Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Brillante Mendoza
Cast
Jiro Manio,
Coco Martin,
Kristoffer King,
Nathan Lopez,
Jaclyn Jose,
Julio Diaz
Genre
Crime,
Drama
A tribute to the real potential of digital cinema, Slingshot is a slum epic on steroids. It weaves stories left and right into a shocking tableau about life for the lowest of the low in the Philippines poorest and most crime-ridden districts. National elections are coming up so in the usual attempt to appear “tough-on-crime”, The Big Boys have been sent into crack down on the the local squatters, thieves and miscreants who litter the film like broken bottle. And since no sweep is ever a clean sweep, the cops brutal shock-force tactics quickly ripple outwards with jagged repurcussions.
We hate to say it, but we can't find anywhere to view this film.
Village Voice
Though one misses cinematographer Oydssey Flores's camerawork that played such an important role on the three subsequent films--at once more chaotic and more expressive than the digital shooting here--Mendoza's look at the illicit activity of a group of marginal Filipinos is no less feverishly absorbing.
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Portrayed entirely without sentiment, everyone here is equally abject, from the crushed victim of a human stampede to the starving baby playing in its own feces. The mood of scrambling desperation can be exhausting, but the filmmaking is never less than exhilarating.
Boxoffice Magazine by John P. McCarthy
Tirador ’s frenetic style and locale will remind many viewers of Fernando Meirelles’ much-admired City of God.
Time Out
One can maintain the energy and patience for donnybrooks and general insanity only so long.
Variety
Supplies no end of shock, but an underdeveloped emotional core keeps the viewer at arm's length.
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