Senior Year

The characters are cute and relatable and the story relies on unique dialogue more than it does on flash and formula. This is a live-action Filipino Indie film. Go figure.

I love Bunda, the big tough girl that even the boys were scared of. The last scene that pertains to her is vague, however.

There's also the heartbreaking story of nerdy Henry and made-over Sophia, whom he's tutoring.

Teachers Che Ramos, LJ Moreno and Ramon Bautista were awesome. I wish there was more of Ramon Bautista's comedy in the movie, though.

It has most of the details of the current Philippine highschool setting down. The movie touched on sexual orientation, love, religion, backstabbing, bullying, smoking, intramurals, and "being the change you want to see."

However, it only slightly touched on the topic of alcohol, which I think makes the movie inaccurate. It also made no mention of sex or drugs─the latter, in my experience, was rare in highschool anyway. Most highschools here don't allow weird haircuts and colored nails. Most highschools here also don't screen Padre Amaro or talk about the Nazi occupation in detail.

The script, by writer/director Jerrold Tarog falls short when the Social Studies teacher discusses the question of whether or not Filipinos are individualistic and then ends with "It's a case-to-case basis."

Anyway, 6.5 for a movie on the Filipino highschool experience is still good. Go watch it and laugh at the fact that you're now probably removed from that.

Also, compare this with the British series Skins and the American Glee.