Movie Review: Unfriend is Unsettling

If you're still planning to watch Unfriend, don't read on because I'm giving a hint as to what happens in the end for one of the guys in the movie.

Except for the three fresh-faced guys in the movie, whom you'll see making out in different scenes throughout the movie, I'd have to warn you that the movie is a bit of a downer. I am always mystified as to why local gay cinema would always portray Pinoy gay men as tragic characters. 

The word gay was introduced I think in the 90s and it means happy, but majority of the local movies made about gay men (even foreign ones) portray us as mentally unhinged, needy, creepy, emotionally unstable people and someone always has to die in the end.  Even in the Oscar-winning movie, Brokeback Mountain, Jake Gyllenhall's character had to die a horrible death!! 

Like because you are gay, you have to be punished by a horrible death - at least that's what the world of gay cinema has been subliminally showing gay people.  As if we needed more persecution, now that Putin and the government of Uganda and Iran want to eradicate us from the face of the earth.

Anyway, the movie is well-made, by local gay cinema standards.  There is actually a story, and characters, and Boots Anson-Roa to give it some class and integrity.  The boys can actually act and make out like they really like each other - and the way it's shot is like Black Swan where everything is very near the face of the one being shot.  Maybe to make it appear realistic and gritty.  The movie also uses music effectively, which I think is rare in local cinema.

I admit I too was surprised by the swift turn of events and how quickly the main character decided to just end it all that way.  Oh well, it did happen in real life.  I think they patterned the story of this movie after that suicide pact of two gay men in a mall in Pampanga a few years back.  I may be mistaken but I'm sure that incident had some influence on the story of this movie. 

Bravo though to the filmmakers for having this movie screened at the Berlinale, probably the most snooty film festivals of them all!  I can see why the screening committee there liked this movie.  They always like their movies there to be dark and gritty.