John Denver Trending

Arden Rod Condez's 2019 Filipino film follows a fourteen-year-old boy on the island of Panay. John Denver is accused of stealing a classmate's phone; a video taken during the ensuing fight reaches the internet and spreads fast. The film covers what happens next. Thousands who watch the video declare the boy guilty; the school distances itself to protect its own position, the town fills with gossip and his mother is left alone. Whether he did it is never actually investigated. The telling is plain and unemphatic; there is no big dramatic scene and the effect comes from that plainness. Jansen Magpusao plays the boy and Meryll Soriano his mother. The film was produced independently in the Philippines and won awards at festivals. Who it's for: those able to watch drama about online pile-ons and rural life. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a hopeful close; the film arrives somewhere heavy in its final section.