100
San Francisco Chronicle by Jonathan Curiel
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.
Service (Serbis)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Philippines,
- France,
- South Korea,
- Hong Kong
- 2008
- · 90m
Director
Brillante Mendoza
Cast
Coco Martin,
Jaclyn Jose,
Gina Pareño,
Mercedes Cabral,
Kristoffer King,
Julio Diaz
Genre
Drama
A struggling family on the brink of disintegration owns a Filipino porn theater that serves as a home, a playground, a business, and a refuge for the gay prostitutes who conduct their business there. A labyrinth for the lost and wandering, the theater holds the secrets of bigamy, pregnancy, incest, and disease.
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What are critics saying?
90
Village Voice by J. Hoberman
Serbis may be a raunch-fest, but it's also a mind-trip--a raunch-fest with ideas.
88
Boston Globe by Wesley Morris
Merry, filthy, unstoppably hormonal, Serbis feels very much like the sort of movie that happens when no one is minding the store.
83
The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias
At its best, Serbis is a vibrant slice of life that establishes this theater as a living organism, nurturing a society of outcasts; it's like "Ship Of Fools" with blowjobs and boil-lancings.
80
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Gentle, bawdy and at times rambunctiously, ticklishly rude.
75
Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips
The theater building is a four-story monster, and by the end of the picture we know it very well, in all its broken-down glory.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
The camera explores each nook and cranny of the dilapidated movie-house like an usher who knows his way round blindfolded, and the building, with its richly visual interior structures desperately in need of an overhaul, comes to symbolize poetically the predicament of its inhabitants and their moral ambiguity.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Maggie Lee
The camera explores each nook and cranny of the dilapidated movie-house like an usher who knows his way round blindfolded, and the building, with its richly visual interior structures desperately in need of an overhaul, comes to symbolize poetically the predicament of its inhabitants and their moral ambiguity.
70
Chicago Reader by Joshua Katzman
Raunchy and profane.
63
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
This is not a film most people will enjoy. Its qualities are apparent only if appreciates cinematic style for itself.
60
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
This isn't a family -- or a film -- you'll easily forget.
60
Variety
Brillante Mendoza’s latest opus that revels in shock value.
60
Variety by Jay Weissberg
Brillante Mendoza’s latest opus that revels in shock value.
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