A Critique Paper by Samuel Polo S. Lingatong
A socially awkward teen bonds with a group of misfits who plot to abduct the school's arrogant rich kid -- until their kidnapping scheme turns deadly.
Starring: Khalil Ramos, Vance Larena, Kelvin Miranda
Dead Kids is a Filipino thriller film directed by Mikhail Red and starring Kelvin Miranda, Vance Larena, Sue Ramirez, Khalil Ramos, Jan Silverio, Gabby Padilla, and Markus Paterson. Dead Kids was released on December 1, 2019 on Netflix. In the engaging but ultimately rudderless Filipino noir “Dead Kids,” a band of teenage misfits cooks up a plan to kidnap the school bully for ransom. Clad in the starchy white uniforms of their ritzy prep school, the boys seem giddy about the hefty reward sum. But for them, the money is merely a symbol. It is the transgressive power trip that holds far more intrigue.
From left, Kelvin Miranda and Vance Larena in “Dead Kids.”
Now streaming on Netflix, the movie follows Mark Sta. Maria (Kelvin Miranda), a withdrawn teen known to classmates as a “dead kid” — a wallflower and wet blanket. In school he is both the brainiest and the poorest; he earns money by completing his wealthy peers’ homework for a fee. He is a familiar character type, as is his tormentor, the vain golden boy Chuck (Markus Paterson), who enjoys partying and doling out swirlies. When three students approach Sta. Maria, as they call him, with a plot to take Chuck hostage, the lure of fast cash and vigilante revenge are enough to pry him out of his strait-laced shell. Based on news reports of kidnapping in a Manila college, “Dead Kids” aspires to explore how widening class disparity in the Philippines is burdening a new, increasingly globalized generation. The students speak in a fusion of Tagalog and English, peppered with barbed slang and slurs. The director, Mikhail Red, illustrates how English fluency amounts to a social currency for the kids. They use it, like their abduction stunt, as a vector for power that remains out of reach.
But this often compelling window into the boys’ culture is muddied by overly slick stylization. Red leans heavily on visual flair, employing high-contrast shadow, dense fog and monochromatic hues to signal tonal shifts from upbeat, pop-friendly moments to gravely dramatic ones. The effect is blunt and discordant. Once the bleak, action-heavy finale arrives, we have lost sight of — and interest in — the boys’ inner struggles, left with only a flashy portrait of high school angst gone awry.
WATCH TRAILER HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFKnelgh12I
Comments