"I'm a temp...but that's not like a permanent thing"
- Anonymous caller from the movie "Next Stop Wonderland"
The last movie that was able to effectively disarm me with its sheer simplistic beauty was "Funny Ha Ha" by Andrew Bujalski. I saw that three years ago. Since then, I've seen pedestrian movie after pedestrian movie, while talking myself into things like "The Science of Sleep is a Sunday-afternoon version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" or "I Am Legend is underrated - it's an existential scifi/action/horror film!".
So you could just imagine how ecstatic I was after seeing ENDO.
A little backgrounder that may or may not provide a significant context to my opinion on the movie: me and a friend of mine got to the final 20 of Cinemalaya 2007 along with Jade Castro and Michiko Yamamoto, the people responsible for this wonderful creation. This Jade Castro dude was the only one of the two who would attend the pre-competition briefings, and he was nondescript at best. I don't even remember what he looked like. I can barely recall his voice, as he was describing to the other semifinalists his script about contractual employees.
It took a number of months for my friend and I to somehow recover from our exclusion in the final 10. After seeing this movie though, I think I can now achieve some sort of catharsis. If Cinemalaya 2007 were full of movies like this, then our script had no business being in the film fest.
ENDO is an intelligently written movie about the lives of people forced to bounce around a service industry designed for short-term employment. Whereas the old guard of Philippine Independent Cinema would have used this subject matter for a predictable socio-political commentary on the evils of capitalism, Jade Castro focuses instead on human relationships. By going micro as opposed to macro, the filmmaker is able to tell so much more about the lives of the common Pinoy.
Our hero is Leo - fastfood clerk turned department store salesperson, turned promodizer, turned waiter, ad-infinitum, and full-time disgruntled son, brother, and lover. With his life revolving around transcience, he has learned to downgrade his expectations and ambitions. The money in his alkansya come and go. So do the women in his life.
Then comes Tanya, a cheery shoe saleslady, single-mindedly determined to permanently leave the temporariness of life in the Philippines to work abroad. Leo falls in love with her. Oh not another one. But could this one last this time?
Jason Abalos gives a sympathetic, if effortless performance as Leo. He gives off enough awkwardness in his every movement and speech to give his character enough credibility. You're absolutely sure you've seen him before in SM or in Ever; one of those people whose self-confidence seem to parallel their job security.
But the true revelation in the film is Ina Feleo as Tanya. She's beautiful but not movie-star-beautiful. There is enough plainness about her to temper her radiance. She tiptoes gracefully between her character's emotions and its role as the lead character's muse. Yes, she seems like someone who could inspire you, but she still looks like someone who has been beaten down by years of menial, contractual work.
Of course it also helps that they get to say lines that are pitch perfect. In the movie's climactic exchange, the script manages to be poignant, dramatic, pragmatic, real, and funny ALL AT THE SAME TIME. The rest of the movie is not so bad either.
Numerous praises for this movie have already come out, but I'm honestly not sure if people really get how absolutely GREAT this movie is. Almost every single thing that is wrong with Philippine Cinema finds its antithesis in ENDO. Over-the-top acting? See Ina and Jason. Unrealistic "Pinoy Movie" dialogue? Jade Castro and Michiko Yamamoto says bye-bye to it. Melodrama? Please. Heavy-handed politics? Jade and Michiko tells people to grow up. Forced, awkward humor? Misrepresentation of the lower-middle class? Pretentious over-seriousness? None. Nada. Na-ah.
THIS IS the pinoy movie I've been wanting to see (and have been wanting to make) for so long. It breezes along gracefully, yet it effectively captures the universal Pinoy feeling of being trapped in a situation long enough for you to just give up. Then something happens that gives you hope, however false. Then it goes away, and you're trapped again. Only, because you ARE Pinoy, you get to smile at the end of the day, turn up the volume on the stereo and dance to your favorite song.
The real achievement of ENDO is how it squeezed out existentialism and poetry from such a mundane and oft-overlooked aspect of Pinoy life. And that's why the movie is ultimately comforting, despite its semi-tragic ending: because for a couple of hours, our ugly lives aren't so ugly anymore. Someone has finally produced moving art out of it. As Leo tells Tanya: "Ang pangit ng mundo, pero natitiis ko pag kasama kita".
ENDO may not have the makings of THE Great Pinoy Movie; it's too small and modest. But what makes it great is its modesty, much like the characters it portrays. And that is so Pinoy.
When I watched the movie last Friday in Gateway, there were probably no more than 12 of us in the theater. That's right. What could possibly be the best local movie, no - best movie of the year is being watched by a dozen people at a time.
But of course I'm used to this kind of disappointment. I am Pinoy after all.
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