WHO would have known that “Cleaner” would be better than “Captain America: Brave New World”? Not me, said, uh, me.
It was a pleasant surprise to watch a movie that didn’t make me fall asleep, which rarely happens nowadays. I don’t know if it’s my age, or my standards for movies have leveled up, or my brain fog keeps me from absorbing a movie’s plot, but my kaligayahan when it comes to movies is not mababaw anymore.
And “Cleaner” passed whatever my current standards are, that is, if there are any. Because what if there’s none, and my fun at the cinema is simply dependent on whether I’m strict carnivore or not. The more meat intake, the more fun at the movies? Hmmm.
I watched “Cleaner” with no free popcorn since it wasn’t shown at the Director’s Club that day, unlike “Captain America.” Free popcorn means free distraction. And I ordered hotdog bites then to hopefully lessen the popcorn’s sugar rush.
Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” teaches the reader to practice the power of now, the present moment, thus, making that surrender to the popcorn craving as so over now. Regrets will not reverse its side effects. Carb intake increases carb cravings. The only way to stop those cravings is to stop eating carbs.
By the time I watched “Cleaner” on Wednesday, I was already on a trying-so-hard carnivore diet. Operative words: trying so hard. And because of that, at least this I know: the movie has Daisy Ridley as Joey Locke. Yes, Ridley as in Rey of the “Star Wars” trilogy: “The Force Awakens,” “The Last Jedi,” and “The Rise of Skywalker.”
But it was when I watched “Captain America” that I wore a “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” T-shirt. Should have worn that in watching “Cleaner.” Still, no big deal. A movie’s cast don’t mind what T-shirts the audience are wearing. The cast’s main concern is the movie’s highest-grosser status.
It’s in politics that the T-shirt print may matter. Try wearing a PBBM T-shirt at an event that has Vice President Sara Duterte as the guest speaker. Or a VP Sara T-shirt at a Malacanang meeting that PBBM is presiding over. Please define awkward. Haha.
Same for wearing a Mayor Klarex Uy T-shirt at former Mayor Oscar Moreno’s campaign rally as both are running for Cagayan de Oro mayor this year. Or how about a T-shirt with the photo of CDO District 1 Rep. Lordan Suan worn at former Vice Mayor Kikang Uy’s campaign rally. The two are the top—or only?—contenders for the position that Suan is currently occupying. This is a rematch for them, with the 2022 election as their first time to be rivals for the same position.
We can go on and on with this list of don’ts when it comes to political T-shirts. If only there are don’ts, too, for political tarpaulins and billboards. Yeah, dream on.
Political candidates seem to believe that the largest tarps and billboards attract more voters. Hmmm. Let’s see—which is pronounced as that Spanish term for milk.
Imagine CDO with no political tarps and billboards. The city will then be the brave new world in Pinoy politics for not tolerating such ads, and it will then be a cleaner city. But that may lead to some star wars featuring the political candidates versus the Commission on Elections.
