Erik Matti employs his directorial signatures in this steamy feature that makes him depart from the realm of crime and thriller.
Regal Entertainment
Actors: Alexa Miro, Rob Gomez, Pau Benitez, Candice Ramos, Rosh Barman, Sarah Holmes, Donna Cariaga, Carlo Torobal, Roeder Camanag,Emilio Francisco, Chloe Reyes, Marina Benipayo
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Premise: Two young people take different approaches to move on. But a global event turns modern dating upside down (Netflix)
Running Time: 126 minutes
Director: Erik Matti
Watch it on: Netflix, Upstream.PH
Why You Should See It:
The intriguing dynamics of relationships and moving on are at the core of this new Erik Matti feature, which displays his exemplary brilliance in filmmaking. Matti has consistently evolved alongside the perpetually-shifting viewer preferences, but he has never lost his distinctive directorial style.
In A Girl+A Guy, Matti plunges into the mystifying world of modern relationships, but he gives it the needed touches that appeal better to the younger generation, from whom he could likely get an audience. The movie makes the esteemed director depart from the realm of crime and thriller, but he takes with him his sense of elaborateness and unmistakable depth.
The film has more of a rom-com vibe, but it does carry dramatic themes and large banks on steamy and intimate proceedings to grab interest. In its opening frames, alone, A Girl+Guy greets with handsomely-shot graphic sex scenes. That’s a hook most viewers won’t surely take a pass on, but there’s more to this film that certainly demands bigger attention.
In the film, Raf (Gomez) and Fiona (Miro) meet when they are both trying to move on from a failed relationship. Before it, they first had to mend their broken hearts by literally trying everyone—with Raf engaging in casual sex with his workmates and Fiona finding her next bed companion through dating apps— to shift their focus from heartbreak. A Girl+A Guy takes it time to allow both characters to get their glorious moments of relentless ‘hook-ups’, before letting them meet halfway in the film. And once they do, they indulge in exchanges of ideas about moving on and relationships while having the time of their lives as sex partners. Then comes the realization that maybe they’re not for each other; COVID happens, and they’ve come back-and-forth as being lovers and strangers.
Matti’s choices in the film make him resolute at establishing it as not a rom-com feature, although the film does have romcom features. He takes a more unconventional fashion by dismissing the meet-cute route. Raf and Fiona are two individuals with far bigger concerns than diving into a committed relationship when they met, and they are more self-identity seekers than hopeless romantics who are after true love. It becomes clearer in the end when their circumstances reveal they are, after all, chasing their dreams and fulfilling their youth who simply don’t settle with mundane aspirations.
For newcomers, both Gomez and Fiona pull off wonderful and compelling performances. That’s even more astonishing, given that the script isn’t at all perfect, and their characters have flaws, too. The overwhelming number of steamy scenes may, well…overwhelm casual viewers, but it’s hard to miss the gloss and ingenuity employed.
On the whole, A Girl+A Guy is an uneven masterpiece. It has both bleak and brilliant moments, but it does soar wonderfully on the latter. This can’t be Matti’s most exquisite feature, it’s a refreshing angle to look at when you look at his crime and thriller-stuffed portfolio.
5 – Excellent
4 – Very Good
3 – Good
2 – Tolerable
1 – Terrible
A Girl+A Guy now streams on Netflix. Watch the official full trailer, below:
