MNL 143

**

Reviewed by: Scott Macdonald

MLN 143
"It's a thin and sketchy experience."

I'm not sure who would get the most from this picture. It's a strangely scripted film and almost entirely lacking in meaningful story.

We follow a mini-van taxi driver (Allan Paule) in Manila. He's got an interesting, expressive face. He exchanges jovial, likable chit-chat with other taxi drivers. We take on board many strange passengers: a foulmouthed devout Catholic lady; a chef who, on seeing a bare piece of scrotum poking out from another passenger's shorts, takes a picture on his camera phone, and uploads it to the internet. Dopey film students making their first masterpiece, three gay-as-a-maypole Filipino queens. It's a thin and sketchy experience.

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MNL143 is attractively photographed, in spite of spending about 80% of its runtime within the confines of the cab, using wide-angle fishbowl lenses. It has a very astutely captured sense of time and place. I became bored with its plotless, often meaningless existence.

Reviewed on: 25 Jun 2012
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A taxi driver picks up an assortment of quirky customers.

Director: Emerson Reyes

Writer: Emerson Reyes

Starring: Allan Paule, Joy Viado, Gardo Versoza, Lou Veloso, Sherry Lara, Ramon Bautista, Rener Concepcion, Catherine Cornell, Che Ramos, Earl Ignacio, Perry Dizon, Sheen Gener, Chris Pasturan, Max Celada, Patricia Festejo

Year: 2012

Runtime: 90 minutes

Country: Philippines

Festivals:

EIFF 2012

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