when director mike de leon started quarrelling with rogue magazine and the MMFF peeps last year, i started getting nervous for his comeback film Citizen Jake. i wished him well, if not better than ever. in my book mike de leon was neck-and-neck with peque gallaga, next only to lino brocka and ishmael bernal in the roster of top directors of the second golden age of philippine cinema.
i wished atom araullo even better, hoped the new road taken would mean a level-up in his activist advocacies as journalist for nation. i wasn’t surprised that mike had thought him perfect for the role — atom is muy simpatico with tons of sex appeal, and he looks good on screen. can he act? was the 64$ question, but it didn’t seem to matter, or mike would not have made the effort to convince him that only he could play the role of jake herrera, citizen journalist — even, that if atom said no, then it would be the end of citizen jake the concept. that must have been the clincher, so to speak.
it promised to be interesting at the very least, a blockbuster at the very best. unfortunately the jury is in, and the verdict is out, as in, out cold. the legit reviews (as opposed to promotional pieces) are of a flawed film, but i haven’t seen it so i won’t go there. but i will go where mike de leon himself has dared, beyond the film, to his outrageously nasty and scandalizingly out-of-control take-down of atom as actor as journalist as person for some 10 days now on citizen jake’s facebook page. all in the spirit of truth-telling, he says
Citizen Jake: its strange that the phenomenon of social media has made us even more timid to speak the truth about anything. people cannot seem to get that one of the major reasons i have decided to speak out publicly on this issue is that it is undeniable that we have made a very politically charged melodrama. and AA was part of it not just as an actor but as a very active screenplay collaborator. please do not forget that. end of discussion.
it seems to me that it’s not speaking the truth that mike is up to as it is spinning the truth and blaming, taking out on, atom his failure as director of Citizen Jake. no doubt there was a huge clash of egos and that atom gave as good as he got, why not.
and then, again, it could just be a case of unrequited love, as in, hell hath no fury…. as many opine. or maybe mike simply brought out the worst, instead of the best, in atom. what.a.waste.
*
‘Citizen Jake’: Brave but unrealized by j. neil c. garcia
Monsters in white sneakers by arnold alamon