Ma' Rosa (2016) User Reviews

A stark glimpse into the life of a family

[k9gardner · 7/10 · 21 July 2018]

I just watched this on Popcorn films and really "enjoyed" it. I put that in quotes because it's kind of a gripping drama, it's not a nice sweet feel-good. But it's also not sappy and over-the-top, doesn't feel deliberate or pushed at all. It reads almost like a documentary (as another reviewer said), with its candid acting and "unsteadicam" cinematography. This role won Best Actress at Cannes 2016 for Jaclyn Jose, in the leading role here.

Spoiler alert on the blog; it doesn't give it all away, but anyway, knowing what the story is about doesn't really spoil it. You need to see it happen.

The naturally unfolding pace of the film is frustrating to some (another review), but it's really just a slice-of-life capture, that unfolds in its own time. I liked it enough that I'm looking for other films by the director and some of the cast.

Brillante takes a bold statement

[plsletitrain · 11 April 2018]

Brillante Ma Mendoza is usually a hit or miss for me. He had a lot of misses, but he's got some hits for me too. This one is for me one of his strong films, if not the strongest. This film got the attention of the Cannes. And even if I'm not big on awards, I think this film deserves whatever recognition it got.

I know I've had enough with the "Look at us, oh we're so poor and we live in hell" pity party that is the common subject of most indie Filipino films. But I don't know why I loved this. Probably because it didn't look like a movie at all. It was so real and reflective of the state of the Philippines that it almost looked like a documentary.

Brillante engaged the talents of veteran Filipino actors here. The lead actress, Jacklyn Jose, is already a no-brainer. She could pull off any role, whether a protagonist, an antagonist, or even a plain bit player and she'll still steal the show. I was particularly impressed with her here, with no make-up and "acting" that looked so natural it never felt like she was just acting at all. There's a recognizable supporting cast(Julio Diaz, Mon Confiado, Mark Anthony Fernandez, Baron Geisler, Andi Eigenmann, Maria Isabel Lopez, and Allan Paule whose number of gay roles in indie films I've lost count already, and some others) that gives life to the bleak situation being portrayed.

Brillante takes a bold statement here, but not controversial. Just congruent with reality. He centered on the controversial drug war, but not on the most publicized extra-judicial killings. He focused on the other side of the narcotic trade that's been in the circles for so long but was never exposed.

Rosa (Jacklyn Jose) is your typical slum family matriarch. Along with her husband, Nestor (Julio Diaz), they engage in small-time sale of illegal drugs. They got arrested after their house was raided and they were found in possession of the drugs. Instead of undergoing standard booking procedures at the precinct, they were brought to a separate backdoor office where they were made to bargain for their liberty. The policemen, seeing that they could make use of a bigger fish than the ones they caught, made them confess of their supplier. But despite doing so, they were still asked for money in exchange for their freedom. Same thing happened with their supplier. Their 3 children did all ways to raise the money. Giving up their goods, their body, their pride.

Over-all I'd say this is a statement film. I commend Brillante for outing the abuses and corrupt practices of rogue policemen in the country. There are no long shots of nothing here, pure statements, pure reality.

Mother, Father!

[irmaapplewood · 10/10 · 23 January 2021]

Gusto ko ng tinapay. Sex bomb, sex bomb you're my sex bomb. Pero for realz Brilliants is a great director but he needs to have a script. Nakakabwesit Yung improv ng mga actors.

Slow-paved and ultimately a generic experience...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 7 June 2018]

This movie definitely had potential to be entertaining, but director Brillante Mendoza unfortunately let the movie slip into mediocrity.

It ultimately felt like you had been sitting in front of the movie for a week by the time the movie actually ended. And that was because of the storyline and the script. It quite simply took forever to almost go through no progress in the storyline on the screen. It was quite a testing ordeal to sit through, to be brutally honest.

There were some nice performances throughout the movie, and Jaclyn Jose really carried the movie quite nicely with her performance.

However, there were just way too much fillers and pointless stuff being shown and filmed that made it seem like a very prolonged experience. I am somewhat familiar with the corruption that permeates the government and also police system in The Philippines, so the movie does paint a fairly adequate image of that. Now, I can't claim to be familiar with the drug trade in the local barangays in The Philippines, so that aspect of the movie is not one that I can comment on.

"Ma' Rosa" is definitely not a defining moment in Tagalog cinema. But it was interesting enough to see a movie that was not the usual romantic comedy genre that Tagalog cinema is drowning in.