Film Review: "I'm Drunk, I Love You"
Seeing as TBA Studios has uploaded a copy of one of the best film they've ever made, let me share a few words about it.
I'm Drunk, I Love You is a JP Habac film about two college students faced with graduation and an uncertain future. As a last hurrah, they go to this music festival days before their graduation ceremony to drink, listen to music, and deal with bubbling emotions deep underneath themselves that have been festering for seven years between the two leads.
This movie is delightful, but that may only be just me. These are characters that I can relate to very closely, seeing as, like Carson and Dio, I'm also a snobby, music-and-film-loving college student held back for close to seven years with an uncertain future ahead. I also had a few friends whom, like Carson, I had a similar dynamic to; we used to go out and drink and revel in our unity, uncertain futures, and unresolved tension until we each found someone else that was willing to go out and date us instead.
Actually, it veers very close to pandering, and that keeps me from fully enjoying it. The music is also blunt throughout the film, sometimes spelling out what should be subtle ideas in an effort to telegraph them clean to the audience.
The ending feels too long, as if the director were hammering down the ambiguity of these characters' futures instead of letting it simmer uncomfortably in the background like he has for most of the film. Everything about this movie is just blunt; anyone looking for some subtlety will be sorely disappointed.
But it tackles its themes thoroughly, and it's written in a way that allows for satisfying character arcs and tonally-consistent scenes. The bluntness means that you won't lose the point of the filmmaker while watching it, being able to follow the thoughts of these characters with little effort. It would've been nice to find something deeper or more subtle, something that feels revelatory to the experiences of college students, but this film captures a time in someone's life where the clock has stopped and they are being asked to choose for themselves what to do with their lives. As someone stuck on perpetual self-destructive adolescence at the moment, it's a message that hits closely.
In the pantheon of Filipino romantic comedies released in the 2010s (a fair amount of which I've seen), I'm Drunk, I Love You ranks highly because of how it effectively seems to just capture the little details of the world of unrequited college love. Carson and Dio just feel real, and they seem to exist outside of these few days we're allowed to see them in. They don't exist to better each others' lives, they don't exist to make each other swoon or as foils for their future. They're friends, and they'll always be friends facing their uncertain future together with awkward grace and charm.
If you want to see the full video, just go to TBA Studios' YouTube page. It's still, as so May 11, 2020, uploaded there. But here is the link for the video anyways, because I can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiZ1hDkjrno&t=990s
I'm Drunk, I Love You is a JP Habac film about two college students faced with graduation and an uncertain future. As a last hurrah, they go to this music festival days before their graduation ceremony to drink, listen to music, and deal with bubbling emotions deep underneath themselves that have been festering for seven years between the two leads.
This movie is delightful, but that may only be just me. These are characters that I can relate to very closely, seeing as, like Carson and Dio, I'm also a snobby, music-and-film-loving college student held back for close to seven years with an uncertain future ahead. I also had a few friends whom, like Carson, I had a similar dynamic to; we used to go out and drink and revel in our unity, uncertain futures, and unresolved tension until we each found someone else that was willing to go out and date us instead.
Actually, it veers very close to pandering, and that keeps me from fully enjoying it. The music is also blunt throughout the film, sometimes spelling out what should be subtle ideas in an effort to telegraph them clean to the audience.
The ending feels too long, as if the director were hammering down the ambiguity of these characters' futures instead of letting it simmer uncomfortably in the background like he has for most of the film. Everything about this movie is just blunt; anyone looking for some subtlety will be sorely disappointed.
But it tackles its themes thoroughly, and it's written in a way that allows for satisfying character arcs and tonally-consistent scenes. The bluntness means that you won't lose the point of the filmmaker while watching it, being able to follow the thoughts of these characters with little effort. It would've been nice to find something deeper or more subtle, something that feels revelatory to the experiences of college students, but this film captures a time in someone's life where the clock has stopped and they are being asked to choose for themselves what to do with their lives. As someone stuck on perpetual self-destructive adolescence at the moment, it's a message that hits closely.
In the pantheon of Filipino romantic comedies released in the 2010s (a fair amount of which I've seen), I'm Drunk, I Love You ranks highly because of how it effectively seems to just capture the little details of the world of unrequited college love. Carson and Dio just feel real, and they seem to exist outside of these few days we're allowed to see them in. They don't exist to better each others' lives, they don't exist to make each other swoon or as foils for their future. They're friends, and they'll always be friends facing their uncertain future together with awkward grace and charm.
If you want to see the full video, just go to TBA Studios' YouTube page. It's still, as so May 11, 2020, uploaded there. But here is the link for the video anyways, because I can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiZ1hDkjrno&t=990s
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