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Illustration from Kempt

Best solution: Don’t have anything to regret.

Thanks to Jackie for the alert.

An incomplete list: there are a few weeks left in the year. Each movie is listed only once, even if we saw it more than once. Some movies are repeats from past years.

V for Vendetta, the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, has been mentioned several times in the coverage of the Occupy and Anonymous movements (activists in Guy Fawkes masks), reminding us that we have an unread, signed (by the artist) copy. We sat down to read it the other day and were properly blown away—it is as dense, complex and ambitious as any novel made entirely of words, and like great art (V for Vendetta started running in 1981) it anticipates the future.

Earlier this year we enjoyed Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, a lyrical tale about a man who keeps waiting for his life to begin, not knowing that he’s well into it. The trouble with life is that there are no curtains rising, no opening credits—you’re bored, you pop out for a soda, you come back and you’ve missed something vital.

The Adventures of Tintin movie drove us back to the Hergé books, which manage to be both retro and fresh. Captain Haddock does a lot less alliterating in the movie, Thompson and Thomson are funnier on paper, and Professor Calculus doesn’t appear onscreen at all.

We remembered another film adapted from a graphic novel: Ghost World by Daniel Clowes. We’ve never read it, though we’ve had our share of “Hey you remind me of—” (But not as often as Daria). It wasn’t available at our neighborhood bookstore, but we found two later titles by Clowes: Wilson and The Death Ray.

Here’s Koosi trying to figure out how to get into Elmer’s universe and grab some chicken.

Tintin (Php449), The Death-Ray (Php925), Wilson (Php689), V for Vendetta and Daytripper are available at National Bookstores.

Screen grabs from Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay, a Cinema One Originals production written and directed by Antoinette Jadaone.

1.3. We expect current events, especially politics, to achieve the melodramatic heights of our movies. We have not decided who will play President Noynoy Aquino, ex-President Gloria Arroyo, or Justice Secretary Leila De Lima in the movie because we haven’t yet decided what its genre will be.

1.3.1. The basic Good vs Evil drama. Which one is Good, which one Evil?
1.3.2. The classic love triangle in which two women bitch at each other over a man.
1.3.3. The action thriller with assassination conspiracy, this one titled “Put the Little Girl to Sleep”.
1.3.4. The slapstick comedy in which the protagonists suddenly switch bodies.
1.3.5. The zombie horror comedy which begins with a curse: “Paglaki mo, magiging bakla ang boyfriend mo!” Oops, wrong story.

Read Who the hell is Lilia Cuntapay? my column in interaksyon.com.

by rickyv
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