Popular reviews

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  Review by Marcissus ★★★★★ 10

  oh to watch this film without FILM FESTIVAL COMMITTEE VIEWING ONLY slapped over the front of it

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  Review by Hibiscus ★★★★★ 4

  I just found what might be my favorite Lav Diaz film, and as far as I'm concerned, his masterpiece.

  A perfect mix of different influences, an unmistakable atmosphere and perfect cinematography.

  I have a dream of starting a company, just to be able to restore and sell films like these in the best quality imaginable. Hopefully it'll happen, but until then, I guess poor VHS-rips will do.

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  Review by nat ★★★★ 13

  Lav Diaz's "first" feature film, Batang West Side, is a gritty neo-noir set against the frosty streets of New Jersey; delivering its heavy-hearted narrative with meticulous force thanks to its elaborately integrated flashback structure, while its story revolves around a detective who is forced to confront his past when investigating the death of a Filipino teenager.

  Diaz crafts a thorough (and somewhat equivocal) examination of contemporary Filipino society, delving into inner turmoil, family, neglect, addiction, and grief, to name a few themes in this dense portrait of injustices. The film reflects on the country's past and future by dissecting its subject and intertwining storylines. It's a collective canvas of humanity and who we are as people, a film that gradually…

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  Review by Noël ★★★★★ 27

  I have reached 1000th film according to letterboxd.

  This has been a great journey in my life with all these film I've seen. I've seen some great films some bad ones but those are all opinions at the end of the day. I don't care how old, long or what language a film is at long is it's good or entertaining.

  Films has been a big part of my life. Without film I wouldn't have been the person I have been today. I get inspired by films, it makes me look different on life, without film I wouldn't probably have been here.
  Films has really helped me through highs and lows in my life, film is my escapism if I'm…

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  Review by Shaswata Ray ★★★★★ 1

  96/100

  Everybody starts somewhere. And this is where Lavrente Indico Diaz started, right here with his first feature film Batang West Side. That isn’t entirely correct. He did make three commercial flicks with Regal Entertainment before Batang (and one after), but one can be forgiven to not consider them a part of Diaz’s filmography because they were, in the words of Dr Marco Grosoli, “ultra-low-budget, fairly unremarkable (and heavily recut by the company) “pito-pito” films (“seven-seven”: seven days of shooting, seven of post-production).” In other words, these four films were essentially studio productions where Diaz was merely a tool to follow orders and didn’t have any kind of freedom to execute his personal vision. They may belong to Regal Entertainment…

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  Review by henry ★★★★★ 11

  i’ve been sitting here for an entire week trying to review this. trying to find the right words to describe and give this masterpiece the credit it deserves. but i can’t. i’m just speechless and i have no idea what to even say other than this: i couldn’t recommend this enough, this is one of the most emotionally powerful experiences i’ve ever had. thank you Lav Diaz.

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  Review by louis ★★★★★ 5

  I watched this from 11am to 4pm in pretty much 1 sitting and only Lav Diaz could’ve kept my attention the entire time, I’m not really too sure what to say with this and I’ve been trying to write a review for the past 30m. Apart from that it’s one of my new favourite films ever I don’t have anything else that definitive in words (so this might be a little bloated with repetition.)

  It’s very reminiscent of The Wire and weirdly enough Twin Peaks: FWWM (kinda hard to explain but just has a similar feel). The writing doesn’t have any faults that it could have easily fallen for when trying to achieve in making something as emotionally established in…

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  Review by Alex 🌲 ★★★★½

  A mystery which gradually spreads to the very heart of the Filipino-American community. The initial focus is a teenager's killing and a detective's investigation, yet the plot spirals, divulging into the lives of nearly everyone involved and affected. While it may be a given with any mystery/drama of this length, it's incredibly thorough. Judged as detective fiction alone this is already outstanding, yet it transforms into a fascinating cultural study. Even with pacing errors every now and then the film is always captivating and, most of all, entirely fulfilling.

  Diaz has proclaimed this his first real film, and while his style was still visibly developing, it's remarkable for a "debut". The documentary-esque portions are slightly rough around the edges (e.g.…

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  Review by erik reeds ★★★★½

  something interesting about this is that it's, well, amateurish. the acting is spotty at best, a good chunk of dialogue clunky, parts here and there stretch for far too long, and yet at the end of the day it's a film whose whole is just a mammoth entity of talent. diaz's film navigates structural injustices deliberately and, more importantly, mournfully in such a way that very few directors are able to do, and a large part of this is due to how patient the pacing is. but even moreso, a perhaps underrated trait of diaz, is how he frames peoples' expressions. there's a heartbeat of love in every frame of this, in spite of whatever pain so clearly emanates from…

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  Review by soulers ★★★★★ 5

  99

  Got to watch the remastered version of this! Holy shit. incredible. i hate saying "i have no words" but wow im finding it hard to come up with them.
  in the entire 5 hours of film, I can think of 2 times when I was uninterested. Lav is a fucking master of his craft. I can see this definitely being his most "conventional" film considering that it has music, takes aren't extremely long and follows a relatively tight narrative. the cinematography is extremely impressive, such a beautiful film to look at.
  so happy I paid the €3.50 to watch this, it was 100% worth it. im glad that the restored versions are getting some releases, hopefully this film will get a proper release. if this got a criterion I'd be so happy because its so deserving of it. worth the 5 hours

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  Review by Lee 💫HEAVEN SURROUNDS US LIKE A HOOD 💫 ★★★★½ 3

  imagine dropping a work this expansive, this existing-beyond-its-own-borders, as your first feature

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  Review by Sudhakar Kumar ★★★★★

  It is one of the most important film after the millennium. It's quite sad it's not getting the attention it deserves.

  The film is elegant in its visual austerity, something that has since then defined Diaz's unique brand of aesthetics, which is always reflective of the crises that his characters seek salvation from. Diaz's editing is pitch perfect with scenes that extend to several minutes precisely to immerse the audience into the film's disparate reality.

  Is Batang West Side appealing because it's the most easy to digest? Definitely, Batang West Side is appealing because it's easy to digest. However, is it really the easiest to digest? I'd give that to Heremias with its straightforward narrative and its universal themes.

  I'd tend to say that this is Diaz's tightest work, where the editing, the acting, the visuals, the music mix into something unforgettable.