Filipino Movie: CAVITE

The Philippine Independence Day Parade will take place next weekend, kicking off the 2006 Filipino Film and Arts Festival a week after that (June 9-15). Cinema Village Theatre at 12th Street (just off 5th Avenue) is way ahead of everyone since it is now currently screening the movie: "CAVITE".

My friend and I didn't waste any time catching this flick since it is very seldom that any theatre (no matter how small) would screen Filipino movies here in NYC. This movie stars Ian Gamazon under Truly Indie. He is also the films' Director and Producer. Below is Kyle Smith's (of the Post) movie review, giving CAVITE two-and-a-half stars:
Arriving in the Philippines for his father's funeral, a San Diego security guard finds a cellphone in his backpack, along with pictures of his mother and sister being tortured. A voice on the phone tells him, "I will tell you what I want very soon". The terrific intensity of the opening of "Cavite", which is named for a Philippine city just outside manila, nearly makes you hold your breath with dread. Or hold your nose? The atmosphere reeks of squalid menace. There is more style here than story, but the style - slashing cuts delivered in queasy orange sunstroke tones, accompanied by the urgent bleat of the cellphone - is considerable. A panicky handheld digital camera accompanies Adam, the 32-year-old security guard of Filipino descent, on a terrifying day's journey through the slums. Adam helplessly takes instructions at every turn from the kidnapper on the cellphone, who won't say what he wants. He does make sure Adam gets sickening proof of his viciousness. Is the caller a Muslim fanatic? Does he have something to do with the death of Adam's father? How does he see and hear everything Adam sees and hear even in cabs and blind alleys? These questions horse-collar us as we sweat it out right along with Adam. Unlike the kidnapper, though, the directors haven't quite worked out all the details of their plot. (Promising neophytes Ian Gamazon, who also plays Adam, and Neill Dela Llana are Filipino-Americans who shot the film in 10 days for $7.000.00). At about the halfway point, the movie starts stalling, like a tour guide who is being paid by the hour. A scene that takes Adam to the cockfight, for instance, is one of many that disorient us with their banal cruelty, but from the kidnapper's point of view, it's a waste of time. Why would they devise such a circuitous route to what turns out to be a simple goal? But a movie has to pad its running time to a (barely) respectable length. Even so, its final minutes are disappointingly flat. A last act full of reversals would have filled in the holes in "Cavite".

Link for the Filipino Film & Arts Festival: http://www.theimaginasian.com/index2.php