Alpha: Right To Kill Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival Alpha, The Right To Kill, until Tuesday, All4.com
Brillante Mendoza's gritty crime drama plunges us into the world of Rodrigo Dutarte's 'drug war' and police corruption in the Philippines and is well worth catching before it leaves All4's catch-up service. Focusing on cop Moises (Allen Dizon) and his relationship with young, streetwise snitch - or Alpha - Elijah (Elijah Filamor), the plot is driven by a plan to take down a drug kingpin. The plot beats may be familiar from other films but its political commentary is scathing, as is the strong sense of the contrast between Manila's haves and have nots is all its own. Catch it quick before it leaves Channel 4's catch-up service.
This Teacher, w4free.com
I was quite surprised to discover this tense indie gem lurking on free...
Brillante Mendoza's gritty crime drama plunges us into the world of Rodrigo Dutarte's 'drug war' and police corruption in the Philippines and is well worth catching before it leaves All4's catch-up service. Focusing on cop Moises (Allen Dizon) and his relationship with young, streetwise snitch - or Alpha - Elijah (Elijah Filamor), the plot is driven by a plan to take down a drug kingpin. The plot beats may be familiar from other films but its political commentary is scathing, as is the strong sense of the contrast between Manila's haves and have nots is all its own. Catch it quick before it leaves Channel 4's catch-up service.
This Teacher, w4free.com
I was quite surprised to discover this tense indie gem lurking on free...
- 2/7/2022
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Brillante Mendoza has come under much scrutiny during the last few years, due to his closeness to President Duterte. “Amo”, a series that focuses on the government’s crackdown on narcotics that has cost the lives of thousands since 2016, did not do much to help the veteran director. Calls for the cancellation of the first Philippine series to stream on Netflix have become more intense with time, while a mother, whose son was killed by unknown assailants after he was accused of peddling drugs, recently started a Change.org petition for the same purpose. Let us see, however, what is hidden beneath all this controversy.
The series follows a number of the members of an extended family, with the person of focus changing every few episodes. In that fashion, the story begins with Joseph, a high school student who lives partially with his mother and handicapped father and partially with his sister and brother-in-law,...
The series follows a number of the members of an extended family, with the person of focus changing every few episodes. In that fashion, the story begins with Joseph, a high school student who lives partially with his mother and handicapped father and partially with his sister and brother-in-law,...
- 5/10/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippine archipelago, has been a place of violent conflict since the 60s, when President Marcos’s tactics that promoted Christian settling in the area, resulted in the displacement of the local Muslim population. The Maguindanao massacre (2009), the Mamasapano clash (2015) and the Battle of Marawi (2017) are the latest in a series of bloody events, and the area is still under martial law, following the orders of President Duterte. Brillante Mendoza places his latest movie in this troubled location, in an effort that netted “Mindanao” 11 awards in the 45th Metro Manila Film Festival, including Best Picture, Director, Actor and Actress.
The rather unusual narrative unfolds in three, radically different axes, which eventually and occasionally intermingle. The first one revolves around Saima, a Muslim woman, who is arriving in Davao, passing a number of military checkpoints in order to reach the hospital that treats her baby daughter,...
The rather unusual narrative unfolds in three, radically different axes, which eventually and occasionally intermingle. The first one revolves around Saima, a Muslim woman, who is arriving in Davao, passing a number of military checkpoints in order to reach the hospital that treats her baby daughter,...
- 4/8/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Filipina actor, TV star, reality show host and social media queen Judy Ann Santos turns in a de-glammed, gently anguished, remarkably sympathetic performance in “Mindanao,” the latest title from prolific Filipino director Brillante Mendoza. Her watchability, however, comes despite a storytelling approach that is undercut by several unconvincing directorial decisions — chief among them the insertion of animated interludes that outline an only tangentially illuminating story of the princes and dragons who, legend has it, used to roam the eponymous region.
Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippine archipelago, has a troubled recent history beset by decades of conflict, and the 2017 declaration of island-wide martial law still stands. But despite a contextualizing opening note to that effect, it’s difficult to discern if there’s a political or social point Mendoza is trying to make; commentary about this fraught situation takes a deep back seat to the maudlin and manipulative main storyline,...
Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippine archipelago, has a troubled recent history beset by decades of conflict, and the 2017 declaration of island-wide martial law still stands. But despite a contextualizing opening note to that effect, it’s difficult to discern if there’s a political or social point Mendoza is trying to make; commentary about this fraught situation takes a deep back seat to the maudlin and manipulative main storyline,...
- 10/23/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Brillante Mendoza has made a career out of highlighting the “dark corners” of the Philippines, and “Alpha” is no exception to the rule. His style, however, is much different here, as the film winks at the mainstream, despite the fact that the documentary-like tactics are still here. Let us take things from the beginning, though.
“Alpha: The Right to Kill” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
The story revolves around two radically different individuals, with the Philippines Government’s crackdown on illegal drugs functioning as the background. The first one is Police Officer Espino, a respectable professional, family man and Christian, and Elijah, a small-time pusher who has become his informant, in a desperate effort to provide for his wife and newborn child. During a police raid to the hideout of a notorious drug dealer named Abel that results in a number of deaths on the criminal’s side and very few arrests,...
“Alpha: The Right to Kill” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
The story revolves around two radically different individuals, with the Philippines Government’s crackdown on illegal drugs functioning as the background. The first one is Police Officer Espino, a respectable professional, family man and Christian, and Elijah, a small-time pusher who has become his informant, in a desperate effort to provide for his wife and newborn child. During a police raid to the hideout of a notorious drug dealer named Abel that results in a number of deaths on the criminal’s side and very few arrests,...
- 3/17/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Don’t come to “Alpha, The Right to Kill,” the latest rough-hewn slab of social realism from Filipino auteur Brillante Ma Mendoza, in search of revelations, either in form or content. A rumbling, street-pounding drug-war thriller, it’s far from the first film to paint cops and dealers on this beat as equally bent; a Mendoza joint that drags viewers brusquely through the ragged poverty and institutional corruption of modern Manila is hardly an unfamiliar proposition either. “Alpha” doesn’t profess to be anything new, however: There’s a bone-weary resignation to its worldview that underlines its simple moral point all the more effectively.
That said, this story of a Swat officer and a punkish informant’s fateful outside-the-law collaboration is Mendoza’s most propulsive and engrossing variation on his favored themes in some time. It’s also his most straight-up genre exercise to date — somewhat reminiscent of José Padilha...
That said, this story of a Swat officer and a punkish informant’s fateful outside-the-law collaboration is Mendoza’s most propulsive and engrossing variation on his favored themes in some time. It’s also his most straight-up genre exercise to date — somewhat reminiscent of José Padilha...
- 9/26/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Sha Gua (To Kill a Watermelon), from Chinese director Zehao Gao, was awarded the Grand Prix of the 33rd Warsaw International Film Festival, which drew to a close Saturday in the Polish capital.
Also among the winners were French director Joan Chemla, who received best director honors for Si tu voyais son coeur (If You Saw His Heart).
The special jury award went to Allen Dizon and Angelie Sanoy, the stars of Bomba (The Bomb) by Philippine director Ralston Gonzales Jover.
A special mention was given to the Slovenia/Croatia co-production Rudar (The Miner), helmed by Hanna Slak.
...
Also among the winners were French director Joan Chemla, who received best director honors for Si tu voyais son coeur (If You Saw His Heart).
The special jury award went to Allen Dizon and Angelie Sanoy, the stars of Bomba (The Bomb) by Philippine director Ralston Gonzales Jover.
A special mention was given to the Slovenia/Croatia co-production Rudar (The Miner), helmed by Hanna Slak.
...
- 10/21/2017
- by Vladimir Kozlov
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
I cannot imagine Pink Halo-Halo being directed by anyone but Joselito Altarejos. Altarejos, who has made a name for himself in Philippine cinema as one of headliners of the burgeoning and bursting gay genre with such films like Ang Lalake sa Parola (The Man in the Lighthouse, 2007), Ang Lihim ni Antonio (Antonio's Secret, 2008) and Ang Laro ng Buhay ni Juan (The Game of Juan's Life, 2009). The film, about a boy (Paolo Constantino) whose father (Allen Dizon), a soldier, is detailed to war-torn Mindanao to keep the peace during a special elections, is inspired from Altarejos' own childhood, one that has been marked by the loss of a father, also a soldier, who was killed in the service of the country.
Set in Altarejos' native Masbate, Pink Halo-Halo opens with a row of soldiers jogging amidst a serene backdrop of the province. Several boys, running and carrying toy guns, follow suit.
Set in Altarejos' native Masbate, Pink Halo-Halo opens with a row of soldiers jogging amidst a serene backdrop of the province. Several boys, running and carrying toy guns, follow suit.
- 8/2/2010
- Screen Anarchy
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