More empty theatres, huh? Even the adult cinemas are closing their doors in Brillante Mendoza’s grimy film about a family trying to maintain the last of three cinemas that they once ran after they had to shut two of them due to insufficient funds. As a drama about a medium-fucked up family, the film is engaging enough, but it inexplicably includes explicit sex and bursting ass boils to give the film an ‘edge’ that isn’t as sharp as was most likely hoped for. Flooded bathrooms, an unintended pregnancy, adulterous husband, and promiscuous transvestites abound, but the family still functions somehow (even the cinema that they run is called “Family”), remaining close-knit, and appearing to be genuinely affected when one disappoints another. The cinema as a family gathering is a long-extinct idea in this film’s universe, where the pornographic films refuse access to minors, and the action taking place in the films is more mimicked than viewed by the attending crowd. The films being shown are extremely low-budget, sub-xtube grade trash, perhaps anticipating the complete abandonment of cinematic craft that youtube is ushering in. This idea is literally shown in the film’s final shot with a Gremlins 2-esque meltdown, which, more than a tidy wrap-up for the film, shows the fragility of celluloid.
Many opinions and ideas of family that Mendoza has or intends to pose are unclear/absent in Serbis, and little in the film invites further contemplation after it is over, making the compelling film unfortunately forgettable and inconsequential.