New York Asian Film Festival 2024 (July 12-22 FLC) REVIEWS

[Chris Knipp]

JUAN KARLOS LABAJO IN WHEN ALL THIS IS OVER

KEVIN MAYUGA: WHEN THIS IS ALL OVER (2023)

Rampant covid self indulgence, self-questioning, and class disparities in a Manila condo highrise

Kevin Mayuga's playful examination of full-on covid self indulgence in a Manila condo high rise may owe something to the HBO anthology series "High Maintenance" of six years ago with its linking personality, a Brooklyn pot dealer known only as the Guy. That's what the protagonist (Juan Karlos Labajo) is called and does here, except he's more involved not only in drug purchases, which range freely over the psychedelic panorama, but in every scene, especially arranging a big rooftop party hosted by a quartet of privileged young misfits. But the working class maintenance staff are not much better, breaking the rules, getting high, giving a crowded little "surprise" birthday for one of their own, which they think is a necessity. Isn't he the senior member of the group?

Tanya (Nourijune Hooshmand) and Taylor (Chaye Mogg), originally call the Guy toget an order of weed edibles. But they keep talking.The rooftop party arrangement comes when he learns Taylor's father can arrange him to get the US visa he wants. When he geets it and he tells his mom in the US he plans on coming, things start to look different. The Guy keeps getting asked to take the drugs to prove they're legit, so the movie is full of trips. The biggest one is when Guy is being evicted from the condo and his mother's rejection causes him to question everything, and he takes a life-changing dose of psychedelics. It's a cinematic acid trip that compares with the best ones.

The Guy is a link, not really privileged or snooty like the party-givers, but white, and big, and not forced to work. This is unlike Rosemarie (Jorrybell Agoto), whom he connects with when she hounds him to get off the roof, and then bonds with by blackmailing her to get the upstairs keys for the party. She is little, harried, and works at three jobs. When the Guy says they'r alike, she can't accept it. "The thing you have that I don't," says Rosemarie, "is luck." And you just look at his big white face and his unruly curly hair and you see why she thinks this. This is a world of class, of snobbism, of obsequiousness. And i't a retro world, further frozen by the pandemic. The pandemic, however, is something everyone is working hard to ignore here. Meanwhile we know the Guy may be higher up on the social ladder than Rosemarie, for sure, but he's not anywhere. His main project is to get a visa and come to the US.

But this isn't unadulterated social commentary. It is primarily the Guy's journey toward self knowledge. It also comes generously packaged in a wild stoner comedy filled with both old fashioned and new getting high scenes and noisy psychedelic party sequences sleekly lensed by cinematographer Martika Ramirez Escobar. The opening titles already announce that, though this is familiar material, its approach is sleek and up to date. Partly exasperating and partly fun, When All This Is Over is a snapshot of Filipino urban society's concerns about class and need to escape from oppressive situtions.

When This Is All Over, 87 mins., debuted at Pasay, Philippines (Cinemalaya) Aug. 5, 2023, also showing at Udine May 1, 2024. It was screened for this review as part of the 2024 NYAFF (Jul. 12-28).

SCHEDULE:
Thursday July 18, 8:45pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Intro and Q&A with director Kevin Mayuga