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All Of You: A Modern And Refreshing Take On Love
The ups and downs might as well have been ours
There’s a stigma surrounding Pinoy romantic films, largely because of the surplus of same-scene-different-actor moments and same-plot-slightly-different-twist stories. We’ve seen the rich guy woo the farmer girl, we’ve seen the well-mannered dalagang Filipina go gaga over the resident chick-boy—we fell in love with these stories, but began to want more eventually.
It wasn’t because we stopped appreciating these movies and it wasn’t because we stopped getting kilig when the leading man would utter promises to his leading woman. Instead, the need for more arose because we realized their love story might never be ours. We began wanting representation—not in race, in social standing or in education—but in love.
And it is for filling this need that All Of You can and should be considered one of this generation’s best love stories.
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Gab (Derek Ramsay) and Gabby (Jennylyn Mercado) meet after matching on a dating app. The awkward introduction is softened by their evident attraction and they sit down and make small talk. Eventually, they walk around, they talk some more, they drink coffee and by the time the day is over, Gab asks if he can borrow a charger—something he admits was a move later in the movie. Within less than 24 hours, they each say it: Swerte.
It’s a modern meet-cute, today’s version of knocking someone’s papers over or simultaneously reaching out for the last slice of cake. It’s something more attainable than unknowingly meeting a prince or getting a job in the office of our decade-long crush—still, if we were all lucky enough. But the capturing of today’s love doesn’t end there.
The story that blossoms between Gab and Gabby is a story we can relate to, in all its messy and untamed glory. We see it in how they quickly fall in love through texts and dinners, the awkward jealousy from seeing an ex-lover and the compromises they eventually reach. It’s in the habits they unknowingly pick up from each other and the illogical and shallow fights that mirror our own drunken and frustrated rants.
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The charm—because you can only call it that—of All Of You lies in just how real it portrays a relationship in today’s world. It’s in how the film subtly captures the “This is what I want, I’m going to go for it” mentality, as well as the perks and disadvantages that come with it. You’ll learn to appreciate it in the sarcasm of Gab’s answers and the ill-timing in which Gabby chooses to pick a fight.
With All Of You, you can’t help but laugh and choose sides and you can’t help but relate to the moments of love, understanding and disappointment. All Of You is, without a doubt, something that hits close to home—sometimes a little too (un)comfortably.
Catch All Of You at this year’s Metro Manila Film Fest with GMovies.