Serbis | DVD Review

Filipino director Brillante Mendoza (The Masseur, Butchered) is known for heavily infusing his films with realism and atmosphere, often using the setting almost as a main character in itself. That’s a laudable trait for a film to possess, but when it’s at the expense of plot and character development, as in E1 Entertainment’s new-to-DVD Serbis, it can make for some difficult viewing. The one question that comes to mind after watching Serbis – and it’s a question that makes it hard to offer any kind of praise for the film – is ‘What’s the point?’

Serbis tells the ‘story’ of a day in the life of the severely dysfunctional Pinedas, a multi-generational family operating a run-down theater that shows soft-core pornographic films. They also happen to live in the building, run a fast-food restaurant out of the lobby, and turn a blind eye to the bustling gay hustler trade that transpires within the theater (‘serbis’ means ‘service’, and it’s what is offered in the theater). Matriarch Nanay Flor (Gina Pareño, Kubrador, in a stand-out performance) heads to court early on to witness the verdict in her estranged husband’s bigamy case, while Nayda (the equally impressive Jacklyn Jose, Sarong banggi) tends the theater in her absence. Nayda’s husband Lando (Julio Diaz), whom she married out of necessity (of the pregnant kind), hangs around and works the floor at the restaurant while she not-so-subtly pines for her cousin Ronald (Kristofer King), casting longing glances his way whenever she sees him. Another cousin, Alan (Coco Martin, The Masseur), sporting a large boil on his posterior, has just found out that his girlfriend is pregnant and neither of them are ready for the marriage that everyone believes is the honorable step to take. Let’s not forget Nayda’s young son, who rides around on a tricycle and bears witness to all the goings-on at the seedy theater. This may sound like a whole lot of stuff going on, but it really goes nowhere, and the audience never gets a deeper sense of any of the characters, with the possible exception of Nayda. The theater itself, cheekily named “Family”, is the only thing that really holds this family together, and it’s only when Alan bursts his boil with a soda bottle that he’s able to break free of the constraints of “Family” and family.

Mendoza shot Serbis in a hand-held cinema vérité style, and the muddled sound of many scenes – particularly the street-level ones – is meant to convey the chaos of their lives in the busy city of Angeles. This works for the most part; it almost comes off as a voiceover-less documentary. The theater, like the characters’ lives, is a labyrinth of stairs – or ups and downs – and the camera follows along as the characters move through it. It’s actually quite easy to see that he’s got considerable directorial talent, and might even someday be considered an auteur, but without any significant story development or character development that talent is wasted here. The use of explicit nudity and emotionless sexual encounters in the film, despite some cries from critics that it’s over the top, actually contributes to the dour tone of the film, depicting characters who just seem to be going through the motions of life.

The DVD contains the unrated version of the film with no extra features. We’ll give the benefit of the doubt here and say that the graininess of the image was intentional due to the gritty nature of the film. The decision to release it in 2.0 audio is bizarre, although at times the dialogue is so totally incomprehensible due to the surrounding noise that no audio enhancements could have helped. Again, we’ll grudgingly accept the excuse that this was intentional in order to portray the chaos of the Pinedas’ lives. At the same time, we’ll thank our lucky stars for subtitles.

With Serbis there’s something to be said about the strong performances of the cast and the directorial talents of Brillante Mendoza, but there’s no forgiving the lack of character development and of anything to propel the story along. It’s hard to believe that this film was actually nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2008. Armando Lao’s screenplay, if fleshed out, could actually make good fodder for a primetime soap opera (on HBO, of course); it just does not translate well into a 90-minute feature film.

Movie rating – 2

Disc Rating – 1.5