Rant Noel Vera I like the theory that operas actually need their relatively melodramatic plots. It's the nature of the medium to heighten emotions, and nothing...
My article on Philippine horror films at monstersandcritics.com: http://tinyurl.com/omtmr (Apparently you have to be patient; it takes time to download the ...
In the mode for love By Noel Vera Critics seem to feel that Wong Kar Wai's latest film "2046" (2004) is inferior to his previous "In the Mood for Love," made...
Middling lucky By Noel Vera In Wayne Kramer's "The Cooler" (a 2003 movie for some reason being released in Manila only now) the eponymous character not only...
Sri Lankan rights group fears ban on film about incest: http://www.aletteroffire.info/common/news.htm The protest letter I sent in response: It should be noted...
Horribly funny Noel Vera What with very real horrors readily visible in news broadcasts (from Iraq, for one), escapist horror seems the order of the day in the...
Foreskin Noel Vera "Europa Europa" makes for a fascinating parable despite the fact that- -or perhaps especially because--much of the story is true. Salomon ...
Some thoughts on Miyazaki's latest film: http://journals.aol.com/noelbotevera/MyJournal/entries/1040 Excerpt: Hayao Miyazaki's version of Diana Wynne Jones'...
There's got to be a mozzarella Noel Vera What with the release of Wolfgang Petersen's very visible "Poseidon" (2006), about a ship capsized by what they call a...
Mission inedible Noel Vera Hello, Tom. Your two previous big-screen missions as IMF operative Ethan Hunt have been quite successful. Your first, directed by...
So dumb the crap of Brown Noel Vera It would be tempting to consider "The Da Vinci Code" a kind of corrective to "The Passion of the Christ," the kind of movie...
Geek tragedy Noel Vera Dennis Dugan's "The Benchwarmers"--oh hell, who are we kidding? This is garbage, the people who made this know it's garbage, the ...
Two French classics and a lovely Filipino film Noel Vera The 2006 French Film Festival opens with a platter of recent Gallic offerings and a few classics, but...
Smooth operator By Noel Vera Spike Lee's "Inside Man" isn't the work of an outsider, the kind of iconoclast filmmaker that Spike used to declare himself to be...
An American hilarity Noel Vera Courtney Solomon's "An American Haunting" right off takes a high spot on my list of the five most awful pictures this year, even...
The Last "Prairie" Show Noel Vera Robert Altman's "A Prairie Home Companion" (2006) is flat-out wonderful, and he could do worse than end his career on this ...
Little boy blue Noel Vera With "Superman Returns" Bryan Singer--who I've always thought more clever than talented--pretty much remakes the 1978 movie with ...
Is it safe? Noel Vera Bill Condon's "Kinsey" (2004) at first sight was your standard- issue, well-made, intelligently tasteful biopic, in a year that teemed...
Shellfish buffet Noel Vera My dear Mr. Verbinski; Greetings from the captain of the "Black Pearl," and congratulations on your commercial success. It has been...
Nacho funny Noel Vera It is supposed to be a comedy, this pelicula of Jared Hess, but it is false and impure where it should be good and true. It is featuring...
The poor dozers Noel Vera Talk about pointless--why bring the overblown, overextended musical remake of a fairly satisfying Mel Brooks comedy to Manila screens...
A little article I wrote for Senses of Cinema on Kurosawa Kyoshi's film: http://tinyurl.com/hvt2e Excerpt Looking at Kurosawa Kiyoshi's "Kairo" (Pulse, 2001)...
Guerilla warfare Noel Vera Isao Takahata's "Pom Poko" (The Raccoon War, 1994) starts out with a little song where children call on the tanuki (Japanese raccoon...
Dumdumland Noel Vera It's hard to guess what kind of thinking went into the making of this particular car crash. "We'll take Richard Price's novel and turn it...
Snakes gone wild Noel Vera It's not exactly the kind of motion picture meant to extend or develop the potentialities of cinema as a medium of artistic ...
Lost movie Noel Vera "The Lost City" represents sixteen years of director-producer- composer-lead actor Andy Garcia's life, devoted to the attempt to bring the...
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