Film Review: LSS (2019)

Copyright © 2019 Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino 3, Globe Studios, iFlix, Dokimos Media Studios Inc.,& Ben&Ben. Used under Fair Use laws.

[Contains paraphrases of portions of an unpublished paper]

LSS (Last Song Syndrome) is a 2019 romantic drama film by Jade Castro about two music nerds and the band Ben&Ben (yeah, I don't know why, too--just roll with it) and their journeys through life as they try to fulfill their dreams of success, romance, forgiveness, and redemption.

Let's get this out of the way: I thought this movie was one of the best movies of last year. I went out of my way to catch during the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino out of the recommendation of a critic I respect, and it felt like a genuinely magical experience to see. Even if I weren't someone obsessed with music, the way this film constructs its scenes and creates these quiet moments of character development is unique in that it tries to be honest to both the situation of the characters and their surroundings that's reminiscent of David Gordon Green's early work or Tom McCarthy. These moments stick in someone's head months after release.

What I like best about this film is how euphoric it makes listening to music look and feel. Our protagonists' very existence is punctuated by music, right down to their names being a Ben Folds song, and the film captures these small moments where music was the only thing that comforts them, where it was the only happy thing in their sad, miserable lives. It really goes into the emotion of what a great song at the right moment can make you feel, the relationship between art and audience that Pseudo-Longinus called The Sublime: lightning-in-a-bottle moments that encapsulates the purpose of any art best.

The music is strangely good, with folk-pop act Ben&Ben just playing what seems like a straight-up Greatest Hits record to soundtrack the album. Personally, I'm not a fan of folk music; however, Ben&Ben's sound is so full and textured, going for bombast and operatic emotion when their current peers in OPM are going for quiet (and sometimes boring) authenticity, that it's hard to resist their charms. The song "Ride Home" has hooks for days, and "Kathang Isip" is just a great ballad to put as music for someone's lowest point.

I think about the "Kathang Isip" scene a lot, actually, to the point where I wrote an entire paper about it. There's this old Greek literary criticism piece called On the Sublime where the author talks about this moment where a piece of art connects with someone, The Sublime. I already explained it a few paragraphs ago, but I thought that the "Kathang Isip" scene really portrayed how that would happen in real life, how those lightning-in-a-bottle moments of art that changes a person's life would play out. This film's best moments are when it's just Zak and Sara, or just them individually, connecting to the music and using it as a way to grow emotionally.

Copyright © 2019 Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino 3, Globe Studios, iFlix, Dokimos Media Studios Inc.,& Ben&Ben. Used under Fair Use laws.

This is probably the best mainstream Filipino release in 2019. Well-acted by Gabbi Garcia (a great actress given such shitty television roles by GMA-7) and Khalil Ramos, and directed with style and quiet grace by Jade Castro, it's a unique film that portrays the appeal of music, the personal connections that people can retain with it, and how a great song can help someone move forward in existence. Anyone who watches this film might find their lives enriched by the experience.