Serbis

R

2008

1h 31m

Drama

List

80%

Tomatometer

30 Reviews

51%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

A struggling family (Gina Pareño, Jaclyn Jose, Coco Martin) owns a Filipino porn theater where prostitutes conduct their business.

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Critics Consensus

This darkly comic family drama finds ways of being viscerally graphic and intellectually stimulating at the same time.

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David Fear

Time Out

Rated: 4/5

Nov 18, 2011

Full Review

Andrea Gronvall

Time Out

Rated: 5/5

Nov 17, 2011

Full Review

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

While it has its gag-inducing moments, director Brillante Mendoza's film about a three-generational family that lives in and operates a rundown porn theatre is more sweet than twisted.

Rated: 3/4

May 22, 2009

Full Review

David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

There's a concentration on the immediate and the detail, and the larger social picture is entirely missing, so one is irresistibly drawn to the conclusion that the rot of Filipino society is the fault of the ordinary Filipino.

Feb 13, 2021

Full Review

David Harris

Spectrum Culture

Serbis, though humorous at times, suffers from Mendoza's wanton vagueness.

Rated: 2.5/5

Oct 3, 2019

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

Mendoza's roving camera captures his characters strife and pain with an unblinking eye.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jul 7, 2019

Full Review

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Georgan G

This film seemed more like a documentary than a drama. Getting to see all the members of this big family negotiate their problems was interesting enough. With all the nudity & soft porn it was downright entertaining.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/25/23

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Audience Member

story of a family trying to run a restaurant & porno theater ironically called family theater

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

the movie paints a good enough picture of the character and the desperate situations they are in, but then what? the plot (or lack thereof) doesnt move any of these characters forward. someone please give the director a crash course on what a story arc is.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Brilliant movie, showing the hectic life of a disintegrating family in the town of Angeles in The Philippines. They are running a cinema showing soft-porn movies, which is only an excuse for providing the local prostitutes and thiefes and other ungraceful professions with a place to meet their clientele. Obviously, no family can live in that environment without being adversely effected by it. Despite all that madness and repeating pattern of failures generations after generations, I think there was a somewhat positive ending, a dim chance of a better future, of a united family. The camerawork and the storytelling is amazing. Most of the scenes take place within the walls of the decrepit movie theatre but the boundaries between professional and personal events, street life and private life, day and night are rather blurred. Sometimes claustrophobic, sometimes disgusting, sometimes graphic, but this is Philippine or World cinema at its best.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is going to be a modern classic...black comedy and the works...

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An artistically filthy movie, engaging to the other side of Filipino culture... Truly perfect in the way the actors deliver their characters and the atmosphere of the film is just classic and enduring...

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

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Brillante Mendoza

Director

Gina Pareño

Nanay Flor

Jaclyn Jose

Nayda

Coco Martin

Alan

Kristofer King

Ronald

Dan Alvaro

Jerome

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Synopsis

A struggling family (Gina Pareño, Jaclyn Jose, Coco Martin) owns a Filipino porn theater where prostitutes conduct their business.

Director: Brillante Mendoza
Producer: Ferdy Lapuz
Screenwriter: Armando Lao
Rating: R (Language|Sexual Content|Nudity)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Tagalog
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 27, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $64.4K
Runtime: 1h 31m
Sound Mix: Dolby

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