Reaction: Buy Bust (movie)
It's rare for a Pinoy action film to keep your interest for more than two hours. Erik Matti's "BuyBust" makes you feel precisely like that: glued to your seat and on the verge of a panic attack (believe me, I had to use all I had to stop myself from shaking and slow my pulse down). Not that this is a bad thing, but we know a film has done its job when the audience is emotionally and physically engrossed in it.
Anne Curtis portrays Manigan, a tough, rebellious heroine whose intuition (and previous job experience) tells her she's being led into an ambush by Dela Cruz (Lao Rodriguez) and Alvarez (Nonie Buencamino), her two superior officers in the Manila police department's drugs branch. Curtis' acting is good enough that Manigan appears to be more than a Ripley clone at first. Director Erik Matti ("On the Job") gets praise for utilizing a number of effective close-ups to emphasize Curtis' sensitivity. "BuyBust" puts Manigan and her crew into the tiny, labyrinthine slum that big-time heroin dealer Biggie Chen (Arjo Atayde) calls home.
The rest of "BuyBust" isn't quite as enlightening, unfortunately. There are many sluggish, choppy warfare situations that are unpleasant to watch or contemplate. There's also a lot of waiting, stalking, and even some walky-talking going on, all of which are drab and unmoving. By the statistics, the film's identity as a sensationalistic piece of noir-ish pulp story-telling wouldn't be an issue if so much of the tale wasn't so monotonous. On the other hand, the hand-to-hand combat action scenes were the worst letdown for me; they looked dreadful. They were ponderous and well-telegraphed, and you could see them coming from miles away.
However, it's yet another scenario in which a blatantly immoral villain talks about moral relativity all the way up to Manigan's final confrontation with Chen. However, the photography is amazing, making the slums appear almost beautiful, and the camera work is also pretty impressive, all of which add to the film's mystery. She did an excellent job in the lead role, and there are enough twists and turns to keep the movie interesting throughout. I believe the super realistic photography played a role in this, but it had a significant negative impact on the film, especially when compared to "The Raid," from which the plot was clearly adapted.
"BuyBust" is a timely documentary that not only depicts the current state of affairs in the Philippines during the "War on Drugs" era, but also offers commentary on it. It also places itself on such a high pedestal that it may one day be considered a Criterion-worthy release. It effectively urges spectators to applaud officers who shoot, knife, punch, and behead people of a run-down shantytown. On the other hand, director Erik Matti is a critic of populist President Rodrigo Duterte's support for extrajudicial executions.
The ultraviolent action movie from the veteran Philippine genre-meister goes beyond easy moral boundaries to show how Duterte's twisted worldview has turned everyone
from cops to peddlers to regular people into monsters, all performing the brutal bidding of a corrupt ruling elite. This is a time in Philippine cinema when we're embracing the balance of art, story, and cinematography in a way that isn't determined by the studio but rather by the director's creative freedom. "BuyBust" is a narrative deserving of its own seat at the table, with action sequences that leave little to the imagination and a plot based on brutal truths and terrible realities.
