Sunshine — Movie Review

Sunshine (Maris Racal) has one dream. She wants to compete in the Olympics as a gymnast. She’s talented, determined, and supported by a dedicated coach (Meryll Soriano). Her family, especially her sister (Jennica Garcia), is also behind her every step of the way.

Everything seems to be falling into place for Sunshine and she is just one step away from entering her next big tournament. 

Then she discovers she’s pregnant.

She turns to her partner, Miggy (Elijah Canlas), hoping for support. But instead of helping her, he gaslights her. He dismisses her fears and avoids responsibility. From that moment, Sunshine’s world begins to fall apart.

In the Philippines, abortion is illegal and heavily frowned upon. Society judges women harshly for even considering it and Doctors are more likely to refuse to help you since they are putting their license at risks. The public sees abortion as shameful. That leaves women like Sunshine with few options. One of them are underground abortion pills. They are dangerous and unregulated, but it feels like the only choice she has left.

During this painful journey, Sunshine meets people who challenge her perspective on pregnancy and motherhood. One of them is a mysterious little girl (Annika Co) who appears out of nowhere. She is not real, but she feels real. She represents the unborn child growing inside Sunshine and she speaks frequently to her, sometimes convincing her to not to go through with the abortion. Sunshine also meets a young pregnant child who was sexually abused by her uncle.

All of these encounters build toward one powerful question for Sunshine.

Will she still go through with the abortion? Or will these encounters change her mind?

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: Movie Review

Wes Anderson's second feature in 2023 is about a gambler finding a greater purpose in life after developing the ability to not see with his eyes.

While the extremely wealthy and compulsive gambler Henry Sugar (Benedict Cumberbatch) waits for his friend Sir William W., he ambles aimlessly around his room looking for a book he can read. He then discovered a small exercise book by Dr. Chatterjee (Dev Patel) on the life of Imhrat Khan (Ben Kingsley), a performer who can see without his eyes.

Henry Sugar thinks that Khan’s ability will help him win games in casinos. So he goes through the same training described in the book to also gain the same power. After three years and three months of concentrated work, Henry Sugar can now read the back of a card in five seconds.

He quickly amassed a huge amount of wealth from gambling because of it. But despite his great success, Henry Sugar was puzzled by the little satisfaction he felt. There was no thrill, no suspense, and no danger of losing anymore. Could it be that his newfound ability somewhat altered him inside?

Rye Lane: Movie Review

Romantic relationships are tricky. You have needs, but you also have to consider the needs of your partner. You have to strike and maintain a perfect balance in the relationship to keep the fire alive. But bumps are often inevitable. Yes, communicating with your loved ones is the answer to all problems, but some people would rather jump ship than drown.

Take it from Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah).

Dom’s long-time girlfriend (Karene Peter) cheated on him with his best friend, Eric (Benjamin Sarpong-Broni). Oh, it hurts to get replaced by your pal, but the really painful part about all this mess is that Eric has no job and is a little slow. Whereas Dom is nice and considerate and a successful accountant.

Yas is also fresh from a breakup. But unlike Dom, she dumped her boyfriend (Malcolm Atobrah) for simply refusing to wave at people on boats. She believes that her man hates joy. He also treats her like she’s insignificant. He has a new girlfriend now.

The two meet inside an all-inclusive restroom. Yas heard Dom’s helpless whimpers as he watched her ex’s videos. She is naturally curious about him, so she strikes up a conversation outside. As they uncover each other’s sob stories, they discover that there are things they can learn from each other and that there’s more to life than their ungrateful exes.

Triangle of Sadness: Movie Review

"Triangle of Sadness" is divided into three acts.

The first act focuses on two model couples, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean). The two are engaged in a "transactional" relationship to increase their respective social media influence. Although both of them admit that they liked each other for real, it is not smooth sailing. They still fight over petty things such as their dinner bill, which quickly spirals into heated discussions about gender roles.

The next act sees Carl and Yaya aboard a fancy ship with an always drunk shipmaster (Woody Harrelson). Along with them are an uber-rich yet dysfunctional group of entrepreneurs. Paula (Vicky Berlin), the strict head of staff of the mega yacht, wants to make a good impression and maybe get paid more, so she tells her people to always do whatever the guests ask. They were cruising through a heavy storm, and after a series of unfortunate events, the boat immediately fell into chaos until it capsized.

The last act happens on an unidentified island. The story now follows a ship worker named Abigail (Dolly De Leon) as she tends to the needs of the surviving guests, including Carl and Yaya. After realizing that she was the only person capable of living on the deserted island, she decided to reverse the tide and leverage her power over them.

Enola Holmes 2: Movie Review

After helping the young Viscount Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) inherit his father's land and titles and become a progressive reformer, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) opens her own agency to be a detective in her own right. However, she still does not have the kind of respect that her brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) has. People still belittle her skills and capabilities, until a penniless little matchstick girl finally enlists her help. Her name is Bessie (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss), and she’s looking for Sarah (Hannah Dodd), her sister, who seems to have disappeared without a trace.

The game is afoot.

Enola starts her investigation in a match factory run by business moguls Henry Lyon (David Westhead) and Charles McIntyre (Tim McMullan). She found out that Sarah had discovered something in the workshop, forcing her to hide from the authorities headed by Superintendent Grail (David Thewlis). Whatever it is, it’s huge.

Soon enough, Enola begins to uncover more vexing mysteries behind Sarah’s disappearance. Her snooping around and finding clues got the attention of Sarah’s friend and co-worker, Mae (Abbie Hern). Much to her displeasure for her determination and taking the job, Mae threatened Enola to let go of the case. But the young detective can smell that something is already burning and that it’s getting bigger. She must figure it all out before they capture Sarah and before it’s too late. To do that though, she will need some help from the great Sherlock Holmes.

Honor Society: Movie Review

Honor Rose (Angourie Rice) is a highly driven and an overachieving senior at George H.W. Bush High School. Her current goal in life is to be accepted into Harvard University and to escape from her mediocre life and her one-horse town. And she won’t stop for anything to halt this dream. This desire to leave compels her to create a four-year plan that will guarantee her a shot at a life of success.

But things don't always go in Honor’s way.

After years of kissing up to the school’s guidance counselor, Mr. Calvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), for a Harvard recommendation, Honor finds out that she’s actually one of four students vying for it.

First is Travis Biggins (Armani Jackson), the school's star athlete. The second character is Kennedy Park (Amy Keum), an introverted but brilliant playwright. And lastly, Michael Dipnicky (Gaten Matarazzo), the school nerd.

Afraid that they might derail her from her goal, Honor immediately enlists the help of Talia (Kelcey Mawema) and Emma (Avery Konrad) to implement her devious plans to eliminate competition.

Turning Red: Movie Review

Pixar’s latest film is a jubilant story about change.

Meilin "Mei" Lee (Rosalie Chiang) wears what she wants and does what she wants every day of every year. But this time around, it’s different. She’s in eighth grade now, and there’s no space to mess around. Everything should be perfect. She doesn’t want to disappoint her mother (Sandra Oh), who invested a lot in her.

But maybe there’s a tiny space for her to loathe and pursue her self-interest. Like fangirling over the boy band 4-Town with her best friends, Miriam (Ava Morse), Abby (Hyein Park), and Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan).

One night, Mei suddenly wakes up to discover that she has turned into a large red panda. Mei was shocked and disgruntled. Her first instinct is to hide it from everyone, including her parents. But keeping the beast at bay is a tough job, especially if you’re a 13-year-old girl with a busy life.

Photocopier

This award-winning Indonesian drama follows the story of a teenage student who discovers a heinous secret after investigating what happened to her at a party that caused her to lose her scholarship.

Sur (Shenina Syawalita Cinnamon) is a first-year computer student who joins a college theatrical club, headed by Anggun (Dea Panendra). Even though she’s timid and shy, Sur built a strong bond with each and every one of the group members, including the playwright Rama (Giulio Parengkuan) and production designer Tariq (Jerome Kurnia).

After winning the top award in a prestigious competition, the club had a rave party at Rama's place. Sur passed out from being overly intoxicated, and the following morning, he awoke at home with no recollection of what had happened. She then realized she was late for her scholarship report, which was her one and only ticket to pursuing her dream of becoming a website developer.

It was during her presentation that she learned she had been disqualified for a scholarship grant because of her behavior at the party, which had been mysteriously posted on her social media.

Sur believes she is not reckless enough to share such images on the internet. So she asked the assistance of his childhood friend, Amin (Chicco Kurniawan), to figure out what happened. Even though it’s illegal, the two worked together to hack into the phones of every member of the college theatrical club. During their investigation, they discovered that there were even more nefarious things going on besides Sur's case.

The Lost Daughter

Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut is about a college professor reflecting on her past after meeting a young mother.

"The Lost Daughter" follows Leda Caruso (Olivia Colman), a professor on a Greek island vacation. At first look, Leda appears to be any ordinary woman in her forties. She goes for a walk every day, spends her time sitting on the beach, and enjoys talking about her two girls whenever she gets the chance. But when people ask where her daughters are, her face turns pale and words just fail to come out from her mouth.

Leda made questionable choices in the past. And the sight of Nina (Dakota Johnson), a young mother, and her daughter Elena forces her to confront these memories. She sees a lot of herself in Nina. Like her, she is fed up and overwhelmed with the duty of motherhood. The only difference they have is that Nina is constantly surrounded by her family. People who the island's residents believe are dangerous.

One day, Elena got lost on the beach. Leda stepped in and found the girl right away. The family is grateful, however the little girl is still upset and won't stop crying because her doll disappeared. It was eventually revealed that Leda took the doll because it reminded her of a doll she owned. But Leda had no idea that stealing the doll would lead her deep into the family's affair.

The Matrix

The Wachowskis 1999’s genre-bending film is a three-way marriage between action, science fiction and conspiracy thriller.

According to the Oracle (Gloria Foster), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) is destined to find the one that will save the world from intelligent machines that use humans to harness energy. Using some sort of device inside an abandoned ship called Nebuchadnezzar, Morpheus, and the rest of the team are able to jump from the real world to the Matrix, a world created by Artificial Intelligence to keep people's consciousness. Inside this synthetic reality is a computer programmer named Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) or Neo, the presumed Messiah that will save the world. 

But pulling him out of the Matrix will not be easy. Standing in front of their way are sentient computer programs they call Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving). Their objective is to erase anomalies in the system like Morpheus and extract the Nebuchadnezzar’s code to find and destroy it. 

With the help of Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), they were able to locate Neo and after explaining the Matrix to him, Morpheus presented him with two pills, a blue one and a red one. The former will let him stay in this artificial world, while the latter will set him free from it. Neo must make a choice.