Adela, by the Filipino director Adolfo Alix, Jr., is a quietly dignified but ultimately disappointing slog of a movie. I suspect it’s partly because I’m a bit tired of Filipino films set amidst the squalor of garbage dumps — there, I’ve said it — though I hasten to add that there’s hardly a hint of exploitation [...]
Where the Title Comes From.
"Attempting to burrow and disappear into the admiration of certain works of art, I tried to make such deep and pure identification that my integrity as a human self would become optional, a vestige of my relationship to the art. I wanted to submit and submerge, even to die a little. I developed a preference, among others, for art that required endurance, that mimicked a galactic endlessness and wore out the nonbelievers. By ignoring my hunger or my need to use the bathroom during a three-hour movie by Kubrick or Tarkovsky, I'd voted against my body, with its undeniable pangs and griefs, in favor of a self composed of eyeballs and brain, floating in the void of pure art." ---- Jonathan Lethem, "The Beards"Recent Comments
Most Popular (since July 2009)
- 100% Hayao Miyazaki, "Ponyo" (2008).
- 96% Lino Brocka, "Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang" (1974) / "Insiang" (1976).
- 83% Lino Brocka, "Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag" (1975).
- 79% Pascal Laugier, "Martyrs" (2008).
- 74% Paul W.S. Anderson, "Resident Evil" (2002) / Alexander Witt, "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" (2004).
- 64% Brillante Mendoza, "Kinatay" (2009).
- 63% Jean-Luc Godard, "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her" (1967).
- 57% Denisa Reyes and Mark Gary, "Hubad" (2009).
- 54% Russell Mulcahy, "Resident Evil: Extinction" (2007).
- 29% Oren Peli, "Paranormal Activity" (2007).
Most Popular This Month
Archives
RSS
The Wily Filipino