Boy Bastos Review – Rose Van Ginkel, Wilbert Ross, Jela Cuenca
Here’s my Boy Bastos review which is now streaming on VivaMax and stars Wilbert Ross and Rose Van Ginkel. The film is directed by Victor Villanueva who also did the critically-acclaimed Patay na si Hesus.
The film follows the adventures or misadventures of Felix (Wilbert Ross) aka Boy Bastos as he grows up and discover the realities of sex, life and love. He’s getting pressured to have sex with his ultra-religious girlfriend Cathy while falling hard (literally and figuratively) for his substitute teacher Katey and that’s when the trouble and laughs ensue.
Honestly, I have a high regard for Patay na si Hesus. It was a different kind of movie and it was fun and modern. Boy Bastos may not have that same high regard but it has its good points. For starters we’re seeing different sides for the cast including Wilbert Ross who continues to fine-tune his comedic timing while still maintaining his boyish charms and manyakol side. Rose Van Ginkel as Katey is also an improvement but let’s not delve deep into drama but heavy moments are promising for her. She’s doing something different too from when I last saw her in 69+1. Even Jela Cuenca who last year was launched as one of the three VivaMX crushes together with Angeli Khang and AJ Raval shows how good she can be with comedic parts.
Of course there’s still sex here but I’m actually surprised that it doesn’t take too much screentime. It actually counted here in this movie.
The other really appealing part of Boy Bastos for me is the time it was set which was the early 2000s. Sure its not fully accurate but the stuff they did put in here brings me back to a time when technology and getting off was wholly different. Cellphones were different, chatting and calling online were different and there’s also that pretty accurate way of getting “bold” back in the day. Hearing things like “yahoo messenger” and “yahoo groups” were a blast.
I also thought that the two supporting cast members, Bob Jbeili and Andrew Muhlach, were also fun foils for Felix. Whether its talking about defiling “lumpiang sariwa” or reacting to sexy women at campus and in a girly bar, they definitely harken to your “barkada” whenever you were doing all sorts of foolishness which was great. Plus the delivering of some of their punchlines were good. Also very crude.
One aspect from that era that gets surprisingly touched on are the video scandals that used to pop up during the advent of camera phones and I would have liked that they discussed what it would be like to find yourself in a controversial video, that was just glossed over.
The ending was OK too and that’s all thanks to narrator who keeps things upbeat and fun; even throwing weird acronyms that we may or may not have heard during our teenage years like PSL which I will not delve into anymore. The narrator was a fun addition and if director Victor Villanueva does more sex-comedy stuff, I would like to see this done again; make it his signature style outside of tasting one’s own eherm.
Boy Bastos is an acquired taste. It may not be for everybody especially since the story’s a mixed bag but the way going to the end was fun. If you miss the old days of webcams, drop calls, VCDs with adult content and crass humor, then this may be your cup of tea.
Verdict: 7/10
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