‘Marupok AF’ REVIEW: A cursory glance at what the Trans community goes through
‘Marupok AF’ REVIEW: A cursory glance at what the Trans community goes through
One of the most widely anticipated film festivals, Cinemalaya, is back again this year. Now including a diverse array of films, including the festival's first documentary and animated feature in the competition. Last week, August 4, the festival opened with Quark Henares' film Marupok AF (Where Is The Lie), which also is its Philippine Premiere. The film is brought out by a solid cast, that without them, I feel like it wouldn’t really work. The film turns Janzen Torres' viral catfishing Twitter thread into a meta dark comedy that cleverly plays with genre conventions, mixing satire with comedy.
The film elevates and benefits a lot from Quark’s distinctive style. Snappy and quick-witted, while pulling off these delicate balances that elicit emotion in the most unexpected sequences, however sometimes the story also suffers from this particular approach, not really delving further into what the characters are going through and just casually skimming through moments. However, Maris Racal’s character, Beanie, has a certain complexity to her. Although it might seem that she’s just erratic at the beginning, throughout, the film hints that there’s a lot more than just her resentment towards Trans people without actually showing or saying a lot. But at the same time I think this is where the film’s problem lies (more on that later). While it did remain remarkably truthful to the source material, I wish Quark Henares had used more of his artistic liberty to take the story farther, deeper, and heavier so that it wasn't just a frivolous visual interpretation of the viral Twitter thread.
The film comes from a sincere place of wanting to raise awareness on the struggles and difficulties that Trans people face through in our modern society. But the film doesn’t really do it justice by telling the story and putting most of the focus on Beanie, who’s in the film, is just outwardly transphobic and displays a lot of microaggressions towards Trans people. At some point the film even tries to make us sympathize with her. It doesn’t pull any of its punches to the point that sometimes it feels extremely uncomfortable and offensive. The film wants to make a statement about Trans and queer people, but it never truly engages with them nor explores the complexities they go through on a daily basis.
I wish Quark Henares was a bit more critical on its message and approach, whether it be on cancel culture or about Trans people. He’s tackling some very sensitive themes in the film and it was just not very well thought of most of the time. There are quite a few questionable creative decisions where it clings on comedic tropes despite showing serious events. I wished it had also been more sensitive to tackling these issues for the Trans community. The disclaimer in the beginning was not enough. There are some lines in the film where it’s triggering and uncomfortable to hear yet during the premiere, some of the audience still laugh at it— and it just goes to show that Trans people still don't have a safe space in this society. Quark Henares’ Marupok AF (Where Is The Lie) has an interesting and important story to tell, but it doesn’t really do it justice by having him tell this story and giving it a dark comedic treatment.
