lynnfriedman

Whew, just in time. If you're a hard core Gleek you already know how awesome Journey is. When the band needed to find a new lead singer to replace Steve Perry, little did they know they would become international icons of world peace and all things warm and fuzzy. Thus begins a real life fairy tale. Our story begins with Arnel, living an impoverished life in Manila. This is serious unrelenting poverty. When his mother died the family spun out of control. They had to sell their television, fridge, and furniture in exchange for her medical care. When the money ran out they were kicked out of their home. Dad took the two younger kids and at age thirteen Arnel was on his own. He would sing at funerals for biscuits, sleeping in the park with the other homeless kids. Eventually Arnel got a gig singing with a Journey tribute band. On the other side of the globe, dinking around YouTube, Journey's lead guitarist Neil discovers our young signer, pops him an email and poof, off Arnel goes on a plane to LA. He gets the job. Fast forward to his first gig in 2008 in front of 18,000 people plus 25 million South Americans grooving to the live simulcast. We shadow Arnel as he works through his total fear, not that you would know watching him. He never ran out of air while singing, jumping and running for joy around the stage. Arnel can now buy his family a nice home in the Philippines, bringing them all together again. We see that his values are solid. It's all about family, no room for the excesses that take down so many American stars. Arnel speaks to the camera, telling us that life is full of mystery, he lives in a castle now, all is well, problems will come and go. You gain, you lose, that's how life is. This guy is for real. This story is real. What a high to know that Arnel is out there somewhere in the world, still touring and putting smiles on thousands of faces. I don't think there's a word for ennui in the Filipino language.

Women side by side, looking at each other, relating to each other, different but the same inside.

We've got an old Portuguese woman with an iPad, her pierced face granddaughters, and goats. Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt's film is an elusory blend of classic and ultramodern, compassion and irony, all in the spirit of the famed Portuguese writer Jose Saramago. Life is pretty bleak in these parts and people don't talk much. No Mercedes problems here. Grandma doesn't have to lecture the girls on right and wrong or how to grow up into responsible women. Everything they need to know about life can be learned by the zen of tending goats.