My Yearend Roundup: The 25 BEST FILIPINO FILMS of 2022 That I Have Seen
December 30, 2022
In 2022, the stringent quarantine precautions for COVID-19 have been lifted, so more and more Filipino movies have been opening in cinemas. This was on top of those being showed in streaming apps like Vivamax and Amazon Prime.
In June 2022, “Ngayon Kaya” became the first Filipino film to open in wide release since the pandemic shut cinemas down in March 2020. After that, red carpet premieres were again being held, for mainstream film releases like “Expensive Candy” and “Always.”
In August, the Cinemalaya film festival was all live again at the CCP with 11 full-length films.
By Christmas Day, the Metro Manila Film Festival was back in cinemas in full force with 8 entries.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
25. HABANGBUHAY by Real S. Florido
24. MAY-DECEMBER-JANUARY by Mac Alejandre
23. GREED by Yam Laranas
22. NANAHIMIK ANG GABI by Shugo Praico
21. AN INCONVENIENT LOVE by Petersen Vargas
20. DOLL HOUSE by Marla Ancheta
19. 366 by Bela Padilla
18. KAPAG WALA NANG MGA ALON by Lav Diaz
17. CONNECTED by Theodore Boborol
16. EXPENSIVE CANDY by Jason Paul Laxamana
15. BULA SA LANGIT by Sheenly Gener
14. ALWAYS by Dado Lumibao
13. SIKLO by Roman Perez Jr.
12. MAMASAPANO by Lester Dimaranan
11. RELYEBO by Crisanto Aquino
These are Top 10 best Filipino movies I had seen and written about in 2022:
10. NGAYON KAYA by Prime Cruz
This film really needed the charisma of its attractive lead stars Janine Gutierrez and Paolo Avelino and potent musical soundtrack (with two classic songs by band Mayonnaise — “Jopay” and “Bakit Part 2”) to beef up its very simple plot of unspoken sentiments, missed opportunities and what ifs. Director Prime Cruz alternated scenes of present and past to give his familiar story a stylistic edge.
9. REROUTE by Law Fajardo
Director Law Fajardo told this suspenseful story (with screenplay by Byron Bryant) in elegant black and white, with director of photography Joshua A. Reyles. Scenes in dark cramped places or those shrouded with fog were lit so well that we can always see what was going on. Those dramatic long range shots and overhead drone shots had excellent cinematic aesthetic sense. John Arcilla automatically evoked a palpable sense of danger from his first scene.
8. DELETER by Mikhail Red
Mikhail Red was able to create a totally eerie atmosphere in that building where Nadine Lustre’s Lyra worked, with all the dim lights, red lights, flickering lights, cramped quarters, dark corridors, shadows behind frosted glass door windows. This is probably unlike any real office building we’ve seen, but for the purposes of this film, it works, especially with the frenetic film editing with the dissonant chords at work in the eerie musical score.
7. 12 WEEKS by Anna Isabelle Matutina
With the story of Max Eigenmann’s Alice, Anna Isabelle “Shine” Matutina aimed to tell modern Filipinas that they and they alone should decide about their bodies, certainly not the men in their lives. Matutina told her unsettling story with gritty camera work and raw down-to-earth honesty. The initial abortion clinic interview scene may have been reminiscent of “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” (2020), but Matutina’s story went well beyond that.
6. MAHAL KITA, BEKSMAN by Perci Intalan
Director Perci Intalan had plenty of fun celebrating stereotypically gay activities with Christian Bables’s swishy friends, like fashion, cosmetology, volleyball, while also poking fun at stereotypically male activities with Angel’s macho brothers, like cars, gym, basketball. It also came up with memorably well-written (by Fatrick Tabada) scenes with thought-provoking insights about being straight and the essence of being a man.
5. HOW TO LOVE MR. HEARTLESS by Jason Paul Laxamana
Add this to that list of Jason Paul Laxamana’s best romance films, to join “100 Tula Para Kay Stella” and “Between Maybes.” His story was deceptively simple, yet so complex in substance. His eloquent script delivered everything from biting sarcasm, supreme sacrifice and heartfelt romance. His beautiful camerawork, effective motivation of actors (Diego Loyzaga and Sue Ramirez) and excellent emotional crescendo deserve awards.
4. THE BASEBALL PLAYER by Carlo Obispo
Writer-director Carlo Obispo told an affecting story of two Muslim children (played by JM Bautista and Tommy Alejandrino) growing up in the traumatic shadow cast by a civil war of indefinite duration. The scene juxtaposing a child’s cries with gunfire was so powerful, you’d wish that the credits did not roll up yet at that time. Don’t expect too much or you might overthink it. There is indeed a beating heart in its simple but solid narrative.
3. FAMILY MATTERS by Nuel Naval
This film by Nuel Naval was an old-fashioned family melodrama as expected, but done quite well, written with sensitivity to include problems experienced in all generations within a family from a senior father’s point of view. The grandparents played by Noel Trinidad and Liza Lorena here may be infirm, ill-tempered or uncooperative, but were both still of sound mind here, ultimately proactive about what they wanted.
2. LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE by Martika Ramirez Escobar
This film by Martika Ramirez Escobar (her debut feature) starring Sheila Francisco as a retired screenwriter living out her script was delightful, wistful and very entertaining. From a melodramatic start, it became a film within a film right at the opening credits, and that’s where the fun began. We knew the parallel contents were bound to intersect at some point, but when that absurd moment came, it was totally out-of-the-box (in a manner of speaking).
1. BLUE ROOM by Ma-an Asuncion Dagnalan
One fateful night, Troy Rodriguez (Elijah Canlas) and his up-and-coming indie band Rebel Rebel were joined by former band member Anton Lorenzana (juan karlos), who just came back home from a long vacation. Things were not particularly going well for them that night, but things were about to take even darker turn when their drive home was interrupted by policemen manning a checkpoint.
In a remarkably auspicious directorial debut, Ma-an Asuncion-Dagñalan developed her story with an escalating sense of unsettling suspense and simmering Gen Z angst.The screenplay, co-written by Dagñalan with Siege Ledesma, was well-plotted, tautly streamlined, with pointed, pertinent social commentary. She made us feel the liberating spirit of the indie music scene, as well as stuffy claustrophobia of corruption.
This review was originally published in the author’s blog, “Fred Said.”
