O Desabrochar de Maximo Oliveros

This film tells the story of a young effeminate boy from a criminal family, who falls for a hunky local policeman in a deprived part of Manila.

A young transvestite boy, possibly transgendered as well,falling in love with a policeman. And it is hinted that the policeman has equal feelings towards him too! I would have thought such a topic should be taboo. The family is so accepting of Maximos that I find it really touching. I am quite in awe that the Filipino society is so accepting of the gay and transgender people.

As for the film, they use loads of natural lighting almost exclusively, so scenes are too dark most of the time. There is even a scene when the family watches TV without lights on! And they did not use a wide enough lens to film scenes in the house either. But these are only minor issues. The main thing is that the story itself is beautiful and brutal at the same time. "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" is quite an eye opener for me.

I saw this at the San Francisco Film Festival... it is really a beautifully done film that has both good laughs and good drama. It is amazing that this film was produced for about $10,000 US and was shot in 13 days in the director's own hometown neighborhood. This film will surprise you with its frankness and honesty, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I've seen plenty of boring and trite or irrelevant films at film festivals. This film is certainly worthy of your time and may change the way you look at poverty, at gay people, and at the nature of families and the love of parent and child, sibling and sibling. It is also a wonderful "barrio" film in the tradition of "Macho Dancer," but I think it does that film one better. I would definitely see this movie once or twice again. It is easily as good as any Hollywood film.

Although the main character is gay, this is not a gay film. The beauty of the film is that it does not make fun of the gay character. Maxi is well-loved and accepted by his family and the community.

There is plenty of humor but this light treatment of the story does not at all trivialize the message that the film wants to bring across to the audience. Scriptwriter Michiko Yamamoto who also wrote the award-winning "Magnifico" has improved her skill in storytelling and is not at all melodramatic this time. She has done away with subplots that don't move the main story much, a weakness of many Filipino scriptwriters who want to tell everything, including the entire history of the Philippines, in one movie. Her characters are all balanced – no one is all-evil or all-saint. The most touching scenes are those that show the tenderness of Maxi's tough-guy family to him. However, there are technical glitches that need to be fixed, and with digital technology editing may still be possible, e.g. scenes that are too dark or the screen going black for too long, making the oldies in the audience worry that perhaps the "lagarista" has been caught in traffic with the next roll of film. It is not often that Filipinos abroad get to see a rare gem like this film. Thanks to digital film-making and indie cinema and the film festivals in many countries.

Regardless the controversial topic and my non-knowledge of the reality of those events (for example, volume of corruption within police and acceptance of gays in the Phillippines), as for a film as such, it was skilfully accomplished: good/great performances by major actors, versatile direction and appropriate choice of music made Ang pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros a smooth watch.

Due to limited space and time, however, the film had several documentary elements, and several events happening in the dark did not allow to follow them carefully (perhaps by virtue of modest technology used?). Thus, not a total contentment for me, but definitely a distinguishing and challenging creation to be screened in various festivals.

Absolutely delightful film, its story centering around Maxi (Nathan Lopez), a beguiling 12 year old boy who wants to be a girl, and his various flirtations, including an unlikely one with a rookie cop on the neighborhood beat. Maxi's Dad and two older brothers are criminal lowlifes capable of very bad deeds, including murder, but they are entirely devoted to Maxi, who cooks and keeps house for them (Mom died a few years before). The feeling is mutual: as Maxi says, there may be a lot of crooked people around, but he's only got one Dad.

The film is chock full of arresting street scenes in metropolitan Manila, and intriguing tensions among the principals. It is most refreshing to see loving, tender feelings binding a marginal family together, rather than the usual melodramatic dysphoria that infects, but does not inform, many movies about the underclass. (This year's "Quinceañera" is another film that plays up the positive aspects of family life in L.A.'s Echo Park Mexican-American barrio.) An exotic, spellbinding, bounteous bouquet of a film. Won several awards at the Berlin and Cinemalaya Film Festivals, among others, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Award this year at Sundance. (In Filipino, Tagalog & English) My grades: 8.5/10, A- (Seen on 11/21/06)