‘That Thing Called Tanga Na’ review: Hits and misses

Oggs Cruz

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‘That Thing Called Tanga Na’ review: Hits and misses
'It has a pressing message, one that is loud and queer, even if it is covered by so much garbage,' says critic Oggs Cruz on the movie about 4 gay men

In one scene in Joel Lamangan’s That Thing Called Tanga Na, a man asks his boyfriend of 3 years, who is also a burly security guard, if he wants to get married. His hesitant reply is that he’s not ready to declare to the world that he is gay. The man’s retort is that he should be ready to declare to the world that he loves him.

It is a lovely scene, that love is love, even amidst all the labels and intolerance. Unfortunately, that scene is one of the very few gems in an otherwise messy comedy that stubbornly reinforces stereotype even if it desires to advocate progressive ideals. 

 

Broad and offensive

Screengrab from YouTube/Regal Entertainment, Inc.

That Thing Called Tanga Na is essentially about 4 gay men, all of whom seem to represent the different dilemmas that pervade the queer community. 

Ronnie (Eric Quizon) is a wealthy lawyer in his late 40s who is trapped in a relationship with a younger man (Albie Casiño) who sees him more as a sugar daddy than a life partner.

Screengrab from YouTube/Regal Entertainment, Inc.

CC (Kean Cipriano) is a successful fashion designer who can’t seem to keep his boyfriend of several years from falling in love with women.

Screengrab from YouTube/Regal Entertainment, Inc.

Georgette (Martin Escudero) is a hairdresser who wants to adopt a baby so that she can start a family with her lover, who also happens to be married to a woman (Nikki Valdez) who is okay with the idea of sharing her husband.

Screengrab from YouTube/Regal Entertainment, Inc.

 

Baldo (Billy Crawford) is a security guard who hasn’t come out yet. 

Screengrab from YouTube/Regal Entertainment, Inc.

Their stories are told from the perspective of Shirley (Angeline Quinto), CC’s personal assistant who also happens to be a frustrated singer. Through her voice-overs, the audience is guided through a story of confused love and motives. It struggles to maintain a hint of its relevance, as the movie throws everything away in the name of a broad and oftentimes offensive gag show.

Squandered sincerity

Screengrab from YouTube/Regal Entertainment, Inc.  

It doesn’t help that there are traces of sincerity in a film that seems to content to squander it for easy laughs and middling entertainment.

Interspersed amid the boorish skits are snippets of interviews of gay and lesbian couples who are all too eager and earnest to share their thoughts about their lives. There seems to be more wisdom and truth in the few minutes that were provided to them. Unfortunately, those interviews seem to be used as breathers from the jarring noise and chaos that Lamangan fills his film with. The mix of the documentary footage with the brash and crass narrative is at best, odd and confusing, and at worst, backward and utterly insensitive.

Senedy Que’s screenplay is hit-or-miss. As previously mentioned, there are really lovely moments, scenes that are attuned to the objectives of the advocacy. The quirks of the characters he assembled are also quite colorful, leading to laughs that aren’t earned from hanging on to the actors exaggerated stereotypes. Unfortunately, there are too many loose ends, too many convenient plot twists, and too many character traits that teeter towards being clichés of how mainstream entertainment perceives homosexuals.

There are many genuinely funny moments. But Lamangan directs everything without any effort to raise the material and render it ingeniously ironic instead of cartoonish. Despite all the gratuitous flamboyance, the film still feels dull, plain, and painfully redundant, relying on the consistent performances of Quinto, Quizon, Cipriano, and Escudero to keep the entire thing watchable despite all its problems. 

Screengrab from YouTube/Regal Entertainment, Inc.

One only needs to see the title of the film to realize that it is botched by its failed ambition to be grossly commercial, despite its affinity to queer concerns. The title is cribbed from Antoinette Jadaone’s surprisingly successful romance That Thing Called Tadhana (2014). 

The film is actually about more important things than romantic relationships, but those important things have been woefully relegated and turned into the butt of jokes and gags. Now that is a tragedy that is bigger than all the comedy the film attempts. – Rappler.com

Francis Joseph Cruz litigates for a living and writes about cinema for fun. The first Filipino movie he saw in the theaters was Carlo J. Caparas’ ‘Tirad Pass.’ Since then, he’s been on a mission to find better memories with Philippine cinema.

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