100 Poems for Stella

Jason Paul Laxamana's 2017 Filipino film covers four years at university. Fidel stutters and, finding it hard to speak, puts his feelings into writing, deciding to write a hundred poems for Stella, whom he likes. Stella wants to be a rock musician, is angry and is fighting her own troubles; she treats him as a friend and that uncertainty lasts for years. The film does not present one-sided devotion as a romantic virtue and shows what the waiting costs him. Stella's story does not stay in the background but is told alongside her own struggle. The ending does not go where it is expected to, and that is what separates the film from the usual examples of its kind. The rapport between Bela Padilla and JC Santos carries it. Who it's for: viewers who like Filipino romantic drama and university stories. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a happy ending; the film resists one.