If love moves the ground, heartbreak dislodges. If love elevates those who feel it, heartbreak can be a cataclysm. If we accept that the love relationship is the great intersubjective bet of the human being, it will be understood that its failure can be experienced by its protagonists as the greatest of defeats.
The cause of this internal collapse would be that in the most intense love, people put themselves in the hands of the other, and we reach the maximum degree of vulnerability: That is why nothing harms us as much as their contempt or rejection.
It is then that the temptation of revenge comes out of its hiding place and enters an unexpected orbit. At this moment, the first tremor of love transforms into a tremor of contradictory emotions and fertile territory for a creator.
The first image, in black and white, of 'Unfriend', is that of two male teenagers in a perfect state of romantic happiness. They are on top of an abandoned building, and their nostalgic looks and gestures ensure that they are the happiest lovers in the universe. It's Christmas Eve.
However, the initial image is far from reality. Filipino filmmaker Joselito "Jay" Altarejos deliberately follows the same two boys having sex in a small, dirty, dimly lit room where demons and other video game monsters seem to wink at the lovers from the walls. Everything plays with reality. The room is above an Internet cafe.
We will never again see the serenity, sincerity and euphoria of the film's opening dream sequence, as these have been replaced by the sweaty and unfunny date between two young men about to end their relationship.
After the night of breakup sex, David (Sandino Martín, 'Lonely Connections', 2023; 'Esprit De Corps', 2014), the youngest of the teenagers, aged 15, returns home smiling to his grandmother (Boots Anson -Roa), a kind but simple woman immersed in her Catholic faith.
Although grandmother and grandson can sing and dance karaoke songs together and share tender moments, the generation gap is enormous. On the other hand, David's parents work abroad, which aggravates his loneliness. Only once does social media become a benign force in the film, as it allows David to Skype with his mother.
Once David discovers through social media that 17-year-old Jonathan (Angelo Ilagan, 'Alimuom ng kahapon, 2015) has sought another lover, he locks himself in his room, where he keeps a shrine dedicated to his ex-boyfriend, and during the following hours, he begins an attempt to recover it through social networks. It monitors your steps, follows you from a distance, sends signals with red hearts and reacts with "Likes" to your posts. After all, David is today's typical awkward teenager who is better able to express his feelings through knee-jerk reactions on his digital profiles than through a real interpersonal connection.
When his affections are unrequited, he makes one last effort to reconcile as a sinister backup plan solidifies in his mind. The mission he embarks on matures with every step, as he distances himself from reality and wanders among the crowds and chaos of Manila. David needs to broadcast live to the world the love his ex-lover just wasted.
And I'm not spoiling this, as Altarejos publicly acknowledges before its release that his film is based on the 2011 shooting in a Philippine shopping mall of two young lovers, whose amateur images later appeared online and went viral.
My heart is squeezed by the image of David, alienated from reality, as he buys credits to resume the online harassment of his ex-boyfriend, and does not notice the homophobic insults his neighbors throw at him. When you temporarily come out of the spell and respond to grievances, you become aware of your surroundings. At that moment, David stops wallowing in himself and becomes a witness to problems that seem bigger than his own.
Recognized with several prestigious awards both in the Philippines and internationally for his groundbreaking openly gay-themed films such as 'The Man in the Lighthouse', 'Antonio's Secret', 'Kambyo', 'The Game of Juan's Life', 'Pink Halo- Halo', 'The Commitment' and 'Tale of the Lost Boys', among others, in 'Unfriend', Altarejos reflects the sadness of a child, while telling a passionate story of a gay teenager who searches for a lover who has become indifferent to his love, at the same time it intends to be a film with a message.
In this sense, it works as a social commentary, giving us an idea of ​​the new generations' inclination towards social networks, as well as showing the dangers that unfiltered information available online can represent for teenagers.
The love story in 'Unfriend' is a cry of sadness. The film, on the other hand, is also a powerful observation of obsession. As soon as Altarejos retracts the unabashed romanticism of the opening scenes, he proceeds to detail the less endearing qualities of the specific homosexual relationship defined by the virtual world in which it exists.
Furthermore, David, with his constant and rapid shift between aching lover and sex-starved animal, exemplifies the youth that has been conditioned to trivialize emotions. This is how the film has an impact precisely because its shameless portrayal of current attitudes and behaviors are too close to reality to be comforting. Infused with love and all other demons, there is no predicting what kind of monsters we can all become.
The film reminds us that in the story of love pain is hidden for a thousand and one reasons whose consequences do not respond to reasons. And the ways of expressing that hurt and regret are unexpected. It is love-heartbreak-resentment in an explosion that can spin like a top in the deceived, disdained person.
In this way, Zig Madamba Dulay's script portrays the anguish and obsession of a 15-year-old gay boy with social networks, and creates a fascinating story of how the Internet can bring fragile minds into a dangerous world.
The filmmaker himself expressed in an interview with Reuters: "I was interested in showing people how social networks have changed the way we live our lives, how we have become artists and how social networks have also turned us into voyeurs and exhibitionists. ".
'Unfriend' vividly portrays life in the Philippines, where poverty forces millions to work abroad, and mobile phones and WiFi make social media ubiquitous, after teenagers buy small amounts of phone credit in the street stalls to bury yourself in the dilapidated booths of the cibercafes.
Premiered in the Panorama Section of the 2014 Berlinale, the film quickly attracted the attention of local and international media for highlighting the "dangerous power of social networks."
Arvin Viola's photography is full of beautiful intimate images that leave one more sad than excited. However, what makes the film appealing is that it is more interested in intimacy than sensuality. Deep down, it brought up mixed feelings. On the one hand, he secretly wanted David and Jonathan to get back together, but at the same time, he wanted to see the magnitude of the pain David can endure.
I'm struck by the liberal use of the shaky handheld camera in natural lighting. Many viewers will find this way of filming strange, but here it is used effectively to give it a grittier, dirtier texture, very appropriate for what the film reflects.
'Unfriend' is not a perfect film, but what it lacks in technical perfection and surprises it makes up for in the setting: a sensation of the gradual breaking of a dam of anger, the growing temptation to break the silence in the face of the pain of heartbreak, the disloyalty, disappointment or infidelity of the loved one and their tumultuous experience.
With each sequence, Altarejos' film clings to my throat until it leaves me breathless. I couldn't get it out of my mind that extraordinary events can happen on any bright sunny day. And so I held onto the couch, to follow the controlled anguish of the actor who brings David to life, seen in various forms as he goes through the various stages of grief.
I can hardly erase Jonathan and David's last meeting from my head, seeing how his voice and hands tremble, and he almost chokes with the sobs he tries to suppress, but his body gives him away as he chews his straw and blows bubbles in his mouth your tea.