We just recently watched 2018's "A Star is Born" - a film that literally revolved around its soundtrack and it was by chance that "Ngayon Kaya" has similar vibes. Good or bad, Overhyped or maybe not, this film heavily hinges itself on the nostalgia that its soundtrack brings. On some regard, its target audience will find this enjoyable but for us, the screenplay, writing, and chemistry lacked that extra punch for this film to really stand out.
Almost a decade after graduation, bestfriends and ex-bandmates Harold (Paulo Avelino) and AM (Janine Gutierrez) once again meet in their college friend's wedding. The two reminisce about their past times spent close together and why their budding relationship never took off. As Harold's flight back to Canada looms ever closer, can the two finally hit it off and fix what could have been this time?
It will be easy to be swayed by the film's soundtrack which was designed to really bring in a lot of emotions to a target audience for sure reminiscing about their younger selves. But the soundtrack also brought a lot of question marks into the fold. By the time the film reaches its most climactic parts, this over-reliance on its songs falters and the nostalgic veil completely lost its charm. Central to this was the film's screenplay which we can simply describe as half-baked. The film moves through the past and present back and forth but it lacked a lot of substance. In fact, we wanted to know our main characters AM and Harold a whole lot more than the film was able to portray them. Specifically, we wanted to know more about their present plights but the film was literally stuck on the past and even in the past-based scenes, most of these were heavily focused on Harold more than AM. The film's strongest point for us was its cinematography more than anything else. Overall though, "Ngayon Kaya" is as generic as you can go. It's the type of manufactured drama we have grown accustomed to. It's was decent but nothing special to really make it memorable.
Ngayon Kaya Movie Review: Soundtrack Overload
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