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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

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Saturday, February 01, 2025

entry arrow2:23 AM | I'm Outta Here

Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here [2024], which is up for Best Picture at the Oscars, is basically the Brazilian Dekada ‘70 [2002], with Fernanda Torres taking on the Vilma Santos role. Torres as Eunice Paiva is a stalwart saint from beginning to end, and while the role is acted to brilliant pieces, it doesn’t make for good characterization, or propulsive storytelling because she has no arc. [And what is up with that ending? Sure, that's Fernando Montenegro, whom I love in Central Station, swapping in for the role with her real-life daughter, but what is that ending?] Meanwhile, Santos’ Amanda Bartolome goes from mousy and uncaring-about-current-events housewife and mother to fierce activist in the course of the film, which actually make for good cinema, and a good arc, enriched in a way only the late Lualhati Bautista could conjure a complex female character. I think I like Chito Roño’s film better. And I wish Philippine cinema had a better PR machine even then to get similar acclaim worldwide.



P.S. I think I will stop watching movies for a few days. I’m just annoyed at everything that I see. September 5 and Nickel Boys were immense disappointments, Conclave and A Complete Unknown were nice but underwhelming. I don’t like Emilia Perez, and I found Anora brilliant and funny but ultimately empty and glib without a real awareness of how the real world works. The only Best Picture nominees I really liked are Dune Part 2, The Substance, and Wicked. I also really love A Real Pain, but they didn’t nominate that one for the big prize. And, no, The Brutalist does not exist. [Is it even out?] The only fantastic category at the Oscars this year is Best Animated Feature. Walang patapon: Flow, The Wild Robot, Memoir of a Snail, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, and Inside Out 2 — and would you believe the last one is the least of them all.

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