Product Details

• Actors: Soliman Cruz, JR Valentin, Neil Ryan Sese, Ping Medina, Bodjie Pascua
• Directors: Auraeus Solito
• Format: Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: TLA
• DVD Release Date: August 28, 2007
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000Q677HC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,999 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Review

the film is alarming, endearing, and utterly unflappable. --Dennis Lim, Village Voice

Product Description

THE BLOSSOMING OF MAXIMO OLIVEROS tells the story of Maxi (Nathan Lopez) a gay, pre-teen growing up in the slums of Manila, who is deeply loyal to his family of petty thieves. His world revolves around his father and two brothers, who love and protect him in return for Maxi s devotion to completing domestic chores and covering their tracks when they commit crimes. When Maxi meets Victor (JR Valentin) a well-meaning, handsome policeman, the two become fast friends and Maxi begins to learn that he can have a better life, which soon incurs the ire and disapproval of Maxi s family. The digitally-shot feature made its U.S. debut at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was the official Philippine entry of the 2007 Academy Awards® for Best Foreign Language film. The film has also garnered several film festival awards including the Teddy Award at the 2006 Berlinale Film Festival and Best Asian Film at the 2006 Rotterdam Film Festival.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky coming-of-age movie from the Phillipines, September 24, 2007

By 

Hulka (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (DVD)

This moving coming of age movie about about a 12 year boy's puppy love for a young cop had this big tough guy bawling like a baby.

Maxi---played by Nathan Lopez---is a sensitive 12-year-old boy whose life has deteriorated into a surrogate existence of his dead mother. Relegated to housekeeping and caring for his criminal father and brothers, Maxi becomes infatuated with a kind and honorable policeman---played by J.R. Valentin. The policeman responds to the boy's infatuation compassionately but behaves responsibly by gently refusing sexual contact. Instead, he befriends Maxi and tries to steer him to a more respectable way of life. But his relationship with Maxi and his family has an unexpected and tragic result.

Did Maxi blossom? Yes, in a big way! Not only did Maxi take his mother's place cooking and cleaning, but he also becomes the heart of his family. It was his big heart that moves his brothers into the future after the tragedy that occurs to the family during the movie.

Turn off the cable TV and watch this quirky, little movie from the Philippines. It's a classic coming-of-age movie that will move and inspire you.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL FILM ON SO MANY LEVELS, August 29, 2007

By 

Exley Cave (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (DVD)

THE BLOSSOMING OF MAXIMO OLIVEROS is masterful on so many levels. One, it's a coming-of-age story expertly structured. Its dramatic momentum, its turning of the screw, is gripping. Motivations are complicated, outcomes surprising. Two, its rendering of Manila is honest, raw, personal, and illuminating. It captures both the hope and the desperation of life in a third world slum. It shows the beauty co-existing with the sludge. It does so without varnish, and without sentimentality. Three, it explores sexual identity in a fresh way. It's been on the festival circuit for a couple of years, selling out everywhere it plays. I'm thrilled to see it's finally released on dvd.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Gay Coming of Age Movie, June 11, 2008

By 

Muskoka Man "Muskoka Man" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (DVD)

In reading the prior reviews and descriptions of this movie I was not prepared for what an intense drama it really was. Wow.

There are not may movies which would dare to depict a 12 year old boy as truly transgendered and accepted as such by his family, friends and neighbors. His two older brothers even refer to him as their "sister." Most other movies of the "gay coming-of-age" variety show boys encountering their gayness for the first time as masculine, or pretending to be masculine, as their parents and peers try to steer them in the traditional straight/masculine direction. Not Maximo. He acts and dresses like a girl and takes care of the men in his family as if he were female. He adores them and they adore him just as he is. When he does get bullied and threatened with rape by older thugs, his brothers come to the rescue (maybe a little too zealously as it turns out).

In the beginning of the movie and for the first 40 minutes or so, we see Maximo at his most carefree and innocent. He plays games (mostly with girls), dresses up, watches movies, and models exotic women's clothes on a pretend runway. He falls in love with a handsome and kind 20 something policeman. All is well with the world. But as the story unravels we learn secrets about Maximo's family, and especially his father, that force Maximo to question his sense of right and wrong, his view of the world as black/white and good/evil. We also learn things about his policeman/pseudo lover. Everything begins to take on shades of gray and Maximo must choose his loyalties and in the process lose his innocence, and I don't mean sexually. Suddenly, his sexuality takes a back seat to other aspects of life which are universal to everybody, men/women, boys/girls, gay/straight or masculine/effeminate namely loyalty toward family vs. loyalty toward a love interest. It also forces Maximo, and the viewer, to question the acceptable boundaries of behavior/misdeeds you can overlook in a parent, brother, friend or lover, in order to continue to maintain a relationship with them, and which ones you can't.

The acting was excellent. I believed everyone in their rolls. The main characters were all well written and 3-dimensional. This movie will stay with you for a long time. It is extraordinary. I highly recommend it as a purchase as opposed to a rental because you will want to watch it more then once and share this unique experience with others.