maxi_oliveros

ANG PAGDADALAGA NI MAXIMO OLIVEROS
Year - 2005 - 100min - Feature - Color
AKA - The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros
Director - Auraeus Solito

Genre / Type - Drama, Gay & Lesbian Films, Coming-of-Age, Family Drama
Keywords - boy, criminal, devotion [dedication], family, friendship, kindness, police-officer
Themes - Inner City Blues, Questioning Sexuality
Tones - Warm, Compassionate, Understated
Moods - Only Human
Produced by - Cinemalaya Foundation / UFO Films
Release - Sep 22, 2006 (USA - Limited)

Cast

Nathan Lopez - Maxi
JR Valentin -- Victor
Soliman Cruz
Neil Ryan Sese
Ping Medina
Bodjie Pascua

Awards

29th Urian Awards (2006)
Best Picture
Michiko Yamamoto - Best Screenplay
Best Cinematography - Nap Jamir III
Best Editing - Clarence Sison and Kanakan Balintagos
22nd PMPC Awards For Movies (2006)
New Movie Actor of the Year: NATHAN LOPEZ
Digital Film Director of the Year: AUREUS
Digital Film of the Year
Berlin International Film Festival
20th Anniversary Teddy Award for Best Feature Film
Kinderfest Grand Prize International Jury Grand Prize
Second prize Kinder (Children's) Jury award
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival
Best Picture
Best Actor - Nathan Lopez
Other Recognitions
Best Asin Film - Rotterdam International Film Festival
Best Film - CineMalaya International Film Festival, Manila
Best First Film - Montreal World Film Festival
Best Picture - imagiNATIVE Film Festival, Toronto
Best Picture - Asian Festival of First Films, Singapore
Best Film - Turin International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Film Presented - Sundance Film Festival
Official Entry - 79th Oscar Awards Best Foreign Language Film Category
Opening Film - New Directors/New York Film Festival

Plot Synopsis

An effeminate 12-year-old who dutifully plays mother to his criminal father and older siblings experiences a crisis of conscience after befriending an honest Manila cop in the sophomore feature from director Auraeus Solito. A young innocent whose devotion to his family finds him taking the place of his own deceased mother, Maxi spends most of his days cooking and doing the household chores. In the evening hours, Maxi can often be found on the streets shopping and taking in a film at the local DVD stand with the many homeless children who seek a momentary escape from their bleak existence. When Maxi is rescued from a group of local thugs late one night by kindly rookie police officer Victor, his attraction to the kind-hearted and trustworthy Victor soon finds him torn between the criminal behavior of his family and his desire to follow a more honorable path in life.

Reviews

JOHN ANDERSON
Newsday.com
September 22, 2006

Director Aureaus Solito can't quite maintain the casual virtuosity of his film's opening moments - in which a group of gay preteen Manilans mount a mini-Miss Universe pageant - but the intent is seduction, and it works.

The title character, Maxi (the remarkable Nathan Lopez) is a pretty preadolescent whose gayness may as well be a neon birthmark. He serves as housekeeper and shirt-mender to his father (a terrific Soliman Cruz) and brothers (Neil Ryan Sese, Ping Medina), who are petty gangsters and kingpins of their Manila slum - so when Maxi develops a crush on a crusading policeman named Victor (J.R. Valentin), the mascara hits the fan.

DENNIS HARVEY
Variety's

This review was updated on Jan. 30, 2006.
Auraeus Solito's first narrative feature "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" is an unusually low-key Filipino drama whose neo-realist air generally triumphs over the script's violent, tearful contrivances. Worthy of further fest (especially gay fest) attention, pic will nonetheless prove a difficult sell offshore, where the 12-year-old protag's cross-dressing precocity and his relationship with a hunky policeman may cause more discomfort than amusement.

Maxi (impressive newcomer Nathan Lopez) is youngest child of widower Paca (Soliman Cruz). Like nearly everyone in their Manila slum, Paca, moody Boy (Neil Ryan Sese) and antic middle son Bogs (Ping Medina) survive outside of the legal economic grid -- selling stolen cell phones, placing bets, etc. Occasionally teased but mostly accepted as a girl in a boy's body, super-femme Maxi dropped out of school to be surrogate "wife," cooking, cleaning and fussing over everyone. He's smitten with handsome rookie cop Victor (JR Valentin), who takes him under his wing -- platonically, though vibe is near-romantic at times. When Boy kills a student during a bungled robbery, however, Maxi is caught between protecting his kin and Victor. Persuasive perfs and location usage highlight diverting tale.

DENNIS LIM
The Village Voice
September 19th, 2006 12:30 PM

This year's Cavite undertakes a hectic tour of the dire squatter camps and garbage mountains on the outskirts of Manila; now comes a somewhat more buoyant portrait of Filipino slum life, further evidence of a mini renaissance in the country's long dormant cinema. Twelve-year-old Maximo (Nathan Lopez) is an incongruous vision of lipsticked, hip-swiveling fabulousness. Treating shantytown back alleys as pageant catwalks, the kid is pure flaming flamboyance: a boldly conspicuous outsider in the gritty 'hood. Maxi plays doting mother hen to his family of petty-crook tough guys; his father and brothers, in turn, are not only tolerant but touchingly protective. All is improbably well, until the youngster's undisguised attraction to a hunky cop (JR Valentin) sparks tensions at home. The slide into crime melodrama isn't as persuasive as the film's realist textures, or for that matter its clear-eyed depiction of coming-of-age emotions. In much the same fashion as Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, Auraeus Solito's feature debut confronts the taboo of pre-teen sexuality with a startling mix of openness and sensitivity. No less than precocious Maxi, the film is alarming, endearing, and utterly unflappable.

KEVIN THOMAS
Los Angeles Times
September 29, 2006

"The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" is one of the finest Filipino films, shimmering with folkloric charm without softening its view of the harshness and injustice of a life of poverty. Sophisticated in its ease and spontaneity, it was directed with clarity and rigor by Auraeus Solito from Michiiko Yamamoto's acutely perceptive script.

There's so much color and vitality on Gulpit Street in the Sampaloc neighborhood of Manila, it's as inviting as Olvera Street. Such a picturesque setting belies the poverty and crime entrenched beneath its surface. The bustling Gulpit has modest shops with apartments above, and it is home to Maxi (Nathan Lopez), the happiest 12-year-old gay kid one is likely ever to meet.
The slender Maxi understands that he is gay and it doesn't bother him because it doesn't much bother anyone else in his neighborhood. He is blessed with a profoundly loving father, the burly widowed Paco (Soliman Cruz), and equally loving older brothers Boy (Neil Ryan Sese) and Bogs (Ping Medina). While hardly spacious, the family's apartment is sunny and comfortable, happily well-kept by Maxi, who also cooks for the family and does its mending.

There's a hitch to this idyll, however, for Paco and his older sons are petty crooks. After losing his wife, for whom he could not afford to provide proper medical care, Paco realizes bitterly that he cannot support his family as a factory worker, so he hawks stolen cellphones on the street. One evening as he is walking home, Maxi is mugged but quickly rescued by a brand-new cop on the beat, the handsome but hard-nosed Victor (JR Valentin). He takes a paternal interest in Maxi, who responds by falling in love, his first experience with those emotions. Well-meaning Victor really doesn't understand how to handle a gay kid's crush yet wants to be a positive influence. The film's enticing mood of carefree joy swiftly darkens and grows complex, building to a strong, satisfying conclusion.

The Philippines' submission for the 2006 foreign-language film Oscar, "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" is a unique coming-of-age film, for Maxi is such an intriguing mix of the streetwise and the innocent, self-aware yet emotionally vulnerable. Solito's ability to inspire such a daring, unself-conscious portrayal from Lopez is no less than astonishing.

The film's graceful, richly hued cinematography and its beguiling score contribute crucially toward the making of a distinctive and outstanding achievement.