This is the first Jason Paul Laxamana movie I've watched. But based on how witty the lines were and the fact that he won Best Screenplay in Cinemalaya, I guess it's worth the time to dig up his other works.

The film's cinematography is familiar. The hues and mood of framing feels like I've seen them in "Sakaling Hindi Makarating" so I also guess it's becoming a trend. The thing about this type of cinematography is that viewers are reminded that there's a big screen (good or not, it depends if the movie is engaging enough.)

As for the performances, there's probably no better choice, for an almost-deranged, 50-year old Kapampangan woman with a broken English, other than Pokwang. 

And for Bret Jackson who plays an unpredictable American teenager who is supposed both charm and contain darkness for his character, anyone could say that he could have done better. Personally, I wished he didn't execute some lines that way.

"Mercury Is Mine" is on another level of crazy, satirical Philippine comedy that starts dark, builds up with humor, delivers with societal truths, tumbles down with foolish story inclusions and ends in a clever way. It would make you laugh all throughout. But it also occasionally becomes unsettling that as the movie blacks out at the end, you're gonna wonder what genre of film you would assign it to.

Reminding us in an unsolicited way that we Filipinos are obsessed with Western culture, this film will always be remembered as a cute tale of everything our society wants to be and everything our society shouldn't be.

xxx

P.S. I really find the inclusion of that scene where Mercury finally came back home after he found the centuries-old, hidden gold treasure in Mt. Arayat. That's pretty lame. But the way they revealed that Carmen actually hid it, that was genius.

@callmenorby