independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
2018 American dark comedy film written and directed by
H.P. Mendoza
H. P. Mendoza (born 13 March 1977, San Francisco, California) is an Americans, American film director, screenwriter, actor, film producer, producer and musician. He is best known for his micro-budget work as screenwriter, composer and lyricist o ...
. It debuted at the 2018
San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asia ...
and was released theatrically by
ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...
on December 7, 2018 and on home video by Gravitas Ventures on October 1, 2019. The film's title refers to the tropical vegetable with a bitter flavor known in the Philippines as ampalaya.
The screenplay was based on Mendoza's experiences with physical abuse in his nuclear family as well as his extended family, originally written in 1997 under the title ''He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'' based on the song by
The Hollies
The Hollies are a British pop rock band, formed in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Allan Clarke (singer), Allan Clarke and Graham ...
.
On December 11, 2019, ''Bitter Melon'' was named one of "The 20 Best Bay Area Movies of the Decade" by ''
The Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...
'' after having placed on numerous "Best of 2018" lists.
Plot
The film follows Declan as he returns to his hometown of San Francisco for Christmas only to realize that his second oldest brother, Troy, has been ruling the house with fear, physically abusing his wife, Shelly, and emotionally abusing his mother Prisa and daughter Mina. When eldest brother Moe arrives to complete the Christmas reunion, the festivities begin as the extended family shows up and the big Filipino Christmas can begin. But when cousin Tiva offers domestic violence support to the withdrawn Shelly, abusive Troy finds out and assaults Shelly for Declan and Moe to find when they get home. The next day, Declan and Moe are disturbed to discover that everyone in the house (Prisa, Shelly, Mina and Troy) all act as if nothing happened, even as Shelly nurses a bruised face. This leads Declan to propose a radical idea to the family: to kill Troy.
Cast
Themes
Mendoza has said that the script for ''Bitter Melon'' is his "only screenplay that doesn’t pass the
Bechdel test
The Bechdel test ( ) is a measure of the representation of women in film (and, by extension, in fiction in general). The test asks whether a film features at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man. The measure som ...
, and for good reason. It’s a movie about how men treat women.” The commentary track on the home video release has Mendoza explaining that every seemingly random conversation in the film examines masculinity from different angles; from toxic masculinity in the household, to the perception of masculinity in the
LGBT community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...
, to the future of masculinity in the wake of its patriarchal past.
Music
This is the first feature film directed by H.P. Mendoza to not be completely scored by him. His original intention was to have a " needle drop
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
" with a soundtrack consisting only of licensed music from his childhood, mixing local heroes like
Carlos Santana
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...
with 1960s R&B groups like The Delfonics as well as actual 1950s recordings of Filipino folk songs by
The Hollies
The Hollies are a British pop rock band, formed in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Allan Clarke (singer), Allan Clarke and Graham ...
. After several fruitless attempts by music supervisor Terri D'Ambrosio to clear the rights to the actual song, Mendoza wrote his own musical number ("Wind Chime") for the finale of the film.
Though Mendoza could not clear the rights for any of the American songs, he was able to secure all of the Filipino folk songs. The rest of the songs were replaced by a new original score that both Mendoza and Marco D'Ambrosio co-composed.
Budget
The film was initially funded by Cinematografo, an initiative created by
ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...
to grant $100,000 to Filipino-American filmmakers, but during production, H.P. Mendoza's production company, Ersatz Film, raised $100,000 more, half of which was raised on
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
where it was featured as one of Kickstarter's "Projects We Love".
Critical reception
On review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, ''Bitter Melon'' holds an approval rating of based on reviews. Critic Dennis Harvey of ''Variety'' called the film "H.P. Mendoza's best directorial feature to date." Ben Kenigsberg of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called the film "absorbing" and "distinguished by its willingness to oto some disturbing places", but criticized the ending for "grind ngto a halt in its final third as the characters talk things out, which might be helpful in life but in drama tends to belabor the obvious."
In a 50/50 review from ''
Film Threat
''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...
'', Norm Gidney says, "There are scenes of utter brilliance and honesty, then clunky scenes of melodrama the next", while Tim Sika of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle called the film "an indie masterpiece" and "an absolutely beautiful movie about monsters and how they're made."
Best of Lists
* The 20 Best Bay Area Movies of the Decade - ''
The Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...
Entropy
Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynam ...
''
* 31 Favorite Films of
Outfest
Outfest is an LGBTQ-oriented nonprofit that produces two film festivals, operates a movie streaming platform, and runs educational services for filmmakers in Los Angeles. Outfest is one of the key partners, alongside the Frameline Film Festival ...
CAAMFEST
CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asia ...
- ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
San Diego Reader
The ''San Diego Reader'' is an alternative press newspaper in the county of San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a ...
''
* Top 12 Films at
NewFest NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival put on by The New Festival, Inc., is one of the most comprehensive forums of national and international LGBT film/video in the world.
Founded in 1988, The New Festival, Inc i ...
Tallgrass Film Festival
The Tallgrass Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Wichita, Kansas, specializing in independent films. It was founded in 2003 by Timothy Gruver.
Gruver was raised in Wichita. He studied filmmaking at Brigham Young University. After c ...
- ''
Wichita Eagle
''The Wichita Eagle'' is a daily newspaper published in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is owned by The McClatchy Company and is the largest newspaper in Wichita and the surrounding area.
History
Origins
In 1870, ''The Vidette'' was the fi ...
''
* Inspiring FilAms of 2018 - ''Philippine News''
Tallgrass Film Festival
The Tallgrass Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Wichita, Kansas, specializing in independent films. It was founded in 2003 by Timothy Gruver.
Gruver was raised in Wichita. He studied filmmaking at Brigham Young University. After c ...
Home media
''Bitter Melon'' was made available on Special Edition Blu-ray and DVD as well as in Digital HD via Gravitas Ventures on October 1, 2019.