The number of characters involved leaves the plotlines strung out and little emotion for the audience to cling to.
Comment
07/04/09
Serbis (2009)
80
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:20
Rotten:5
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: This darkly comic family drama finds ways of being viscerally graphic and intellectually stimulating at the same time.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: Filipino director Brillante Mendoza brings a frank, gritty immediacy to SERBIS, a multi-character, day-in-the-life portrait of a family-run movie house in the Philippines. Only this isn't your... [More]
Starring: Gina Pareno, Jaclyn Jose, Julio Diaz, Coco Martin
Director: Brillante Mendoza
Reviews for Serbis
film feels like it has more to say but can't get the wording right
07/01/09
A gritty little drama that leaves you feeling like you might need a shower.
05/22/09
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.
05/22/09
That calling-attention-to-the-idea-that-we're-watching-a-movie device is at odds with the realism of the story, but it does a nice job of illustrating the central question of Serbis: Which is going to fall apart first, the Family or the family?
04/10/09
You have been advised; proceed accordingly.
04/09/09
Enthralling. A vivid portrait of a family seemingly involved in only their own problems who have been infected by the filth and enervation around them.
03/20/09
Unflinching, graphic depictions of illicit sex and boil-lancing are memorable, but the family's moral ambiguities and sense of lost prestige are what fascinate the most.
02/27/09
Part-telenovela, part outlandish screwball comedy, part soft-porno, but completely without a road map, Serbis evokes Pedro Almodóvar, Tennessee Williams, and 1940s and '50s Hollywood.
02/26/09
Serbis has the feel of a documentary, but a documentary can't accomplish what "Serbis" does: Take us to a corner of the world where sex and regret are so intimately entwined.
02/20/09
A unique and artistic treatment of gritty family survival but one that will turn away viewers with its carnal setting and sand-blasted treatment of the human condition.
02/05/09
Often drags with too many poorly developed characters its convoluted, unfocused plot. If it were more character-driven and had a sharper screenplay, it would have been a much more captivating drama.
02/01/09
This isn't a family -- or a film -- you'll easily forget.
01/30/09
The Filipino movie Serbis is gentle, bawdy and at times rambunctiously, ticklishly rude.
01/30/09
Top CriticA scraggly, messy, often aimless, and yet consistently amusing and engaging work of black comedy-cum-social-realism.
01/30/09
Though [director] Mendoza doesn't care to resolve all of the many subplots he's jugging, the film gives a complete picture of a family, a business, and a city in disarray, and the looming fallout.
01/29/09
Rather than settling into a contemplative groove, Serbis bristles with live-wire intensity; neither the characters nor the camera stay still for long before something new propels the story into the next chapter.
01/29/09
Specialty audiences may appreciate this downbeat Filipino drama about an impoverished family trying to hold it together while running a porn theatre, but its unvarnished sex scenes won't play for mainstream tastes.
01/29/09
As a twitchily sensational series of interconnected images, it’s an awesome nugget of faux-trash gold.
01/28/09
The Filipino answer to Slumdog Millionaire!
01/27/09
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