Northern Lights: A Journey to Love-PG and Carrie Pilby-R13 (Both released in 2017)

From the FB page

This is a poster for Carrie Pilby. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, The Orchard, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.

GB3 Cinema 4

Carrie Pilby is a 2016 American comedy film directed by Susan Johnson and written by Kara Holden and Dean Craig, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Caren Lissner. The film stars Bel Powley, Nathan Lane, Gabriel Byrne, Jason Ritter, William Moseley, Vanessa Bayer, and Colin O'Donoghue. Principal photography on the film began on December 14, 2015 in New York City.

It was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. The film will be released in a limited release on March 31, 2017, before being released through video on demand on April 4, 2017, by The Orchard.-  Wikipedia

R-13

Why? Subject matter: Sex between Harvard Professor and Student(he got kicked out of the IVY League University because of this).  Carrie was 16 when this happened.  The age of consent in Canada is 16. All U.S. states set their limits between 14 and 18. The age of consent in Mexico is complex. Typically, Mexican states have a "primary" age of consent (which may be as low as 12), and sexual conduct with persons below that age is always illegal.  This happened in Boston where the legal age of consent is 16. The justices based their ruling on a Massachusetts law that established the legal age of sexual consent as 16. The law states that as long as the sexual relationship is not otherwise “unlawful” or with a “chaste” individual, an adult may “entice” a minor age sixteen and older to engage in sexual intercourse. Carrie knows this because she is a genius. She couldn't be duped just like that. It is still unethical.  The story is not as "simple as that".

Carrie Pilby's viewers had a light feeling after leaving the Greenbelt Cinema 4(The cinema with reclining seats, Ayala's answer to SM's Director's Club), notwithstanding the seemingly heavy subject matter.  Carrie is not bad to look at, but she herself admits she is not "normal" because she started going to the uni at the age of 14.

Carrie Pilby stars Bel Powley and William Moseley talk about character chemistry in this interview with Fuse! #CarriePilbyTheMovie Opens TOMORROW in select theatres or digital download on @itunes and Amazon.com April 4th! http://on.fuse.tv/2nDJs3W

The movie is predictable and unpredictable at the same time.  Bel Powley is definitely a natural.  She plays the non-virgin Pollyanna type of a girl of nineteen(who graduated from Harvard at a very young age of eighteen---she is also a Mensa Member with an IQ of 185).

My favourite part was when she was talking to God during Christmas. She said there was a great possibility that He was not real, but just in case He is, she had some requests, then she "prayed" to Him and greeted Him "Happy Birthday!"  (Spoiler---hehehehe).

Do pay attention to the dialogue.  If you haven't read the book you would truly appreciate the last scene if you do(listen to the dialogue).

There are many lessons here, even for a genius like Carrie, but what I love about this film is that it has no dead air.  Everything is just so interesting.  Sigh.

Bel Powley as Carrie Pilby (Protagonist)

Nathan Lane as Dr. Petrov/Therapist

Gabriel Byrne as Mr. Pilby/Dad

Jason Ritter as Matt (The guy from the personals--The Cheater)

William Moseley as Cy (The musician who plays several musical instruments/Carrie's next-door neighbour)

Vanessa Bayer as Tara (Carrie's officemate)

Colin O'Donoghue as Professor Harrison (Carrie's lover---ex-lover)

Desmin Borges as Douglas (Carrie's officemate)

GB1

Cinema 1

Parental Guidance

Charlie Sr. is a Filipino immigrant in Alaska who is living a carefree life. His life suddenly changes when he is tasked to take care of his estranged son, Charlie Jr., whom he had left behind in the Philippines. As he struggles to become a real father to his son, Charlie crosses paths with Angel, a quirky Filipina who went to Alaska to find her lost mother.- WWW

Source(Added March 2019)

The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding.-WWW

Release date: March 29 (RP), March 31, 2017 (USA)

Director: Dondon S. Santos

Screenplay: Onay Sales

Produced by: Manny Valera(who also has a cameo in the film)

Music composed by: Francis Concio

Editor: Chrisel Galeno-Desuasido

Cinematography: Zach Sycip

Production companies: Regal Entertainment, Spring Films, ABS-CBN Film productions

Distributed by: Star Cinema

Cast:
Piolo Pascual- Charlie Sr.
Raikko Mateo- Charlie Jr.

Introducing Yen Santos in her first starring role in a full film feature as Angel


Also starring in Northern Lights: A Journey To Love are 
Tirso Cruz III(CSr's Dad/CJr's Lolo), Joel Torre(Angel's dad), 
Sandy Andolong(CSr's Mom/CJr's Lola), 
Maricar Reyes(Joyce,  CJr's mom), Glydel Mercado(Leah, Angel's mom), Jerald Napoles("Twinnie", CSr's best bud), 
Anna Vicente(Sarah, Angel's baby sis), 
K Brosas(CSr's friend), and 
David Chua(Joyce's ex-husband).

Side story(optional reading):
These past few months I have watched several TV shows, movies, concerts, plays et cetera, but I did not write about them.  Some made an impact, but left me speechless, others did not even leave an imprint in my heart, but thankfully, these two movies I watched today gave me different emotions, but in general, they gave me light feelings towards the end.

How in the world did I ever watch two movies today?  Was our day light?  Au contraire.  We had a full day.  Just as we thought we were capping the day by having merienda cena, dad received a phone call.  There was an emergency meeting and it just so happened that we were already in the vicinity.  Since it was a meeting that did not involve us, we opted to watch Northern Lights: A Journey to Love while waiting for dada finish his business.  Dad still had ample time to "waste" so he watched LIFE(great cast, by the way---Rebecca Ferguson, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds).  We actually tried to accompany him and just promised ourselves to leave around 6:20, but my goodness, we didn't last 20 minutes inside the cinema. We did not stay to find out if we would like it later.  We walked to Greenbelt 1 to watch Northern Lights...
Dad liked it(LIFE) anyways, and since that's the case, money was not wasted.  

Northern Lights: A Journey To Love is a beautifully acted film.  Those of us who have watched young Raikko Mateo as Honesto would be pleased that the already talented young boy he was then has even honed his craft.  With the roller coaster of emotions Charlie Jr. has undergone, it is amazing that young Mr. Mateo was able to deliver his lines well and he acted like he was indeed Charlie Jr.

A lesson I was reminded of is that when you think you have heard EVERYthing, before you get mad, investigate further because you might've heard something or things out of context.  What am I talking about?  Watch the movie to understand.

Yen Santos became one of those on top of my list when she starred in ALL OF ME.  In this movie she proves that she could also be a lead star in a full length feature film.

Piolo Pascual is one of the producers of this film so he could have hogged or dominated the scenes to make his star shine the brightest, but I must say Yen and Raikko had equal exposures.  This movie is about their characters and the people around them(their friends and family).

I reiterate, this film is well-acted by everyone involved in it and I must say, it's world class.

It will be theatrically released in the US of A in a few hours so I hope a lot of people would get to see this film.

#NorthernLightsAJourneyToLove
#raikkomateo
#piolopascual
#yensantos