Verdict: Value for Money
Pinoy Rebyu Score: 3.71 (12 ratings)
Genre: Drama, Experimental
Director: Adolfo Alix Jr.
Writer: Ralston Jover
Cast: Angel Aquino, Carlo Aquino, Rosanna Roces and Yul Servo, with the special participation of Anita Linda, Ricky Davao, Alan Paule
Synopsis: An assassin, a porn dubber and a transgender. Three souls. One explicit illusion. To find the ultimate joy in their empty lives. A safe haven, where passion and love mean humanity, ecstasy means enlightenment; and the soul is the ultimate arbiter of the truth.
MTRCB Rating: R-18
Running Time: 90 mins.
Trailer:
Reviews:
5.0 J. Pilapil Jacobo (Young Critics Circle)
“The surprise in Porno is not so much the assault that teeters on the indulgences that will turn whoever toys with the genre tremulous with each step but on the thoughtful grace that persuades the viewer to grapple with the tightrope act from that voluptuous space between the wire and the net.” (Read full review)
5.0 Hyper Lenses
“Porno takes us back to the pristine and elemental, to the wild dog in us that has gone lost and mad.” (Read full review)
5.0 Banana Chews
“Here, not a single scene is unsatisfactory; this is the human subconscious made film, made with a Hitchcock-like proficiency, a reminder of cinema as a pristine source of pleasure.” (Read capsule review)
4.5 RM Topacio-Aplaon (Rappler)
“Alix tells his stories without as much as explaining them at the risk of annotation, and spreads out his narratives which are at best organically loose and incoherent, as all life stories are.” (Read full review)
4.0 Renelson Morelos (Re[e]l Thoughts)
“Such loose and episodic structure, and avant-garde style strongly recall an early work by the experimentalist Alejandro Jodorowsky. You know that every framing, design, lighting and baring shown visually is meticulously thought by the director, as if taking notes from an Art Deco book.” (Read full review)
4.0 Manuel Pangaruy (Tagailog Special Presents)
“Ang ganda ng rehistro ng ilaw na nakapag-compliment sa acid trip ng pelikula. Very distinct, kung hindi man sobrang kopya kung meron mang pinaggayahan. Para sa akin, nagkaroon ito ng sariling punk at nainlab ako rito.” (Read full review)
4.0 Emil Nor Urao (E-Reviews)
“Ang Porno ay eXplicit, eXpository at eXhilarating na tatatak at manununtok nalang sa’yo sa tuwing iniisip mo ito.” (Read full review)
3.5 Nicol Latayan (Tit for Tat)
“I like how it’s contemplative that the porn in the film goes far deeper than the erotica of the human body, especially in Angel Aquino’s storyline, but this is probably a case of me acknowledging the film’s merits than loving it.” (Read capsule review)
3.0 Skilty Labastilla (Young Critics Circle)
“Alix is interested not so much in the process as in the individual stories of his three main characters. The filmmakers incorporate supernatural elements in each story that heighten the mood but only serve to obfuscate the film’s thesis, if there’s one in the first place.” (Read full review)
2.5 Philbert Dy (Click the City)
“The third segment is the most developed of the three, the drama really brought to the fore. I could imagine this third segment being expanded into a full feature on its own. But taken as a whole, Porno feels like provocation for provocation’s sake, its content not really rising above the puerile imagery.” (Read full review)
2.5 Richard Bolisay (Lilok Pelikula)
“For there is too much liquid in the material, the narrative flows nowhere, and it is eventually wiped off by a number of disorienting supernatural elements, an attempt to provide texture and a link to existing realities.” (Read full review)
1.5 Wanggo Gallaga (Juice)
“There are many things wrong with the film — wrong production design, bad dialogue, weird camera framing, etc. — but what makes it more disturbing is the unnecessary exposure of genitalia, both male and female, which does nothing to evolve the story or progress it forward.” (Read full review)
SFFR 