Ito ang paunang dialogue ni Issa (Assunta), and ilulubog niya tayo sa sali-saliwang kuwento ng mga buhay ng labing-isang kabataan sa isang masalimuot na laro ng six degrees of separation.

Lahat ng mga pangyayari isang araw sa buhay nila ay magsisimula at magtatapos sa Barako Café. Dito nagtatrabaho si Ruben (John Prats). He’s just discovered na binawi ang scholarship niya, at kailangan niyang maghanap ng pambayad. Sinubukan niyang humiram ng pera kay Mando (Diether Ocampo), ang Bisayang sekyu nila sa café, pero wala rin itong pera. Tatawagin si Ruben ni Trigger (Onemig Bondoc), ang astiging boss at manager ng café. Hindi mabuksan ni Trigger ang kaha dahil wala ang susi niya. May talent sa pagdidistrungka ng mga lock si Ruben. Trigger advises him na puwede na siyang magsimula ng career sa pag-aakyat bahay.

Anak sa labas si Ruben, at kahit na super yaman ng tatay niya—maraming kotse, mansion ang bahay, may malaking automatic na gate—dinededma siya nito. Humingi siya ng pambayad ng tuition sa tatay niya, at kahit na isang buong attache case ng pera meron ito, dalawang libo lang kaya niyang ibigay, pagkatapos pa ay itataboy siyang parang pulubi. Ruben stands outside the gates of the mansion, para siyang outcast and all he wants is to experience the life inside those gates. He manages to get in, and tries to steal from his father. Along the way encounters his porn obsessed kid half-brother and runs against the martial artist Joan, his father’s sister-in-law. They engage in a Matrix-esque, computer game style battle—running alongside walls, hanging in the air, reeling from kicks in exaggerated fashion. And in the meanwhile, no vase gets broken, as though they fought in a vacuum.

That is probably one of the times where you can see Star Cinema's imprint, trying to make things more commercial and palatable. "Jologs" the screenplay won first prize in their writing contest two years ago, and might have undergone revisions to fit the trademark nice, clean, movies they turn out. But I digress.

Ruben manages to get the attache case, but just when he’s about to be home free between the flimsy slice of the real world from outside those gates, he gets shot at and all the money scatters about. Ruben stands outside those gates again, wet and penniless and broken. Darkness caves in, and that look is frozen on his face.

That’s how each of the character’s vignette ends – in a freeze frame of rattled emotions, wrapped in darkness as they step away from their “moments.” And then we move on to the next character, in the same moment we saw before—inside or within the area of the Barako café.

There is Mando the security guard who always get shouted at by Trigger. Mando lives with the Japayuki Shona, and he really loves her. He took her in when she arrived pregnant with a Japanese guy’s kid. But Shona wants to return to Japan, and when Mando leaves for his job, she sneaks away all ready to fly away. At the airport, Mando shows up with her baby, which she leaves with the airport personnel along with Cheryl’s address.

Cheryl (Baron Geisler) is a drag queen who works in the same club as Shona. He learns that Shona’s leaving for Japan and gives her his address to give to a Jap guy who might be interested. Cheryl (who resembles the 80s star Sheryl Cruz, who was said to be the inspiration for the character. Not that Ms Cruz is a drag queen or anything.) gets picked up by the domineering and gun happy Trigger. Cheryl nearly gets gangraped and manages to escape in Trigger’s car which he crashes against a tree.

Now Cheryl goes to the same school as Ruben, and he likes Ruben. So when they get in the same jeepney, he decides to follow Ruben to his workplace. He follows Ruben to the guys’ room of Barako Café, where Trigger is shouting at his henchmen over the phone. Trigger wants to skin Cheryl alive, and poor Cheryl who only wants a glimpse of his crush gets all rattled but still manages to get out of the café and runs into Mando, who just returned from the airport, and we have Cheryl’s frozen fearful face right there.

Meanwhile, and this is a movie with a lot of meanwhiles, Issa (Assunta de Rossi) places a bet with her roommates that she’s going to get lucky with Iñigo, the very papable campus guy who drives around in this vintage red convertible. Roommates say she won’t score, because Iñigo (Dominic Ochoa) while flirty is very conservative. He’s with the “amen, amen” group, along with Faith who badgers people in the campus with her flyers and “Jesus wants to save you” speech.

Issa thinks that he won’t be able to resist her. Her roommates follow her around, trying to keep track of her “score” and Issa is on the way to the humiliation of her life because all he wants is for her to change, and have breeding like dogs do.

This is interesting because the movie’s tagline is “Rise above yourself.” And as “jologs” has the connotation of being baduy, walang class, manners or of everything that is not being rich and conyo, here is a character shouting her pride in being jologs. Issa (Assunta) doesn’t want anybody’s breeding because she’s not a dog, and the way she dresses, speaks, or acts is none of our business.

Jologs becomes a badge of honor. Most of the characters are shown as they should be—nobody gets a glamor shot that much, flaws are not covered. Mando the sekyu is not Diether Ocampo, and he looks greasy and his accent reminds us that this is a guy who doesn’t earn much but who loves dearly. Ruben is not the airbrushed John Prats we see in the Bench billboards. He has the beginnings of a stubble, and his shirt and jeans have seen better days. Issa is loud and wouldn’t hesitate to scream “pakshet!” in a fine dining restaurant. Shona’s Japayuki has a receding hairline, and Kulas (Vhong Navarro) has the grim determination of someone who wants to kill himself.

The movie tries to bring all these stories together, and everything culminates in one night at the Barako Café. Where Dino the ex-seminarian (Patrick Garcia) asks his girlfriend Faith to meet up with him after their comic (and heartwrenching) attempt at getting intimate. Faith runs into Issa, who has just escaped Iñigo’s amen amen group. Kulas seeks refuge with his coffee cup in a corner. And Mando gets fed up with Trigger’s overbearing enthuasiasm at proving his masculinity. This is a movie where everyone takes a stab at happiness, but where every attempt is proved futile. Suicides, engagements, a possibility of romance, a deflowering, religious conversions. Everything is frozen in arrested development.

In the end is a question waiting to be answered, “What has life to offer me?” in face of all those yearnings denied. The characters all sing the words to “Next in Line” by the After Image, in a Paul Anderson-esque fashion, a conceit exhibited in “Magnolia” where all the characters sing along to “One is the loneliest number.” It is complete with choreography and glimpses of ethereal bits of happiness. And yet still wondering what’s next for them, in their convuluted little world where everyone knows everyone else.



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