Seasons Review – Carlo Aquino, Lovi Poe
Here’s my Seasons review which stars Carlo Aquino and Lovi Poe and is now streaming on Netflix. The film is also directed by Easy Ferrer.
Seasons follows the story of best friends Kurt (Carlo Aquino) and Charlie (Lovi Poe) as they go through the motions of Charlie looking for the right one for her only to end up realizing that it had been Kurt all this time. Throughout the film, we get to see Charlie’s past and present clashing along with Kurt’s life.
I liked the aesthetic for the film; I like the vibe as well as the general cinematography and color grading. I could really wish that we get more of this level of cinematography for most of the movies produced by local film outfits. So entering this movie, I had heard a number of thoughts, my wife was OK with it, some movie writing friends weren’t so happy and there were some Facebook buddies who didn’t even bother finishing the movie. So I had to see the film myself.
And guess what?
It wasn’t half bad. In terms of acting and story, it was an OK experience and the people on it aren’t slouches either. I mean this is Carlo Aquino. The kid who did this…
The movie wants to explore the idea of bestfriends falling in love or having fallen for one another but never really acting on that feeling. They set that up rather well with us viewers starting the movie already getting caught up with the two adult friends. There’s platonic friendship and teasing and throughout the film, you see that they have feelings for each other. What I was banking on was them going all out too but alas.
I have reviewed a number of Lovi Poe films in the past and I think she’s got this wellspring of potential like extremely deep potential that’s only being tapped recently. This one continues to show that she isn’t done yet. I liked how the script managed to give us a bit of everything for “Da King’s” daughter from heavy drama to comedy to a bit of sensual. All of that she hits with good marks; sometimes not high but pretty good. There are parts of the movie where she will move you to tears with her heartfelt performance. And then she’ll make you laugh along with her and Kurt’s antics and anecdotes. In a nutshell, Poe’s performance had life and flavor here. Plus she’s really cute and yes, sexy.
Carlo Aquino’s Kurt is also a fun but serious character and I liked how he was written. There were moments when his eyes do the talking and of course being a child actor, Aquino’s a veteran in acting for his age. I have to admit that there’s a nice chemistry between the two and there’s a good “kilig” factor working for them onscreen. There’s also some bit of awkwardness that they also managed to hit in the head because this is a story of bestfriends going through a “would-they-or-would-they-not” thing.
One thing I didn’t like was how the third act unfolded. Like it was rushed and very uninspired. Maybe that’s the reason why people zoned out of the movie (or at least those I know). It wasn’t messy though but sure needed another pass in terms of structures. But the redeeming factor for the ending is that it happens. It has happened and I know people who have gone through this. What’s unnatural though is that they still considered themselves as best friends considering the time apart from each other. Like do you even or would you even consider yourselves as best friends after all this time.
Dialogue’s also hit and miss for me but mostly hit. Sometimes it feels real and sometimes it feels so cliche. I was hoping for a quotable quote or two here but there wasn’t one that’s worth making a meme for. But I could give it another shot in the future.
Seasons Review – VERDICT
8/10
Generally speaking it was a ho-hum experience for me. Not so good but not so bad. I knew that they set out to develop an interesting best friend turned lover film but it had such an anti-climatic tone for me. There’s not just enough to really make you want to stay to the end and its rather predictable how this would wrap up. No, I’m not looking for a devastating ending like “One Day” but I wish it had more gravity and not end with a long-used trope. The two leads are good and they could have been even better but I think they had chemistry or at the very least worked well.
