Product Description

THE BLOSSOMING OF MAXIMO OLIVEROS tells the story of Maxi (Nathan Lopez) a gay pre-teen growing up in the slums of Manila who is deeply loyal to his family of petty thieves. His world revolves around his father and two brothers who love and protect him in return for Maxi s devotion to completing domestic chores and covering their tracks when they commit crimes.When Maxi meets Victor (JR Valentin) a well-meaning handsome policeman the two become fast friends and Maxi begins to learn that he can have a better life which soon incurs the ire and disapproval of Maxi s family.System Requirements:Running Time: 100 minutes Language: Tagalog Subtitles: EnglishFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 807839002935 Manufacturer No: TLAD182

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19839 in DVD
• Brand: TLA RELEASING
• Released on: 2007-08-28
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

Review
the film is alarming, endearing, and utterly unflappable. --Dennis Lim, Village Voice

Review
"One of those all-too-rare films that handles preadolescent queerness with intelligence and unflinching honesty!" --Ernest Hardy, LA Weekly

Review
"Has charmed film festival audiences from Sundance to Jerusalem with its refreshingly blasé handling of homosexuality, its amiable actors and its delicacy of milieu." --Nathan Lee, The New York Times

Customer Reviews

Bloom Already!
Dear Reader,

I find this film hard to believe. So much of the time, till the last 10 minutes, I tried to give it the benefit. My review is based on the inconsistency of the film and how it does not manage to keep the time/day and time, place and events in proper sequence. I guess the producers thought we wouldn't notice suttle differences in what people are wearing, to what people say and do when the camera cuts and pans over to a different angle.

Overall I am disapointed with this film because I went to great lenghts to rent it from our big local movie rental places. Only one place had it in stock under the foreign sections.

The acting was slow and painful, yet the boy was easy to look at and feel compassion for, regardless of quality of film. The love romance between the two main characters is too hyped up by the reviews, it is simply a crush that flew in and didn't seem to make a difference toward the end of the film.

Bloom, bloom little one! We are still waiting!

Overrated, but worth watching
The main reason to recommend watching this coming-of-age film from the Phillippines is the main character of Maximo Oliveros, an unashamedly femininine 12-year-old boy growing up in the slums and fulfilling "wife" duties (cooking, cleaning) to his family of crooks (widowed dad and two brothers) when he unwisely develops a crush for a hunky policeman amused by his attention. Its the type of character you never see in gay-themed movies and the early family scenes and especially the scenes between the cop and the boy, basically a series of innocent flirtations which begin to take on a potentially dangerous erotic tone, are very well made. However, cinematically, the movie shows its low budget and the director's inexperience with narrative film. The plot degenerates by the third part of the film, falling into crime melodrama, and the last scene, a nod to The Third Man, is inconsistent with character development. Still, the film is well worth a rental, since the quality of TLA DVDs is really not worth the money and Im not sure about repeated viewings of this film.

Outstanding Gay Coming of Age Movie
In reading the prior reviews and descriptions of this movie I was not prepared for what an intense drama it really was. Wow.

There are not may movies which would dare to depict a 12 year old boy as truly transgendered and accepted as such by his family, friends and neighbors. His two older brothers even refer to him as their "sister." Most other movies of the "gay coming-of-age" variety show boys encountering their gayness for the first time as masculine, or pretending to be masculine, as their parents and peers try to steer them in the traditional straight/masculine direction. Not Maximo. He acts and dresses like a girl and takes care of the men in his family as if he were female. He adores them and they adore him just as he is. When he does get bullied and threatened with rape by older thugs, his brothers come to the rescue (maybe a little too zealously as it turns out).

In the beginning of the movie and for the first 40 minutes or so, we see Maximo at his most carefree and innocent. He plays games (mostly with girls), dresses up, watches movies, and models exotic women's clothes on a pretend runway. He falls in love with a handsome and kind 20 something policeman. All is well with the world. But as the story unravels we learn secrets about Maximo's family, and especially his father, that force Maximo to question his sense of right and wrong, his view of the world as black/white and good/evil. We also learn things about his policeman/pseudo lover. Everything begins to take on shades of gray and Maximo must choose his loyalties and in the process lose his innocence, and I don't mean sexually. Suddenly, his sexuality takes a back seat to other aspects of life which are universal to everybody, men/women, boys/girls, gay/straight or masculine/effeminate namely loyalty toward family vs. loyalty toward a love interest. It also forces Maximo, and the viewer, to question the acceptable boundaries of behavior/misdeeds you can overlook in a parent, brother, friend or lover, in order to continue to maintain a relationship with them, and which ones you can't.

The acting was excellent. I believed everyone in their rolls. The main characters were all well written and 3-dimensional. This movie will stay with you for a long time. It is extraordinary. I highly recommend it as a purchase as opposed to a rental because you will want to watch it more then once and share this unique experience with others.