A kid had to face the world in his own animated version and conquer life's biggest monster. ANI (The Harvest) It's as if a child's imagination is a safe haven, a place where the world is a playground for all the possibilities the mind could think of. And even the tight and humble space called home, situated on a busy Metro could not hinder the inquisitive headspace of a young Mithi (played by Zyren Dela Cruz), a boy who accomplishes the day by playing with his colorful toy robots that perform a vital role in his imaginary narrative. With a loving father and a mother that sings him a self-assuring lullaby, Mithi is blissfully unaware of the harsh reality. But life decided to toy with his fate, and Mithi's perfect little world is now showing its cracks, putting his vulnerability to the test and slowly depriving him of his happiness he thought would last forever. And through his eyes, the world suddenly transforms itself into a menacing monster. Set in a lush
"Last Fool Show" Review - Same Rom-Com Foolishness
Adamant to impress the upper bosses, a neophyte award-winning director conforms to the demands of a larger mainstream movie company and write a typical rom-com film — so much so that she even put her personal love experiences in it.
No one can deny that when it comes to the most saturated genre in Philippine cinema, romance comedy sure wins the first billing. Some were great while others were just a sloppy rehash that still bags a lot of commercial returns, mostly because it stars the most popular idols of today, regardless of its overall quality.
With the rise however of indie films, more and more people are starting to become interested in investing their money to see it and that inspires more filmmakers as well to produce their crafts that doesn't have to conform to what's hot in the market.
This very glaring situation is what moves Eduardo W. Roy Jr., a real-life award-winning indie film director in his 2019 movie, Last Fool Show.
Roy Jr. also established a respectable portfolio in writing mainstream soap operas in his earlier career for ABS-CBN before fully dipping his toes into indie film territory.
The Premise
The Last Fool Show follows Mayessa (Arci Muñoz), an award-winning indie film director who was invited by a mainstream movie company, Galaxy Films, to write and direct a rom-com film, a genre outside of her forte. Being a long time fan of a one seasoned director of Galaxy, Joanna Lee (Gina Alanar), a top director of the popular genre, Mayessa decided to follow her steps and what further inspires her to become part of the company.
Determined to impress her bosses, Mayessa who is currently unloading her baggages from a failed relationship with ex-boyfriend Paolo (JM De Guzman), decided to pull an inspiration from it and molded some parts of it as per the demands of the Galaxy films.
Arci Muñoz, while for the most part overdoing her act to be funny, was quite endearing. Muñoz as an experienced actress when it comes to rom-com movies and as the main perspective of this film, dutifuly fulfilled the demands of her character and I thought has displayed a commendable performance, able to switch from vivaciously comical to her more grounded and dramatic act.
JM De Guzman I thought was more present and more alive in this film in comparison to his role in 2014's suprise hit, That Thing Called Tadhana, a film where he was obviously a plot device to move the more overbearing character of his co-star Angelica Panganiban. In this film, De Guzman, while still used as a plot device, had more stuff to do and provided the yin to Muñoz's yang.
Both actors were great individually and as a pair and I thought has a believable and very genuine on-screen chemistry.
Foolish Noncommittal
The film promises to challenge the rom-com genre by pointing out its garishness and sometimes laughable cliche to be marketable at the expense of being good. At times, it parades itself as a stark parody of the genre by displaying the standard formula in a humorous but still respectful way — a satire to mainstream rom-com shtick.
However, opposite to what it tries to accomplish, the film by and large still feels like a typical rom-com.
Roy Jr. has attempted to bring the issue into the spotlight but for his film to work, it also has to follow the same tired biblical guidelines and fell into the same pit of mediocre copy-and-paste formula.
Roy Jr.'s noncommittal to the goal really hurts the purpose of his film and ended up too soft and conforming especially towards its very predictable conclusion. A similar film in Marlon Rivera's Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 2: #ForeverIsNotEnoughin 2016 starring Eugene Domingo has satirically punched the formula of romantic comedy harder and I thought was more committed to the objective.
Let's Be Reel
The filmopens up the opportunity for filmmakers to challenge the norm. It's a jab at the most tired genre of all time and by jab I mean like a soft bump.
While Roy Jr.'s Last Fool Show has clear intentions, it seems like its execution didn't support its claims firmly enough.
Yes, the film was still entertaining but we've seen it all before.
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