Daily TribuneNow on its 10th year, QCinema opens with a bang: Ruben Östlund’s satirical ‘Triangle of Sadness,’ the 2022 Cannes Palm d’Or winner featuring Filipino actor Dolly de Leon in a breakout role
TIMOTHEE Chalamet and Taylor Russell in Bones and All. | PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.
CHAI Fonacier in Nocebo. | PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF IMDB
Cherie Gil and Miguel Faustmann in Elehiya. | PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF QCINEMA
Chieko Baisho in Plan 75. | PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LOADED FILMS
I'm counting the days till QCinema premieres on 17 November. It's a break from the monotony of low-brow entertainment, a joyous interruption from mediocre movies on streaming platforms.
The festival brings together the buzziest local and foreign movies — a balm to my tired, bored soul.
Now on its 10th year, QCinema opens with a bang: Ruben Östlund's satirical Triangle of Sadness, 2022 Cannes Palm d'Or winner featuring Filipino actor Dolly de Leon in a breakout role.
The two-hour-and-a-half comedy follows two fashion models joining a luxury cruise for the obscenely wealthy. The boat gets stranded on a desert island. I can't wait to laugh and think.
I'm also curious about Bones and All, pegged as a "cannibal romance." I'm not much into fantasy gore (I don't get queasy, I just have a tendency to get bored by horror), but this one is from the celebrated Italian director Luca Guadagnino, who directed the overhyped gay love story Call Me by Your Name that gave Timothée Chalamet his break.
Chalamet is a talented actor. In Bones and All, which is also a coming-of-age, horror road-trip movie, he plays Lee, who falls in love with a survivalist, Maren. It's based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Camille DeAngelis.
Other favorite actors are also in the cast, like Mark Rylance and Chloë Sevigny. It had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September where it won the Silver Lion for best direction.
On my watchlist, too, is Nocebo, Lorcan Finnegan's Filipino-Irish psychological thriller starring Eva Green and Filipino actor Chai Fonacier as an evil caretaker. Watching the trailer, I was turned off that Fonacier was made to talk with the stereotypical Filipino accent; hence the "performance" feel. Nevertheless, I'm still excited.
Cherie Gil's last film, Elehiya, is in the program. As a tribute to the late great actor, Loy Arcenas' drama is a must-see. It is competing in the Asian New Wave Section, and I have high expectations because Arcenas directed the Metro Manila Film Festival 2017 Best Picture, Ang Larawan, which I highly enjoyed.
The Japanese drama and Cannes-winning Plan 75 by Chie Hayakawa, starring Chieko Baisho, Hayato Isomura and Stefanie Arianne, will also compete in the Asian New Wave. Selected as the Japanese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, I wouldn't miss this as well.
Wittily dubbed "in10City," this year's QCinema is very intense indeed. Running from 17 to 26 November in cinemas and online, the festival boasts seven sections and a total of 58 films. I'm so glad I'm near Quezon City.
