Serbis (2008): Graphic for the sake of being graphic
(WARNING: CONTAINS SEXUAL CONTENT NOT SUITABLE FOR SOME VIEWERS)
As part of my course for Film 100 TWX with Mr. Roberto Ang, my class watched Serbis, a 2008 Filipino independent film made by Brillante Mendoza. The film talks about dramatic stories of the Pineda family who owns a pornographic movie theater in Angeles, where different people gives ‘services’ to viewers there. It serves as a slice-of-life movie about the family as they encounter numerous problems along the way. Other than that, there’s not much else to be said about the plot. Even its own Wikipedia page has not much to say about the film’s plot.
Personally, I didn’t like the movie, mostly because of its aspect of being a slice-of-life movie. It has various subplots with no coherence with each other, and sometimes, they don’t even have a conclusion. I thought that its main conflict was about Nanay Flor (portrayed by Gina Pareño) and her case against her ex-husband, and how it affects and splits the family. However, this was not the case, as it was resolved in the middle of the film and was eventually forgotten at the very ending of the film. There were numerous other subplots that were extremely random and had no consequence on the plot, such as a boil that Alan (portrayed by Coco Martin) has but led to nowhere, and a random goat that entered the theater with no buildup to it nor any payoff afterwards. There was no main story here that follows a rising action, climax, falling action, and a resolution.
Another thing I didn’t like was how graphic it is, not because I don’t like graphic scenes, but more how it hides behind graphic scenes so that people wouldn’t notice that it doesn’t advance the story in any way. There are numerous gratuitous shots in the film that have no purpose other than shock the audience. It seemed unnecessary, especially when it could have been implied instead but actually push the story forward. Perhaps it might be to show how disgusting the daily life of people living there is. However, I was surprised when it got lots of praise in the Cannes Film Festival, because when you take away all the sex scenes and gratuitous shots, there isn’t much that was taken away from the movie, further showing that they don’t bring anything to the already non-existent plot.
This is a common pattern that I’ve seen in Brillante Mendoza’s films. There are lots of explicit, graphic, and/or brutal scenes that are meant to shock the audience, but ultimately doesn’t progress the story in any way. Plus, there are always a lot of unnecessary walking scenes wherein the camera simply follows a person for about a minute or so. When other movies show walking scenes, there is usually dialogue being told or music being played to set the mood or give part of a story; however, the walking scenes in this film seem more as filler than anything else. There is no music, cinematography, or dialogue to give some storytelling during these scenes, making them really uninteresting.
Lastly, I thought that the ending was sudden and unsatisfying. There was no climax nor any resolution to any of the conflicts, aside from Nanay Flor’s case. All that was shown is that Alan decided to leave his family because of accidentally impregnating his girlfriend and not having any means to support the baby. We didn’t see how his decision affected the family, nor how it would affect Alan in the future. We only see Alan talking with another man, then a weird burning screen effect was displayed, showing that the film was being destroyed, and the film ends. There was no conclusion to anything that happened in the film.
For me, this movie would’ve worked better as a TV series, so that the numerous sub plots would work better. Of course, the sub plots should also have more correlation to each other, and can also have consequences on the characters. There should be buildup on these sub plots, so it would make sense why they had happened. Plus, spreading it out in numerous episodes helps the audience learn more about the various characters here, and how they all affect each other.
In conclusion, I think the movie was too ambitious for it’s own good, trying to tell too much for such a short amount of time, and yet, wastes lots of time for unnecessary nudity and sex as well as dull walking scenes. Movies can present really dark themes without sacrificing story for shock value.
