Movie Review of MANUEL MUÑOZ RIVAS' The Sea Stares at Us From Afar with Bisaya Films

PRESENTED BY

AND

PROBLEM:

Juan de Filipino, is a Cebuano and a Filipino, who looks for Lav Diaz movies anywhere he can, because he believes it is already established that 99% of Lav Diaz' movies found on Mubi are what may be unrightfully labelled as pretentious films by others, but Juan has labelled it for himself, meta tagged it, filed under a Dropbox folder, to be High Level Cinema or Important Visual Poetry That Will Make You Feel The Feels You From Now On Will Live For.

And yes, Juan is aware and wants to be of virtue when indulging with his feelings. It is his criteria to only go for pleasure if he finds it according to nature, not an excess, and definitely not of an illness, madness or sin. 

Juan also thinks that each scene of Lav's movie is a killer and will make him feel something he couldn't feel from watching any of Michael Bay's films; feel something he likens to a quarter of an actual orgasm, an elation usually felt when he sees a woman that rouses his senses; feel something from seeing two people in love kissing in the cheek, and considering that Lav Diaz scene is just a sunset. Also, there's no more Lav Diaz scene to watch. 

What can he do?

SUGGESTIONS:

1. He can watch MANUEL MUÑOZ RIVAS' The Sea Stares At Us From Afar

because Yours Truly did and this I can say: it made me say out loud, during watching its scenes, words like: "Oh wow. Just wow. Finally something I can watch to get that feeling from watching an 8-hour-long Lav diaz film" with goosebumps threading the insides of my chest, and this just by looking at sand moving down some rocks in the movie. Saying The Sea Stares At Us is a moving movie isn't moving enough. 

STILL FROM: MANUEL MUÑOZ RIVAS' The Sea Stares at Us From Afar

If Juan de Filipino also wanted to feel once again what he might have felt in Lav Diaz' 2014 Mula sa kung ano ang noon, then The Sea Stares at Us is his next  fix. The Sea is not a movie for Juan if he wants a real story because it's 99% atmosphere so beautifully shot you could argue it is made by nature herself. 

It's a movie for people who love Leos Carax' Holy Motors despite not understanding it, other than it makes them. feel. something so primitive and just to the core. So it's all the feels. And stunning cinematography. And poetry. Just like Lav Diaz', nature and most of Bisaya Films' work. Needless to say, I will be watching it again. Let's watch it again on Mubi.

2. He can watch a Bisaya Film for the very same reasons.

Complete movie review can be found on Bisaya Films' Patreon. Click HERE.