The Cinema Evaluation Board is all praises for Metro Manila Film Festival entry “Deadma Walking.”
The board gave the feature film debut of seasoned assistant director Julius Alfonso the coveted A grade which entitles it to a 100 percent rebate of its amusement taxes.
Calling it an “auspicious debut” for Alfonso, the CEB explains in its summation that the film is “brilliantly visualized and combines humor, drama and camp to come up with the right mix seldom seen in the yearend festival.”
“The comic timing and musical numbers give the film an engaging energy… The witty exchanges and believable characterization flesh out the superb storytelling through the plot’s varied twists and turns, with accent on friendship although attention to the varied nuances of gay culture is not glossed over,” it added.
The CEB went on to praise various aspects of the black comedy including the editing, cinematography, production design, musical score and the performances of the entire cast.
“The leads Edgar Allan Guzman and Joross Gamboa [are] obvious standouts with their rapport made more remarkable by the fact that they are not real life gay men,” the CEB further noted.
“That it was successfully transposed from a Palanca-award winning script to the screen is a triumph in itself… The dark, morbid subject matter treated lightly was altogether entertaining and engaging…The gay tragicomedy is different fare for the film fest and does not disappoint, a rarity because friendship takes precedence over sexuality, and makes viewer realize that though the two may be intertwined, they can also be separate blessings one apart from the other.”
Produced by T-Rex Entertainment and distributed by OctoArts Films, “Deadma Walking” is based on the Palanca-winning screenplay by Eric Cabahug. It is about a gay man named John (Joross Gamboa) who discovers he has stage four cancer and and with the help of his best friend, Mark (Edgar Allan Guzman) decides to fake his death so he can attend his own funeral.
The film opens in cinemas nationwide on December 25.