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Catch ‘That Thing Called Tadhana’

MANILA, Philippines - Whether or not you’ll be alone this Valentine’s Day, it’s in your best interest to catch That Thing Called Tadhana. The Cinema One Originals favorite is enjoying a theatrical release this week, and it couldn’t come soon enough. Directed by Antoinette Jadaone (who wrote English Only, Please), this love story stars Angelica Panganiban and JM de Guzman as two individuals who venture to Sagada to mend their broken hearts.

What made this film critically loved was its lack of kilig and the Grand Gesture, instead allowing the two leads to open up to each other slowly, gradually, the way you and I, and the rest of humanity, fall in love. This rom-com that sets aside emotional fireworks in favor of quiet depth is more substantial, more real, and entertaining to watch. Sometimes it’s not the swoon-worthy one-liners or the extravagant courtship. Sometimes it’s just that thing — tadhana.

See Brazilian films at Instituto Cervantes

Think of Brazil and instantly you think of Victoria’s Secret Angels and caipirinhas by the beach in Rio or Bahia. Films aren’t necessarily top of mind, but Instituto Cervantes’s film cycle Cine Brasileño hopes to change that.

Each Saturday in February, Instituto Cervantes (855 T.M. Kalaw St., Ermita) will play recent Brazilian films. For its launch today, they will screen Danyella Proença’s Braxilia, a documentary based on Nicolas Behr’s poetry on Brasilia. The director will present the film, and conduct an open forum after. It will be followed by Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness, an adaptation of José Saramago’s novel about a community that suffers from white blindness. This adaptation was so successful that it received more than 30 nominations in different award-giving bodies. In the following weeks, we recommend Guel Arraes’ Romance (Feb. 14), where two actors fall in love while staging Tristan and Isolde; and Jorge Durán’s Proibido proibir (Forbidden to forbid) (Feb. 28), which follows three well-off friends in Rio de Janeiro as their lives change when they visit one of the city’s most infamous favelas (slums). These films may not have Angels, but you can still have those caipirinhas as you marvel at the cinema of Brazil.

Pick a side in‘Defending the Caveman’

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. In Defending the Caveman, comedian Joel Trinidad tries to settle the battle of the sexes in this Broadway one-man standup comedy, lecture and therapy session. Written by Rob Becker, its theories and perspective (from a man, of course) are interesting, and may even have a touch of truth in it. This weekend and the next, Broadway’s longest-running solo standup comedy show will be back in Manila at Onstage Theater (Greenbelt 1) to conclude once and for all: which sex is better? Bring your partner to this show, but men, make sure you’re in a “safe zone.”

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