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Movie review: Depth in comedy in 'Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin'
I tend to think comedies one of our more wrought but rarely discussed film genres. The commercial productions after all reign supreme; successful independent comedy films are few and far between. It's also rare that these gain critical acclaim.
This is the context of “Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin,” which might be the most underrated film off the CineFilipino Filmfest, winning as it did none of its awards – not even original screenplay and script. One wonders what could be more original than this.
'Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin': a film about love, commitment and community, upending stereotypes along the way. Photos courtesy of the film's official Facebook account
Social class and stereotype
The premise of this story is the collective conclusion that we draw about a Pinay and a foreigner falling in love – that the Pinay is always the one with financial struggles, vis a vis the foreigner who has the money to spare, if not buy the next Pinay he sees. The daring of this film is how it engages with this stereotype, questioning its validity via the story of Cookie and Matchu (that's Matthew for you), and using comedy to put us all in our place.
Cookie (Tuesday Vargas) is your regular self-employed Pinay from the lower-middle class, living off deboning bangus so she might care for a young son without a father. Her nuclear family is in the province, and her friendships provide the comfort and laughter she needs . They're your regular bunch of slap-happy, happy-go-lucky Pinays in small businesses that allows them to survive, for whom love remains important; it is also a social class that allows them the freedom to talk about sex and to objectify men, no matter that they might not know the power in that.
The women from this social class would also believably go online to find love, on sites like kanoluvspinay.com, and get caught up in the good looks of the foreign men they see: there is no suspicion or fear. There is taking these images and well, taking these at face value.
This is what informs the kind of love that Cookie would find with Matchu (Travis Kraft), where the latter is also one to take everything with a grain of salt. Here, there is actual and real conversation between two very different people who come from disparate contexts; it is also conversation that is beyond sex and money, which is what the stereotype generally presumes. And yes, there is the question of a visa for Cookie, but going to the States is not something she wants, as it is what Matchu wants.
Isn't that such an up-yours to the stereotype of the gold digger that we throw the way of every other Pinay who's poorer than her boyfriend?
Second, the reality show within a movie
This story unfolds on reality TV mode, and the story begins in medias res: Cookie and Matchu are being featured as one of the successful matches of the kanoluvspinay website. They are talking about their love story, which justifies the film's use of the flashback as a tool.
It is rare that we do the flashback well in local film; “Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin” does it carefully and deliberately, not getting lost in the task of rewinding to the past, and consistently going back to the present as a place for reckoning. The use of the reality show allows for the he-said-she-said to actually work for this film, more than one has seen it in even the more successful local romantic-comedies.
Yet while these are funny moments for sure, Matchu and Cookie also reveal what love is like for them: they let certain things go, they compromise, they adjust. They get exasperated at times, make fun of each other for sure; but there is understanding and compassion. There is no dramatic conversation about money and a needy family, as there are two people independently-earning and offering to help each other out.
It's a lot like love as we would imagine it for you and me. This is the closest I've seen romantic love in Pinas being portrayed with honesty and sincerity. To say that it was real, is also to say that this was love between two people who had their differences, but for whom everything just fell into place.
Unraveling and commitment
Not to say that there is romanticizing love here. “Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin” shows the realities of love in general, of this love in particular, in this context. And so there are countless puns, as there is just the over-the-top reactions to everything by Cookie and her friends, as there is Matchu trying to keep track and take stock of the culture he is becoming a part of every day.
And yet it delivers more than the funnies, as it ably tackles the seriousness of commitment without missing a beat. For many of our comedies, the balance between crazy comedy and touching moments is one that's never struck; here, no time is wasted stretching the seriousness of say, the needs of Cookie's family in the province, or her brother's wayward ways. Neither is there a minute spent over-discussing the task of getting a visa, and Matchu's insistence that they go to America.
What the skillful writing of this film is able to do is delve into the complexities of relationships in general, of commitment in particular, given its decision to do it reality-show and flashback style. There is no moment that drags on, because there is fantastic editing that moves swiftly from one well-conceptualized moment to the next without losing the audience in the process.
That this unravels with Cookie trying her best to find a turkey for thanksgiving is a measure of the writing that allowed this film to be both absurd and real, the turkey its raison d' etre as it is the lead character's undoing. That it remained funny is the gift of this script, as it as about the talent of Vargas.
The premise of this story is the collective conclusion that we draw about a Pinay and a foreigner falling in love – that the Pinay is always the one with financial struggles, vis a vis the foreigner who has the money to spare, if not buy the next Pinay he sees. The daring of this film is how it engages with this stereotype, questioning its validity via the story of Cookie and Matchu (that's Matthew for you), and using comedy to put us all in our place.
Cookie (Tuesday Vargas) is your regular self-employed Pinay from the lower-middle class, living off deboning bangus so she might care for a young son without a father. Her nuclear family is in the province, and her friendships provide the comfort and laughter she needs . They're your regular bunch of slap-happy, happy-go-lucky Pinays in small businesses that allows them to survive, for whom love remains important; it is also a social class that allows them the freedom to talk about sex and to objectify men, no matter that they might not know the power in that.
The women from this social class would also believably go online to find love, on sites like kanoluvspinay.com, and get caught up in the good looks of the foreign men they see: there is no suspicion or fear. There is taking these images and well, taking these at face value.
This is what informs the kind of love that Cookie would find with Matchu (Travis Kraft), where the latter is also one to take everything with a grain of salt. Here, there is actual and real conversation between two very different people who come from disparate contexts; it is also conversation that is beyond sex and money, which is what the stereotype generally presumes. And yes, there is the question of a visa for Cookie, but going to the States is not something she wants, as it is what Matchu wants.
Isn't that such an up-yours to the stereotype of the gold digger that we throw the way of every other Pinay who's poorer than her boyfriend?
Second, the reality show within a movie
This story unfolds on reality TV mode, and the story begins in medias res: Cookie and Matchu are being featured as one of the successful matches of the kanoluvspinay website. They are talking about their love story, which justifies the film's use of the flashback as a tool.
It is rare that we do the flashback well in local film; “Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin” does it carefully and deliberately, not getting lost in the task of rewinding to the past, and consistently going back to the present as a place for reckoning. The use of the reality show allows for the he-said-she-said to actually work for this film, more than one has seen it in even the more successful local romantic-comedies.
Yet while these are funny moments for sure, Matchu and Cookie also reveal what love is like for them: they let certain things go, they compromise, they adjust. They get exasperated at times, make fun of each other for sure; but there is understanding and compassion. There is no dramatic conversation about money and a needy family, as there are two people independently-earning and offering to help each other out.
It's a lot like love as we would imagine it for you and me. This is the closest I've seen romantic love in Pinas being portrayed with honesty and sincerity. To say that it was real, is also to say that this was love between two people who had their differences, but for whom everything just fell into place.
Unraveling and commitment
Not to say that there is romanticizing love here. “Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin” shows the realities of love in general, of this love in particular, in this context. And so there are countless puns, as there is just the over-the-top reactions to everything by Cookie and her friends, as there is Matchu trying to keep track and take stock of the culture he is becoming a part of every day.
And yet it delivers more than the funnies, as it ably tackles the seriousness of commitment without missing a beat. For many of our comedies, the balance between crazy comedy and touching moments is one that's never struck; here, no time is wasted stretching the seriousness of say, the needs of Cookie's family in the province, or her brother's wayward ways. Neither is there a minute spent over-discussing the task of getting a visa, and Matchu's insistence that they go to America.
What the skillful writing of this film is able to do is delve into the complexities of relationships in general, of commitment in particular, given its decision to do it reality-show and flashback style. There is no moment that drags on, because there is fantastic editing that moves swiftly from one well-conceptualized moment to the next without losing the audience in the process.
That this unravels with Cookie trying her best to find a turkey for thanksgiving is a measure of the writing that allowed this film to be both absurd and real, the turkey its raison d' etre as it is the lead character's undoing. That it remained funny is the gift of this script, as it as about the talent of Vargas.
In search of a turkey.
Talent and comedy
This woman's take on Cookie proves her brilliance as an actress, and not just as a comedienne. Throughout the film Vargas is able to create Cookie into a multidimensional character, who is funny but real, seemingly exaggerated-in-love but is actually committed to the core, slap-happy and happy-go-lucky but absolutely serious about her relationships enough to cry about the more important things. Cookie is someone familiar and stereotypical, but who is also human and beyond stereotype.
Everybody else in that cast proved up to par with Vargas's verve and volume, including Kraft as Matchu, and Julia Clarete and Cai Cortez as the slap-happy friends. But the star of this film is its successful telling, where finally a local comedy tackles a Pinoy stereotype, tears it apart, and shows us all how wrong we could be – or how similar we are to that woman we point a finger at, that relationship that we are suspicious about by default. That it does so via comedy that happens in our everydays, is its power.
“Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin” gives us the depth that we rarely see in our comedies, if not in all of our films, independent and otherwise. One hopes that a movie-going public might prove that this kind of comedy – this kind of film – is exactly what we now deserve. — BM, GMA News
“Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin” is written Ronald Allan Habon and directed by Randolph Longjas, for this year's CineFilipino. Check their Facebook Page for additional screenings.
Katrina Stuart Santiago writes the essay in its various permutations, from pop culture criticism to art reviews, scholarly papers to creative non-fiction, all always and necessarily bound by Third World Philippines, its tragedies and successes, even more so its silences. She blogs at http://www.radikalchick.com. The views expressed in this article are solely her own.
This woman's take on Cookie proves her brilliance as an actress, and not just as a comedienne. Throughout the film Vargas is able to create Cookie into a multidimensional character, who is funny but real, seemingly exaggerated-in-love but is actually committed to the core, slap-happy and happy-go-lucky but absolutely serious about her relationships enough to cry about the more important things. Cookie is someone familiar and stereotypical, but who is also human and beyond stereotype.
Everybody else in that cast proved up to par with Vargas's verve and volume, including Kraft as Matchu, and Julia Clarete and Cai Cortez as the slap-happy friends. But the star of this film is its successful telling, where finally a local comedy tackles a Pinoy stereotype, tears it apart, and shows us all how wrong we could be – or how similar we are to that woman we point a finger at, that relationship that we are suspicious about by default. That it does so via comedy that happens in our everydays, is its power.
“Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin” gives us the depth that we rarely see in our comedies, if not in all of our films, independent and otherwise. One hopes that a movie-going public might prove that this kind of comedy – this kind of film – is exactly what we now deserve. — BM, GMA News
“Ang Turkey Man Ay Pabo Rin” is written Ronald Allan Habon and directed by Randolph Longjas, for this year's CineFilipino. Check their Facebook Page for additional screenings.
Katrina Stuart Santiago writes the essay in its various permutations, from pop culture criticism to art reviews, scholarly papers to creative non-fiction, all always and necessarily bound by Third World Philippines, its tragedies and successes, even more so its silences. She blogs at http://www.radikalchick.com. The views expressed in this article are solely her own.
