This is a bit timely for Filipino moviegoers! Okay, I don’t
want to be oh-so giddy because I don’t want to compromise the quality of
today’s blog, but I want to make a review of the Student’s Choice Award winner:
100 Tula Para kay Stella.
Stella, a frustrated rockstar meets Fidel, a stammering
recluse during a freshman concert. Growing up with a family of separated
parents, Fidel is naturally shy yet pensive, and wafts through his college with
growing anxiety because of his speech defect.
Luckily, he meets Stella, a woman with a reputation of a party girl with
no ambitions. In the span of four years, Fidel had accumulated 100 poems for
her to make her say yes.
Just for a change of perspective, I want to share the
complexities of human mind by defending each character, including Stella. Here’s why:
· Women are also people. They have the right to make choices.
Including those bad decisions we try
to hid under the bushes. Because again, women are also people. We tumble, try
again, found a new love, and lose ourselves again. Just ask Taylor Swift.
· There are things that you cannot control—like a woman’s heart, for example.
I don’t nullify nor imply to underestimate
the pain of separated parents, but there are things that is just beyond the
grasp of our understanding. Being gloomy is one, but mulling over problems will
not make you move forward. You’ll get stuck in the past, frozen in that
timeframe where everybody is being one step closer to their future. Similarly, that’s
how he did to her secret affections with Stella. He doesn’t move on, because he can’t, and it clouds her
rational part to the point that he can’t say no to a woman.
That’s just how Fidel is. He needs
improvement in the emotional strength department.
· In the grand scheme of things, some people doesn’t matter
Your favorite janitress. First crush. Girl
fights. Your rebounds and exes. Your
enemies. If Fidel is mulling over them, that means he thinks that his life
circles around this unimportant and irrelevant people. However, life is not a
movie. In the real world, we can do better than that.
· Fidel is just feeding his fantasy
I like the part where after Stella
had read the semi-broken notebook of poems, she said to him that she doesn’t
like the latter parts, because that doesn’t personify the real her. This shows that Fidel is just idealizing and
romanticizing Stella, and putting her on a pedestal that she knows she didn’t
earn.
· Women stereotypes are sickening – inner feminist unleashed!
Stella, having a lot of boyfriends
yet not finding herself in the midst of it, doesn’t owe explanations to people
who thinks she’s a lost woman with no substance. So a note to Danica: you may
be intelligent, but you can’t be that
judgmental. Besides, you can’t fix a woman who can’t fix herself, either.
· The men that she is meeting is as equally shallow as her ambitions
I don’t underestimate Stella’s rockstar
dream, but underneath her thick skin is a lot of insecurity, and self-pity. Obviously,
she is looking her Mr. Right at all the wrong places. To oppose her from defeatism, she needs a
strong and sensible man to counter her fears. Needless to say, I like how the
movie ends.
·
Von, you need an extra credit here
Von’s point of view wasn’t shown by
the director, but one of the scenes imply that he is eyeing on her since high
school, where he clearly stated she had
six boyfriends. He may (or may not)
be in love with Stella for such a long time—but they may have the same
timeline, maybe longer, than Fidel’s
secret affection. Unfortunately, Fidel is our protagonist here.
· There will be people who will make you feel alive. Sometimes, they have no idea.
So if there’s still time left, sabihin mo na.
·
This is already normal kind of female character
for me. Examples?
o
Summer Finn – 500 Days of Summer
o
Satine – Moulin Rouge
o
Sabina – Ladders to Fire by Anais Nin
o
My favorite movie: Holly Golightly of Breakfast
at Tiffany’s
The impact of this story is not as
great to me because I had already met female characters like Stella. Yet,
throughout the decades, we are still ticked off by lost women who breaks men’s hearts
along the way. In the future, I know that directors would still try to emulate a
modern woman in different roles yet it will still have the same effect on the
masses. What is it with women and their misery?
· Stella is in her endless pursuit of self-actualization. LEAVE HER BE.
She uses men. Given. She doesn’t go
to school. Noted. She is a rebel. Check. But when the smoke clears, you’ll
realize that finding oneself is just as difficult as finding the right person
for you. It may include depression, emptiness, self-pity, and overwhelming
uncertainty. Kids, there’s more to life
than love.
Since this is yet another pubescent movie, I’m cringing in
some parts in sheer embarrassment. However, this is a brilliant film that depicts
how complicated life is… in a way that touches young adults’ sensitivity. Not
all film makers have the skill can reduce the setting with an equal maturity
level. For you who hasn’t watched the movie yet, expect a lot of emotions
running.
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