Every Taylor Swift era is a carefully-cultivated circus act. Every album rollout is meticulously planned—the aesthetic is distinct, easter eggs are slyly planted to build intrigue, and singles are primed for chart domination. The trademark red lipstick of the Red era, the glossy girl squad of her 1989 heydey, her outright refusal to make publicity […]
The moment audiences saw Citizen Kane’s groundbreaking snowglobe shot, the clever play with lighting, and the long pan back in 1941, its place as one of cinema’s greatest was cemented. It would go on to define many of the textbook filmmaking techniques we see today. The film’s praises were sung to 24-year-old newcomer director Orson […]
The Crown has been one of Netflix’s prized prestige shows, having consistently delivered awards season buzz and pop culture mileage for three years now. Treading the line between drama and history, the show has capitalized on the general public’s morbid fascination with the British royal family. The constant push-and-pull between royal fantasy and far-from-perfect reality […]
”Sino ang kumain ng sisig sa Jollijeep?” cries Nigel in the iconic Devil Wears Prada scene. For those scratching their heads, no, this is not some deranged Tagalog dubbing in a late Sunday night local network line-up. This is one of the zingers comedian Macoy Dubs delivered in their early days of making dubbed content […]
Key of f-ed, Bea They had warned us never to touch the grand piano sitting backstage in the William Shaw Little Theatre. The place was dimly lit; my flashlight illuminating the dusty instrument. The wooden floor creaks upon my every step. I take a deep breath. The afternoon bus rides I devoted to reading Philippine […]
The past few months have not been easy for anyone. The threat of COVID-19 has forced many to stay at home or distance themselves from others, upending the status quo. Many parents have had to make critical decisions to protect the well-being of their children—even if it means having to temporarily pull their children out […]
“Ako si Lisa. Taga-Maynila at may tatlong anak. Nagpunta ako sa health center para magpaturo [ng] family planning. Sinabi ng mga tao roon na pinagbabawal raw ang pagtuturo ng family planning sa health centers. Kaya wala akong makuhanan ng contraceptives. Sa edad ng disinwebe ay nabuntis ako. Pangatlo ko na.” (My name is Lisa. I […]
A lot can happen in two minutes. The first thing Clement Corominas noticed when he arrived at the campus of University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu was the number of police officers surrounding the school. It was June 5, and a rally was being held in protest of the yet-to-be-signed Anti-Terrorism Bill. Stepping out of […]
It was a Saturday when Carmen “Menie” Reyes woke up to a world that had been silenced. The usual chatter of the radio had faded into the night, the television only emitting white noise. It was September 1972, when Martial Law was declared in the Philippines, and she was in her third year of high […]
Transgender people have been featured onscreen for decades now. However, they have been reduced to stereotypes; treated as either a deplorable “other” in exploitation films that have marketed transsexuality as a titillating shame, such as in 1953’s Glen or Glenda, or as a surprise twist as in 1992’s The Crying Game. In fact, examples of […]