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Sheila Francisco is magnificent as a grieving mother and retired screenwriter in this delightfully meta mash-up that pays homage to Filipino action films

Writer-director Martika Ramirez Escobar’s feature film debut (after making a bunch of shorts) is a total delight. A homage to the pulpy Filipino action films shot on video from the 1970s and 80s, this extremely meta, self-referential comedy-drama-thriller mash-up stars the magnificent Sheila Francisco as not especially well-off housewife Leonor Reyes. Leonor is living with her son Rudy (Bong Cabrera), a middle manager planning to emigrate – but she was once a successful screenwriter, a force to be reckoned with in Manila’s local film industry until a tragic on-set accident took the life of Rudy’s brother Ronwaldo (Anthony Falcon), who as a ghost still haunts his mother’s house, sometimes visibly and sometimes not.

When Leonor notices there’s a screenwriting competition with a large...

It’s hard to encapsulate the half-sunny, half-funeral vibe of “Leonor Will Never Die”, a touching end-of-life drama that’s also a loving homage to kitschy Filipino action cinema. Writer-director Martika Ramirez Escobar pays tribute to her title character, a fictional Pinoy genre filmmaker who, at the end of her life, wakes up inside one of her unproduced screenplays.

Escobar’s debut feature frequently shifts between sad, dimly lit conversations with Leonor (Sheila Francisco) and her concerned loved ones, particularly her adult son Rudie (Bong Cabrera), and scenes within “Return of the Owl,” Leonor’s unfinished dream project, which follows the generic adventures of tough guy construction worker Ronwaldo (Rocky Salumbides).

Some psychedelic transitions, including trippy dream sequences and photo montages, help to establish the slippery nature of Leonor’s subjective reality. A few sequences from “Return of the Owl” also seem credible, but even they ultimately feel monotonous and...

Films about filmmakers, both real and fictional, are all the rage right now. From Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Bardo” to Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” the fall movie season features some of Hollywood’s biggest directors releasing movies about the journeys that their profession has taken them on. The films cover a wide range of genres, from stark realism to the very weird, but few are as unique as “Leonor Will Never Die.”

Martika Ramirez Escobar’s feature directorial debut, which won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest, blurs the lines between fiction and reality while honoring the rich history of Filipino action cinema. The movie tells the story of a retired filmmaker who ends up as a character in her own unfinished screenplay after a falling television hits her on...

"Do you think Ma will wake up if we make her movie?" Music Box Films has debuted a second trailer for the indie Filipino action comedy Leonor Will Never Die, opening in the US this November. It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in January, and just screened at the Toronto Film Festival, too. A one-of-a-kind film about film from the Philippines!! Fiction and reality blur when Leonor, a retired filmmaker, falls into a coma after a TV lands on her head, compelling her to become the action hero of her unfinished screenplay. Starring Sheila Francisco as the amazing Leonor, with a fun cast including Bong Cabrera, Rocky Salumbides, Rea Molina, and Anthony Falcon. "An innovative blend of pulpy action homages, playful comedy, and touching family drama, Leonor Will Never Die is a wonderfully imaginative tribute to the art of filmmaking." This trailer is a slightly different cut from the one last month,...

The official trailer release for HBO’s latest documentary, “A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting” arrives amid wide-spread conversation of continued anti-Semitism in the media and just a week after Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar year. But the film’s impact is intended to reach beyond the community it reflects by informing viewers about the heart-wrenching tragedy that occurred four years ago in Squirrel Hill, Pennsylvania.

On Oct. 27, 2018, a white supremacist attack targeted the congregation at Pittsburgh synagogue, resulting in the death of eleven people and injuries to six others — some of whom were Holocaust survivors. The unprecedented violence was considered to be the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the U.S.

“The days when synagogues just leave their doors open — I think those days are gone,” one interviewee comments in a voice-over featured in the trailer.

Both powerfully profound and deeply disturbing,...

When you think of action stars, what names come to mind? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Jean-Claude Van Damme? Casper Van Dien? These are all great examples, but there's one up-and-coming star that might outshine them all, and her name is ​​Sheila Francisco. While that might not be a name many Americans will recognize, genre fanatics will certainly get to know the Filipino singer after "Leonor Will Never Die," which was programmed at the Toronto International Film Festival under its Midnight Madness banner.

Martika Ramirez Escobar's directorial debut is not unlike other movies that pay homage to other movies. Of course, it can't be compared to more dramatic fare like the similarly TIFF-bound "Empire of Light," but it does stand as a love letter to the action movies of yesteryear. However, what makes "Leonor Will Never Die" so engaging is its central story, which centers around the titular Leonor Reyes (Francisco) and...

"You can't wake up someone who is not asleep." Music Box Films has revealed an official US trailer for an acclaimed indie film from the Philippines titled Leonor Will Never Die, which will be out later this year. It originally premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in January, but it's also about to show at the Toronto Film Festival this month - hence the new trailer arriving now. You've never seen anything like this!! Fiction and reality blur when Leonor, a retired filmmaker, falls into a coma after a television lands on her head, compelling her to become the action hero of her unfinished screenplay. Starring Sheila Francisco as the amazing Leonor, along with a fun cast including Bong Cabrera, Rocky Salumbides, Rea Molina, and Anthony Falcon. "An innovative blend of pulpy action homages, playful comedy, and touching family drama, Leonor Will Never Die is a wonderfully imaginative tribute to the art of filmmaking.

Leonor Will Never Die Review — Leonor Will Never Die (2022) Film Review from the 44th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar, starring Sheila Francisco, Bong Cabrera, Rocky Salumbides, and Anthony Falcone. This film has the remarkable distinction of seamless overlapping narratives that neither muddles nor fragments any of them. Sheila [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Leonor Will Never Die: Retired Successful Screenwriter Lives Last Creation to the Max [Sundance 2022]...

From its opening minutes, Martika Ramirez Escobar’s meta-prank “Leonor Will Never Die” aims to scramble the viewers. Leonor Reyes (Sheila Francisco), an elderly retired action film director in Manila who, the title assures us, must have some claim to immortality, pads into view from the knees-down and steps onto a trunk – the universal film cliché for suicide. Not so fast, but it is true that awful things have happened to Leonor. Her ex-husband Valentin (Alan Bautista), a former movie star, has left. Her favorite son Ronwaldo (Anthony Falcon) is dead. And her least-favorite son Rudie (Bong Cabrera) is hounding her to pay the electric bill, which is three months past due and would have already been shut off if Leonor hadn’t helmed the meter reader’s mother’s favorite shoot-em-ups.

If life was one of Leonor’s films, she could write a happy ending. Instead, Leonor consoles herself...

In hindsight, it was naive on my part to think, “what could possibly be told about the lives of transgender people that has not already been explored?” or worse, “whether there was enough content to go beyond a short film?” My eyes have been opened and I am truly touched by a not so talked about section of society.

“Those Long Haired Nights” is screening at the Slovak Queer Film Festival

Tuesday, Amanda and Barbie are transsexuals living in Manila. Under the strict supervision of a pimp, they make a living by providing sexual and massage services. The story revolves around the situations the three come across in a span of two days. Tuesday has an unexpected tryst with a client. Amanda takes a break from work and visits her family in the country. Barbie on the other hand is not ready to make up her mind and even after warnings from the pimp,...