Trends of the week
2014 MMFF offers hope for 2015
MANILA, Philippines - If the Metro Manila Film Festival is representative of the film industry’s pulse in any way, then we can probably conclude the following: Kris Aquino is somehow still relevant, Vice Ganda is still the most popular celebrity alive, Vic Sotto fatigue may finally be happening, and the year of Antoinette Jadaone (pictured) was also a big year for the Pinoy rom-com. Once virtually monopolized by Star Cinema, the romantic comedy genre is now being almost single-handedly updated by Jadaone, with her comedy that is very much grounded in everyday Pinoy life. English Only, Please, for which she won best screenplay, was a wonderful encore for a year that saw four of her films released (the other three are That Thing Called Tadhana, Relaks, It’s Just Pag-ibig, and Beauty in a Bottle). Underused Jennylyn Mercado looked absolutely at home in a Manic Pixie Dream Girl role and so did Derek Ramsay as a heartbroken Cameron Crowe male hero. If 2014 offered us a glimpse of the new mainstream Pinoy cinema, then we can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store for us.
Tragic year in air travel gets weirder
As if two aviation mishaps in the same year weren’t weird enough, racing through the 2014 finish line was another airplane disappearing, this time an Air Asia flight 8501 en route to Singapore. If you’re a firm believer in the law of averages like we are, and if last year’s incidents were indeed anomalous and not indicative of a troubling trend, then we could be looking into years, perhaps decades, of air travel safety. That’s not unreasonable to think, right? Right?
2015 greeted with explosions, blood
After a momentary decline in fireworks-related injuries in past New Year’s celebrations, the number has soared over the last few years. This fireworks revival has to be the most annoying retro phenomenon of the last few years, worse than acid wash jeans, shaved sides, and synth-pop; at least Haim doesn’t cause pollution and severed fingers. Yet, here we are, watching hours of news footage of bloodied body parts that somehow fail to scare some people straight, leading to more footage of bloodied body parts in the following years. Maybe this is the year it finally works, and when it does, we finally get to enjoy that short respite in the cycle before we loop back into the smoky violence of our habits.
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What are your top trends this week? Tweet us @PhilStarSUPREME.
