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<\/a>\nAs I watched the events unfold in the \u201cGraceland\u201d I could not help but ask myself \u201cWhat would I do?\u201d No choice is simple in director Ron Morales\u2019 morality tale and the story is told with such gritty realism that it\u2019s impossible not to get wrapped up and feel <\/i>the pain and struggle of the film\u2019s lead played by Arnold Reyes. By the end credits I felt like I had lived through something horrible and sad that was also, by all accounts, intriguing and daring storytelling.
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<\/a>\n\u201cGraceland\u201d is set in the Philippines and tells the story of hard working young man named Marlon (Reyes). He is a family man who works long hours as a driver for a powerful politician (Menggie Cobarrubias) who has some deep, rotten secrets that Marlon helps stay hidden. Let\u2019s just say that there is a sexual appetite for young girls that comes to the surface in the local news and Marlon is fired. But Marlon is desperate with a young daughter to care for as well as an ailing wife who is need of organ transplant. Fun stuff.<\/p>\n
On his last day on the job, Marlon picks up his and the politician\u2019s daughter from school and is quickly stopped as the children are kidnapped. During the snatching, the politician\u2019s daughter is shot and killed as Marlon\u2019s child is abducted. Now Marlon must hide the fact that the murder occurred so the ransom is paid and his kid retrieved. It\u2019s an emotionally complicated, tangled scenario that unfolds at an expert pace.<\/p>\n
There are no innocent characters left standing in the film as it focuses on those who have fallen from \u201cGraceland\u201d. And no, there is no Elvis appearance even though a Pilipino version of the King would have gone a long way to lighten things up. But the intent is not to give us a nice, easy story to swallow. It is the actions of the characters and the karmic repercussions that are explored. Much of the film\u2019s impact can also be placed at the feet of the lead actor, Arnold Reyes. As Marlon, he gives an intensely raw performance that never touches on the melodramatic even though he spends much of the running time choking back tears. It is honest performance and reason alone to seek this out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cGraceland\u201d is in limited release and opens April 26. For San Diego folks, the film will be playing at the Reading Gaslamp & Reading Carmel Mountain\u00a0theaters. As I watched the events unfold in the \u201cGraceland\u201d I could not help but ask myself \u201cWhat would I do?\u201d No choice is simple in director Ron Morales\u2019 morality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1820,8558,9776,17332],"class_list":["post-4969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-arnold-reyes","tag-graceland","tag-independent-films","tag-ron-morales"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nMorales maintains a growing tension throughout and while the story touches on dark subjects, it never wallows in filth. Teenage prostitution is a hard sell but it is handled perfectly, getting the severity across without being too graphic.<\/p>\n