L'éveil de Maximo Oliveros

Although the main character is gay, this is not a gay film. The beauty of the film is that it does not make fun of the gay character. Maxi is well-loved and accepted by his family and the community.

There is plenty of humor but this light treatment of the story does not at all trivialize the message that the film wants to bring across to the audience. Scriptwriter Michiko Yamamoto who also wrote the award-winning "Magnifico" has improved her skill in storytelling and is not at all melodramatic this time. She has done away with subplots that don't move the main story much, a weakness of many Filipino scriptwriters who want to tell everything, including the entire history of the Philippines, in one movie. Her characters are all balanced – no one is all-evil or all-saint. The most touching scenes are those that show the tenderness of Maxi's tough-guy family to him. However, there are technical glitches that need to be fixed, and with digital technology editing may still be possible, e.g. scenes that are too dark or the screen going black for too long, making the oldies in the audience worry that perhaps the "lagarista" has been caught in traffic with the next roll of film. It is not often that Filipinos abroad get to see a rare gem like this film. Thanks to digital film-making and indie cinema and the film festivals in many countries.