"An invigorating dose of arch formalism in a sea of mainstream sincerity, this is the kind of movie that asks for the viewer's attention and patience - not because it is slow or oblique but because it's built entirely out of details. (The great Jia Zhangke is one of the film's producers and has served as a mentor for Manuel, with the younger director also working on Jia's recent masterpiece Caught by the Tides.)"
"These titles don't always attract the crazy buzz that Sundance's more media-friendly premieres do, but I've often found some of my favorite films of past years in this section: pictures like The Things You Kill (2025), Girls Will Be Girls (2024), This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2020), The Sharks (2019), This Is Not Berlin (2019), and My Happy Family (2017)."
Filipiñana takes place over a single idle day at an elegant golf course outside Manila, where manicured lawns and tidy trees mask underlying menace. The film repeatedly juxtaposes the course's calm with Manila's crowded, chaotic streets, revealing social tension through visual contrasts such as citizens lining up for water in unbearable heat. The director employs arch formalism and builds emotion from small, precise details: the angle of a golf club, a piece of fruit on the ground, or a casual glance. Jia Zhangke participates as producer and mentor, with creative ties between the filmmakers evident in technique and focus on detail.
Read at Vulture
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