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Jason Paul Laxamana’s Hold Me Close (2024) is a strange, baffling film. It’s as uncommitted as dull, trying to be unpredictable while landing flat. There’s no energy or rhythm, just a bland reiteration of some hokey intuition twisted into a comment on fate and tragedy. Even as the actors insert conviction, the script hopscotches from one contrived intimacy to another family trauma in the most unconvincing manner. There’s no reason for anyone to give this a shot. It’s the lamest romantic tragedy that is conceivable, relying on twists that make no sense or have any plausible build-up.

Hold Me Close (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

Originally Filipino, Woody (Carlo Aquino) is always on the move, never quite settling anywhere for too long. He avoids and skirts pain, fleeing for newer shores where he thinks he might not have to deal with his demons. He has travelled the world,...

While nationalism gets a bad rap in the center of world power, it does speak differently within the so-called third world. Bor Ocampo‘s “Moneyslapper” is, undeniably, a film that speaks to the Philippines as a nation without the condescension and humiliation commonly found in filmic social commentary. This journey of a man who has found comfort in wealth pushes for a historical introspection of the vices and malice ascribed to its people.

Moneyslapper is screening at Qcinema

Daniel (John Lloyd Cruz) lives a life of extreme simplicity. He is so feeble-minded that his first thought upon winning the lottery is to escape everybody and live a different life. His return years later is also characterized by a simple mission to give or take paybacks.

But this simplicity has an extremely complicated source. The script penned by Jason Paul Laxamana and transgressive novelist Norman Willwayco frames Daniel within the violence...

Talk about a calm before the storm. This is one of those rare weekends where there are no new wide releases hitting multiplexes, but that means there are a lot of specialty films taking advantage of that fact and sneaking into area theaters. You can see all of this week's new releases below, but first we'll take a look at some of the unique repertory screenings booked around town over the next week. 

The Austin Film Society is starting a three-week series turning the spotlight on comedian Jerry Lewis. It begins tonight at the Marchesa with one of his biggest hits, 1963's The Nutty Professor. Screening from a Dcp (digital print), it also plays again on Sunday evening. On Wednesday, they'll feature Rodrigo Reyes' Purgatorio for Doc Nights. The Afs website describes it as a "lyrical meditation on the border between the Us and Mexico." Thursday night brings another...

Jason Paul Laxamana's Babagwa, an exploration of the proliferation of deceit in a rapidly virtualizing world, centers on Greg (Alex Medina), who fronts himself online as Bam Bonifacio (Kiko Matos), an affluent and handsome model whose sexual orientation depends on the gender of the target victim. The ruse is the brainchild of Marney (Joey Paras), who gets a sizable portion of the money earned from the swindle. Like all of his previous victims, Daisy (Alma Concepcion), a wealthy and philanthropic middle-aged woman, easily falls for Greg's dashing alter-ego. However, caught in a web of domestic drama, a shallow and stunted romance with his girlfriend (Chanel Latorre), and a slew of unsatisfying paychecks from his illicit gigs, he suddenly finds himself falling for Daisy. Babagwa...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Jason Paul Laxamana's satire Astro Mayabang is about titular Astro (Arron Villaflor, who very ably inhabits the role with equal parts arrogance and vulnerability), an Angeles City local who literally wears his nationalism with shirts, jackets, caps, and rubber shoes bearing Philippine emblems, who it seems is the film's singular joke. His oft-mouthed mantra is a not-so-accurate list of Filipinos or men and women with Filipino blood, no matter how little, who have made an impact, no matter how little, on the world. He berates a Caucasian tourist for not giving alms to one of the many mendicants in the city when the United States has colonized the Philippines for several decades leading to its very visible poverty, only to be told off by the tourist that he is not American, but British. He is supposedly supportive of locally produced music but buys his music from pirates. Simply put,...