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We love movies and we love bookstores, and now we’re shooting a scene for a movie in a bookstore.

Would you like to be an extra and get your Twisted books signed? We need crowd extras for a scene in Elwood Perez’s latest movie, Esoterica Manila. The scene is a book signing, and we’re playing the author signing her books. Only we are the author signing her books haha.

Be at Solidaridad Bookshop, 531 Padre Faura, Manila, on Sunday, 12 January 2014 at 1pm. The bookshop is closed on Sundays but they will be open on this occasion. Bring your Twisted books for us to inscribe (We’re not sure the shop has stocks left). No acting required; we’re all playing ourselves. Okay, maybe we’ll oppress you a little and summon security if you linger, but it’ll be a scream. Bring your friends, the more the crazier.

In Greenbelt there’s a cat who looks like Hitler. Here he is listening in on our conversation at Lusso.

The neighborhood cats are welcome at Dr. Agnes Bueno’s cozy house.

They’re a little camera shy but can’t help posing.

So my cats and I were watching “Downton Abbey” last year. (I have two cats, one girl cat, who is twelve—in cat years, obviously—and a boy cat, who is seven.) And at one point my younger cat turned to me and said, “What is that human woman trying to say to that other man?”

And my younger cat thought about it and said, “Well, that is a very hard thing to do.” And then he said, “You have to pick just the right time.”

John Hodgman watches Downton Abbey with cats in the New Yorker.

In David O. Russell’s brilliant, frenetic American Hustle, hair is character. The volume and elaborateness of each actor’s hair tells you how far they would go to get what they want; it’s a portent of destiny. This is a movie in which the one normal, sensible character is played by Louis C.K., and he’s bald.

American Hustle is based on the Abscam scandal, a 1970s FBI sting operation, and it opens with Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) doing his hair.

That creature on top of his head is a toupee held in place by a combover, and Irving doesn’t so much glue it on as orchestrate it. Some people put their game face on; Irving cements his hair in place. The fact that he has a combover and a toupee tells you that he’s not only deceiving others, he’s deceiving himself.

Christian Bale’s shape-shifting abilities are well-known, and as Irving he transforms himself into a paunchy, ridiculous, but weirdly seductive man. Not only does he con people into paying him to expedite loans they never get, he also has two luscious women—his wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) and mistress/business partner Sydney/Ethel (Amy Adams)—fighting over him. Irving is a sleazebag, but in Russell’s view he’s not a bad person. He’s hustling to survive like everyone else.

Amy Adams can do anything, and here she plays Sydney, a con artist with big hair and dangerously plunging necklines. Amy, everyone looks terrible in this movie, but disco trash diva is a great look for you. The big hair echoes the ambition and resourcefulness of this former stripper-turned-editorial assistant-turned-fake English aristocrat. She’s not a bad person, either, but the good life is supposed to be the birthright of every American, and she’s collecting on that promise.

FBI Agent Richie DiMaso really has straight hair, but this is the era of Saturday Night Fever and sexy Italians are in. So he puts his hair up in little rollers, and the fake curls match the nervous undercover guy who’s in over his head. Bradley Cooper’s Richie always on the verge of freaking out, and his attempts to consummate his lust for Sydney are hilarious. (The Saturday Night Fever hommage is wonderful.)

Jeremy Renner as Mayor Carmine Polito has a big, shiny pompadour to match his dream of revitalizing Atlantic City. He’s actually a nice guy, but his dream causes him to make rash, stupid choices. In fact all these characters are willfully stupid, which is why you can’t really hate anyone.

Which brings us to the most hilarious character of all, Rosalyn the housewife who won’t give Irving a divorce. The hair piled high on her head with waves going in every direction identifies her as an agent of chaos. Jennifer Lawrence is probably too young to play Rosalyn, but she’s hysterically funny as a passive-aggressive bitch with the knack for getting people into trouble—and the nerve to demand their thanks afterwards. The Lawrence-Adams confrontation at the night club is epic. When Lawrence lip-syncs to ‘Live and Let Die’ while dusting furniture, we fall down laughing.

If you liked Goodfellas and Boogie Nights, you’re going to love this.

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Say it, Declan.

We had the best holiday ever. We saw only the people we wanted to see and hung out only in the places we wanted to hang out. We avoided the shopping frenzies, the eating and drinking binges, the phony cheer and guilt trips. It was so good, we’ve decided to do these things all year.

Sana Dati: Against Romance

There should be nothing extraordinary about Sana Dati, the Cinemalaya film by Jerrold Tarog. It is not particularly original. It does not reveal big truths or make important statements. No ground-breaking techniques are introduced. Haven’t we seen enough wedding movies to last us a lifetime? The insipid title almost dissuaded us from watching the movie.

How, then, to account for the way we are enthralled for two hours, hanging on to every turn of the tale, and caring so much about a character we also wanted to slap?

The answer is Craft. When the filmmaker’s craft is solid, when the director’s vision is clear, when all elements are united for a single purpose, a movie can destroy you.

Read the full article at InterAksyon.com.