2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten

Petersen Vargas's first film is set in the Pampanga region of the Philippines. Felix, a friendless high achiever, has his life changed by the arrival of two half-American brothers at school. The Snyder brothers draw him into their own dark plans. Behind the film lies the lahar covering the region, the layer of ash and mud left after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which has altered the landscape. That geography sets the tone: half-buried houses, dried riverbeds. The narrative begins as a story of adolescence and goes somewhere much darker. Felix's attraction to one of the brothers is entangled with the power between them, and the film does not romanticise it. The ending is deliberately left open. Who it's for: those who like Philippine independent cinema and queer coming-of-age narratives. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a reassuring close; the film ends somewhere dark and offers no explanation.