary were able to explain their side of the situation and how they pulled off their trickery. Another similarity I saw with Lost Highway would be how the concepts were both very existential in nature. It forced the audience to question the truth — what is real and what isn’t?

Because of the nature of this class and how badly the movies we’ve watched messed with our minds about reality and film, I had a lot of trust issues coming into this movie. I did not know if the people in the videos were actors or if they were the actual people the narrator said they were. I link my apprehensions about this movie to how the narrator was a real and visible character. He came off as too much of a fictional character rather than an objective narrator. It also mixed fictional scenes with clips from actual interviews, so it was hard to draw the line between what was nonfiction and fiction. Despite all of this, the reveal towards the end of the movie still got me by surprise. It was the perfect way to end a documentary about trickery and fakery; it left me rethinking about art and art as both an industry and a market. I did appreciate the art market for how it worked despite its tendency to be extremely pretentious, but with this documentary’s exploration of art forgery, my respect lessened.

Another aspect of the film that I particularly loved was its format. It reminded me of the documentaries that the Neistat brothers used to put together in the early 2000s following a similar style of cinematography and quality. It seemed like amateur (handheld and borderline home-video style) filmmaking which gave the movie a more personal touch. The freeze frames were the absolute best, and I think it was a mark of the times as well, so it was interesting to see the progression in documentary cinematography over time.

In the class discussion, it was raised how Orson Welles was hired to edit all this footage to fit a documentary format, but over time, the story morphed into something other than the documentary it was supposed to be — it also became a demonstration of the exact concept it was talking about. This then reminded me of Beastmode, A Social Experiment (2018) and how documentaries have this tendency to evolve over time together with its subjects and creators. Unlike movies with a relatively set start, middle, and end, documentaries are more prone to change because it tackles real-life stories that can develop any other way during its production. For the case of Beastmode, the political climate changed over time, and the writers adapted to that change and found a way to intertwine the storyline of the documentary’s original stars Baron Geisler and Kiko Matos with the Duterte administration. Upon doing more research about Welles’ documentary, I found out that Irving took on a bigger role in the documentary than what was initially intended. It was only during production when people found out that Clifford Irving’s biography of Howard Hughes was forged. This simply added even more layers to the narrative. Naturally, Welles didn’t want to stop there, so he decided to add another layer of his own by adding in a fake story at the latter part of the movie.

This whole experience of watching F for Fake simply made me fall in love with the documentary format again. I lost touch with it recently due to lack of time, but I’m glad to have rediscovered that love I thought I already lost. Documentaries are something I’ve always wanted to make, and seeing this movie has done nothing but push me to pursue this kind of career in the future. Though not completely nonfictional, there’s still something very special about the rawness of documentaries and its subjects. A movie that stimulates the minds of audiences while watching it and creators while making it will always be a great one, and this was nothing short of that.

What dulled his sparkle

With the relatively recent passing of Prince and David Bowie, multiple tributes and songs of theirs resurfaced and reached people that didn’t necessarily grow up with their music—people like me. I was never really an avid follower of either so I was only able to listen and appreciate their works after their death. It wasn’t hard to fall in love with the music they put out. After a few listens, I found myself shuffling through different classics from the early 80s to 90s. Just like that, my music taste broadened, which made me love this movie even more for everything that it was.

With the little knowledge I gained of the era, the 1970s showed to me how it was really a time of liberated self-expression; people were being more open with who they really were and worked towards their wildest dreams. Velvet Goldmine (1998) takes us back to a time where there was still backlash and judgement for those that were expressive of their own identity and/or sexuality. It displayed the absolute extremes and realities set in the glam rock industry by showing what went on in Brian Slade’s life—all without showing him getting out of character. He was the character and was nothing but the character.

We got to see the different sides of each character and their differing roles for certain people, but Brian Slade was the one guy that we never saw be vulnerable or painfully real. The slightest glimpse we were shown into his humanity was when he was so pressed about how the audience reacted negatively to his set. At the end of the day, everything was for show, even for those that were closest to him. I loved how this movie portrayed the separation of a “human” to things or feelings that make humans human through this Brian Slade character. The people around him constantly told him how to feel, and it was only through these reactions and feedback where he could draw his own from. In spite of this, it was also able to show how celebrities can get so absorbed into this world that, in the process, their humanity is lost. They’re almost unrecognizable, which could also point to the Tommy Stone character.

Brian Slade had the ability to appear and embody a completely different person because he was nothing but a performer; he was an actor that chose to not hold onto anything else but images and ideals from this particular music scene. He was not human, which could explain the UFO that was at the start and end of the movie. With this kind of career, both he and those around him saw Brian Slade as an alien, a being incapable of possessing any degree of humanity.

Despite the 20-year gap between the time the movie was set and the time it was filmed, it did seem like this movie was a real product of the time it portrayed. This film made me feel nostalgic for a time I never lived in. Of course, this is kudos to the production design team for being able to pull this off and really transport modern audiences to a time they never lived in. A lot of the hair, makeup, and costumes were extremely over the top—I mean, it was what defined the era after all. This was in contrast to present day in the movie where Arthur was working as a journalist and was merely looking back at his adolescence. Though the wild outfits may have slowly evolved into something more muted, the acceptance and sexual awakening that occurred during that era never died out completely in the following generations.

Though it shouldn’t necessarily be treated as a historical film, Velvet Goldmine still made me reflect on how lucky I am to live in a time that is as open-minded and accepting as now. No matter how twisted Brian Slade, or Maxwell Demon, may have been to those close to him, he was still an icon of his time for a reason. He inspired young people like Arthur Stuart to embrace their sexuality and to not be afraid to go against gender and other societal norms. Today, we don’t even take a second look at men wearing makeup or being more “feminine” in their outfits, and sex isn’t as taboo of a topic as it was back then. With the tributes I saw for Prince and David Bowie, it’s clear that they touched the lives of so many people; they were the reason why young people were able to accept and express their true selves. Amidst all the controversy, some good still came out of this hoax, and ultimately, out of this movie too.

Finding the Truth

Lost Highway (1997) was one of those movies I initially hate for having one weird thing happen after the other to the point that it causes me to completely disconnect from the story. Because we’ve seen weirder in this class, my patience was extended and I gave it a fighting chance. It was a good thing I did.

My group was assigned to lead the discussion about this movie, so I really had to force myself not to pull away from it too early on. The beginning reminded me of Fahrenheit 451 (1966) where everything in the house was super plain and interactions between married couples were quite robotic. I did cringe at how Renee was portrayed as the “perfect” wife, being submissive to her husband and always looking put together like never not wearing makeup, blow-dried hair, and six-inch heels in the house. From then on, I was equipped to watch a movie set in a dystopian society, but the later scenes proved to me otherwise. It wasn’t really about a dystopian society; this movie was centered on a single story with multiple perspectives. It took a turn when they played the tape showing someone or something entering and going around the house. They could have taken it any way from that point on. I didn’t know if it was going to go a Sci-Fi or Horror path, so the entity that entered the room could’ve really been anything. There were extremely long silences and the tension stimulated by the score made the movie pretty hard to watch. The build-up to scenes leading to nowhere but darkness got old fast. Later on, we’re shown the mystery man behind the videos at the party, and suddenly, things got a little more interesting. His glare was the most haunting part of this whole movie. Even with identifying who was videoing, there were still unanswered questions like how he was able to video inside the house while he was physically at the party. Mystery man is clearly no ordinary human stalker, but possibly a figment of Fred’s imagination or a representation of something greater like the concept of technology robbing all of us of any degree of privacy.

Besides this new character being added to the mix of chaos, there was another plot twist that made the movie even more interesting. A different man was found in Fred’s prison cell. Now, they really could’ve taken this anywhere. At first, I thought Pete was a completely different man, but after some discussion with my groupmates, I realized that he was the same guy, but it was the perspective of the story that simply changed.

Looking into it, we realized that this whole movie was just playing with the idea of how people can manipulate memories and recall different events as they choose. In one of the tapes, we were shown a glimpse of this murder scene that took place in Fred and Renee’s home. Fred was soon found guilty of the murder of his wife and was sentenced to death. The transformation took place when he looked up at the ceiling and had a series of hallucinations. In addition to the angles we were shown from the camera footage and Fred’s memory, a new one is added and it takes on Pete’s life after prison. This angle of a new character seems to be the fantasy timeline of Fred’s life taking into consideration how Pete is living a life considered ideal by some including Fred himself. If we were to assume that it was indeed Fred’s biased memory in the first few scenes, it makes sense how he manipulated his own mind into thinking Renee was this perfect and beautiful wife that was always there to please his sexual desires to possibly erase any possibility of him being pointed at as the murderer. Of course, the video footage (which is supposedly objective) does show that he did the murder. At this point, anything—whether it may be a recalled memory or a video—can be classified as a lie, but there’s no way of truly knowing which angle showed the truth of what happened or who is who. I’d like to believe that the makers of this movie deliberately made answers to these questions vague or even nonexistent to leave it up to the viewers. Lost Highway tackled a mind boggling concept as is anyways, so it would make less sense if this movie had one correct answer for everything.

There are a lot of theories that try to make sense of this movie and I thoroughly enjoyed reading up on each one. It was definitely a more likeable movie for me after I researched more about it and watched interviews with the director. David Lynch has a mind unlike any other, and him explaining his inspiration and treatment for Lost Highway changed my view of reality and film. Though I’ve never watched any other David Lynch movie before, Lost Highway was enough for me to see his ingenuity and wit. The industry is lucky to have a mind like his in it. He created something that has kept a conversation about its story going for decades, and that sounds like a great movie in my book.

Accidental Genius

At the open forum held after the screening, an audience member raised a question about the ethicality of filmmakers manipulating two different topics and making it seem like they were both somehow related. While I understand how it could be problematic, filmmakers are storytellers after all, and it was through watching this documentary that I realized it was less about manipulation but more on inviting the audience to see what you see.

I was in complete awe for the writing of this documentary and how much thought was put into it. It was very interesting to see how the shallow remarks from the staged fight storyline was made relevant in real issues faced by the Filipino society, particularly the poor. The politics in the war on drugs makes the whole ordeal feel as if everything is a mere spectacle with no real concern for the people unlawfully killed. From the perspective of those in power, like the police and corrupt politicians, this war was treated like a game; the more people they killed, the more respect they would receive from their colleagues. In this way, Beastmode, A Social Experiment (2018) was able to explore the glorification of violence. This can not only be observed in the Philippines, but also in each person’s human nature. There was one part of the documentary that focused on the crowds of boxing/UFC fights. The fight was juxtaposed with the People’s SONA protest that Duterte crashed. The fighting of fighters in a ring was permitted, but peaceful protesters exercising their right by gathering together to rally were painted to be the violent ones by the president himself. He acted as if the people were the ones looking for a fight when there would not have been a so-called “fight” in the first place had he done things differently. Baron and Kiko’s storyline could have been paired with absolutely anything, but with the present political climate, it made perfect sense to align it with the Duterte administration and its many issues.

Besides its political commentary, Beastmode also looked into how media consumers are getting lazier and lazier, and it was a failed experiment because of it. When news outlets got word that the celebrity beef was a social experiment, they capitalized on the thought that it was just a joke and looked past its intended meaning. It was supposed to be yet another commentary on how the media prioritizes celebrity news over other pressing issues that happen simultaneously like the Lumad killings. At present, majority of the general public still think both Baron and Kiko are really the violent, hot-headed, shallow boys they portrayed themselves to be in this experiment. Baron and Kiko mentioned how they were never able to recover from that negative image as they still face consequences from it to this day. Banuk Amante and the cast also brought up how they did not have the budget to commercially distribute the documentary, so not everyone that saw the first viral video ever got to find out about how it was all staged. Banuk did say that they were “very indie”, so they had very limited reach. This left the audience in Escaler, including myself, very bothered by the fact that material of this great quality and wit can still be left unnoticed by the majority. Due to financial constraints, the failed social experiment didn’t just take a toll on Baron and Kiko’s careers, but also the minds of the Filipino people in general because I really think this movie tackled very critical issues in a way not familiar to most — which makes it an absolute must-watch.

From the storytelling down to its editing, this masterpiece demonstrated how the documentary format is something worth exploring and loving. Documentaries and its creators definitely have an essential place in society. Humans encounter multiple stories in a day, but to think that there are so much more unknown than known to us, we can say we relatively know nothing. Filmmakers help bridge the gap between the people and the unknown—the stories never told. For some cases, they were never really unknown but, rather, not delved into enough or not in a way that did it justice. Beastmode’s approach with its two storylines will be one that I will never forget. It redefined the format for me and showed what is impossible can be possible when it’s done right and done for the right reasons.

Leaving at Almosts

Kimi no Na wa (2016) was the one title I knew from the list of movies that were going to be watched this semester. Even before the first day of school, I was already looking forward to the day I got to watch Kimi no Na wa as a class requirement. This was my third time watching the film, but it’s not a film I think I’d ever get sick of. Surely enough, the class discussion paired with this viewing made me see the film in a different light. Analyzing every detail and plot point with my classmates truly made it feel like I was a first-time watcher. I missed out on so much the first two times, so I’m grateful to have had this as material for our class discussion.

I think this was the second anime movie I’ve ever watched in my life. The only background I had in anime or other Japanese-made films was Spirited Away (2001). I guess if I watched more movies of this format or those from Japan, I’d be able to appreciate Kimi no Na wa more. It was deeply rooted in Japanese culture, which is why I’m glad we talked about that specific aspect in class. Shintoism was raised multiple times, and it was interesting to delve deeper into that because with my prior viewing, I just oversimplified that element of the plot to depicting traditional/provincial culture and nothing else. The whole movie was grounded on Shinto beliefs and practices. They incorporated kumihimo, or the actual braiding of the cords, and musubi into the structure of the storyline.

“They converge and take shape. They twist, tangle sometimes unravel, break, then connect again. Musubi – knotting. That’s time.”
Hitoha Miyamizu

This was how they viewed time. It was a little confusing especially coming from Avengers: Endgame (2019) with its unique treatment of time travel, but Hitoha Miyamizu’s explanation of time in relation to how they tie knots made the whole structure very clear; it was somehow something I missed the first two times. I didn’t even realize the implications of the band around Taki’s wrist being the same one as what Mitsuha gave him on the train five years before the incident. It just goes to show at how little detail I paid attention to and just how much thought was put into this story.

Another factor that made this particular viewing different was, this time, I had already been to Japan. This added another layer of appreciation for the film because I’ve grown a sense of familiarity to the different places we visited in Tokyo and Osaka. The animation of real-life places was really insane in this movie. Seeing some of the locations during my stay in Japan really took me back to my first time watching Kimi no Na wa naively thinking it was all just a fantasized illustration of the city and its rural areas. None of the sceneries in the movie strayed too far away from how it really looked like. It really shows to you what animators of this age are really capable of. It left me super excited for the future of anime and film in general with people like these working behind the scenes.

It was very refreshing to see how two people can fall in love the way that they did seeing as they never actually met in the first place. By being the other person, they knew the other at a different and deeper level that’s most definitely incomparable to meeting as separate people. They were able to live the life of the other, change their relationships for the better, and learned to fall in love in that process. Their only means of communication was through diary entries, yet they already knew each other very well at that point. It was a good point to bring up how one in the body of the other made up for the areas where the original person was lacking. Mitsuha brought out a feminine, sensitive side to Taki, which allowed him to have more intimate relationships with his friends and coworkers. It made him different from all the other guys he was surrounded with. Taki was able to make Mitsuha more assertive both in her decisions and in carrying herself. In the beginning, we saw Mitsuha being extremely apologetic to everyone while she was in Taki’s body. He kept apologizing for waking up late and for not being able to make breakfast for him and his father. His father was shocked by his apology but carried on with what he was doing. Taki in Mitsuha’s body didn’t allow people not to listen to her — people including her own father. This was why he was taken aback and seemed to fear Mitsuha all of a sudden because it was out of her character, but at the same time, it was what was needed in that situation. It was extremely frustrating to see these two characters almost meet but it was always left at almosts (of course, with the exception of the ending). In that way, it refers back to what Mitsuha’s grandmother said, “they converge … unravel, break, then connect again.” You end up rooting for them even more because of these close encounters, but due to its time and space restrictions, it seemed impossible.

Unlike the other movies we’ve watched in class, I had the opportunity to rewatch a movie I already adored in the first place. It’s hard to recall my first impressions and reactions because it’s been so long, but this time really felt different because I was able to dissect its different elements, appreciate the aesthetics in relation to its real-life references, and explore the characters’ different dimensions. This was the movie that opened my eyes and got me curious about a whole genre of film that I left unexplored in my 14 years of living back then. I look forward to exploring the genre even more and possibly finding gems that would put Kimi no Na wa into question as one of the bests.

A round of ‘Would You Rather’ but 2 hours long

It is quite strange how I now look for movies that are on the more “normal” side of things as compared to the past movies we’ve watched in class that were far from that. Watching The Endless (2017) allowed me to reflect on my taste and the answer as to why I actively looked for the normal in deciding whether I liked the movie or not. Although this movie wasn’t as out of the ordinary as I had expected, I still struggled to ride along with the story and got lost in its many elements. Nevertheless, I can say that The Endless had a compelling premise and a good selection of characters to show their experience of Camp Arcadia and its many mysteries.

The Endless is one of those movies where you can easily spot the basic premise of the story. You can see the starting point of the writing process for this movie, but I think branching and fleshing out the concept from there fell a little flat. This could also be because I’ve only watched the movie once. If given the time to rewatch it, I will probably be able to understand it more and appreciate its little details and hidden elements because the material is mind-boggling as is; it requires extra time for thinking and reflecting than any average easy-watch or lighthearted movie. However, I was able to pick up on the fact that this inescapable cycle required determination to want and to actually try getting out of it. It reminded me of the Netflix show Russian Doll (2019) where the main character was also stuck in a loop, although it did differ in how the loop worked or how it was manipulated. In the Endless universe, it was based on the placement of these columns that appear to be made of rock, which are scattered around the area at different distances. Some people in the area liked how they had a lot of time to work on themselves and grow in their individual crafts/skills, but others were driven into madness. The character Shitty Carl committed suicide because of the 3-hour loop he was trapped in, but not even that ended the loop. He mentioned how he can no longer sleep, which doesn’t allow him to dream. With this, he can’t physically nor mentally flee too far from the bubble he was trapped in. This imprisonment that made me and other viewers feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic was taken to another extreme with a man in a tent that was trapped in the shortest loop known to the area with just a few seconds for one cycle. These scenarios really captured how living an endless life can be damaging to one’s sanity despite how others in the area may appear to enjoy the loop and make the best of it. The ones that seem to be better off with it could possibly be faking it as well just so they can effectively lure more people into the area and trap them as they were trapped.

With the coloring and tone consistent throughout the whole movie, it felt like this film was an elaborate cutaway scene to some Telltale game. I did expect the story to be set in some sort of twisted reality since, first of all, a video was sent to the main characters by the “UFO death cult”, so of course there would be a little peculiarity there. There was also an aspect of the story where polaroids were littered around the camp. They were pictures of the people taken literally a few moments before they found the polaroid. In this way, we’re taken away from the characters and view them as subjects and/or prisoners trapped in someone or something’s experiment. When this was revealed, the first thing that came to mind was the Hunger Games (2012) and how the people set in this secluded area were simply left to fend for themselves and figure out how to get out if they wished. Viewers of this movie double as the audience watching the lives of these people either crumble or flourish. Another element that I connected with the Hunger Games franchise is when some polaroids fell from a swarm of flies in the sky and served as a tip, or sponsor gift, from whoever or whatever was controlling them. There was a polaroid of a trailer and it was apparently telling him to go there. When Aaron got there, there was another video filmed of them that was flashed on the projector. They were obviously being watched. ‘They’ would probably be of a higher or stronger entity controlling the loops. The projector was mysteriously blasted into the distance. Here, the audience was shown multiple transparent globe-like structures signifying certain areas where one loop cycles through. This universe does seem to beg the question: is the whole world stuck in its own loop? Since the loops have varying lengths, those outside the camp may be extended to months or even year-long loops. We can see that there is an entity present probably looking over those in this area, so why would it stop its range within this space?

There also seems to be pleasure expressed by the deity when the loop takes a toll on these people’s lives. It really is like watching a game and laughing at the miseries of others. This can be tied with what Chris mentioned about not being afraid of whatever everyone else may see to be horrifying. He said to never let “it” control you, because once that happens, it will control you again and again. Turning to suicide as a result of the thing’s attempt at controlling their lives is what trapped Chris, Mike, Shitty Carl, and probably that man in the tent in their respective loops. Other people in the area that were trapped in their own loops may have conformed to the deity in a certain way, so this really emphasized the kind of courage and will it takes to successfully leave this zone.

This whole movie seemed like a whole “Would You Rather” scenario that was played out in 1 hour and 40 minutes. If you were given the option to stay healthy and young forever to fulfill anything and everything that you desire, would you? It’s hard to imagine anyone would want to live forever, even if it did mean you could do anything you wanted for unlimited time, but alas, those people exist and they live in Camp Arcadia. It takes a lot to understand each and every mystery bound in this universe and I might never get to grasp it fully, but this material is definitely worth looking into, even after watching it in full. It’s interesting to look into interviews with the writers and videos covering other fan theories about the ending because they always differ or have something new to tell to the viewers. It always opens up more points for discussion, and I think a movie that can morph into these other storylines both inside and outside what was shown on screen is a movie worth watching.