Michael V outdoes himself with his new movie. Check out my Family History review right now. The film also stars Dawn Zulueta, Bianca Umali and Miguel Tanfelix. Now showing from GMA Films.

The movie also stars Kakai Bautista, Paolo Contis, Nonie Buencamino, Ina Feleo and John Estrada.

Cast

I have high praises for Michael V in this Family History review. As an actor, he did wonderful here as Alex. This was a guy who was content and happy with what he has namely a beautiful wife in May (Dawn Zulueta) and son Malix (Miguel Tanfelix). This is turned upside down when Dawn is diagnosed with cancer.

Bitoy shines as his character is put through the ringer and he reacts in various ways, including the usual comedic jabs. I love the fact that the movie was written to play on his strengths when it comes to inject laugh out loud moments. He’s was really good at playing with our emotions, like there’s this scene where we’re supposed to cry with him but he makes us laugh.

I feel like Dawn was underutilized here. Not by a huge distance but I feel like we could have gotten more moments between her and Bitoy. But ad it stands, it was good. Especially those moments where she has to reveal a big secret.

The Biguel love team was OK for me here. Good on the writing team to make Tanfelix go all out with his “anger acting” around the third act. Umali was cute in all her scenes and exceptionally well when acting with a comedy veteran like Michael V.

Kakai Bautista gets an extra nod in this review simply because of her great scene with Michael V. Both of them onscreen was so much fun considering how dark and deep the topic their characters were discussing.

Plot

Family History has a tight story to tell, executed just right. It does have plot holes and possibly cut scenes that could have made the film meatier. The Chekov’s gun element in the film was good too. And they were subtle in revealing what’s happening and what has happened.

For me the teen element was a bit weak, it felt like going through the motions and bringing viewers from point A to point B and then intersecting in a big way with the main narrative. Had they carefully planned those scenes at school, tweaked the story for Malix and Jenna, this could have been perfect. But hey, any screen time with the Biguel loveteam is worth it right?

Cinematography

Another praise section for Michael V’s work, this time as a director. A lot of interesting film techniques have been used. Something that stuck with me was this confrontation scene where the camera work starts calm and steady and as the conflict and the big secret is revealed, the scene suddenly goes on an unsteady mode with close ups going crazy. It gives us an uncomfortable look at the characters because they were in that same position as well.

Visuals

Loved Family History for the subtle and overt visuals they included in the movie. Alex’s look for example goes through major changes as he experiences all the pain going from a clean shaven person to someone who actually says “i’m pissed” and “do not fuck with me”.

And because Michael V is such an art geek, we see some neat animation sequences including one that involves Eugene Domingo. The actual art too was nice. Even the creepypasta of the deer Alex was working on looked amazing. Even the scene in the studio with animated people doing non-animated things looked great, a tad disturbing but great.

Family History Review – Verdict

9/10

Highly recommend the film. It makes sense why it took awhile before Michael V launched this as you feel that its his love letter to the artform and the medium. Nothing is bad here, everything goes between OK to Great. The comedy is spot on and the tearjerking moments are effective. Most importantly, there was only one scene with an actual endorsement. Good job!

Family History is now showing!