Serbis (Service) (2008)

82% of critics liked it
(28 reviews)
47% of users liked it
(511 ratings)

A struggling family from the provinces discovers that morality can be both absolute and relative as they suffer each others' pains and vices while awaiting the court decision in the mother's charges of bigamy against her estranged husband. The Pineda family operates a ramshackle movie house… More A struggling family from the provinces discovers that morality can be both absolute and relative as they suffer each others' pains and vices while awaiting the court decision in the mother's charges of bigamy against her estranged husband. The Pineda family operates a ramshackle movie house specializing in second-run sex flicks: 58-year-old family matriarch Nanay Flor oversees the operation while trading shifts in the ticket booth with daughter Nayda, son-in-law Lando, and adopted daughter Jewel, and Nanay's nephews Alan and Ronald paint the billboards and run the projector respectively. It's been two long years since Nanay accused her estranged husband of bigamy, and today is the day that the judge will finally deliver the verdict. Now, as the usual service boys and gay hustlers start streaming in for the steamy double feature, Nanay attempts to get everything around the theater in order before heading off to the courthouse. It's not an easy task and the money is tight, so when a fleeing purse snatcher dashes into the theater with two policemen in hot pursuit, Nanay knows that this day will be as stressful and unpredictable as any other. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 31 min.
Directed By: Brillante Mendoza
Written By: Armando Lao
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: May 18, 2008 Wide
On DVD: Mar 9, 2010
Studio: Regent Releasing

Critic Reviews

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
While it has its gag-inducing moments, director Brillante Mendoza's film about a three-generational family that lives in and operates a rundown porn theatre is more sweet than twisted.
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
You have been advised; proceed accordingly.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Part-telenovela, part outlandish screwball comedy, part soft-porno, but completely without a road map, Serbis evokes Pedro Almodóvar, Tennessee Williams, and 1940s and '50s Hollywood.
Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle
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.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
This isn't a family -- or a film -- you'll easily forget.
Manohla Dargis, New York Times
The Filipino movie Serbis is gentle, bawdy and at times rambunctiously, ticklishly rude.
Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film
The number of characters involved leaves the plotlines strung out and little emotion for the audience to cling to.
Chris Cabin, Filmcritic.com
film feels like it has more to say but can't get the wording right
Liz Braun, Jam! Movies
A gritty little drama that leaves you feeling like you might need a shower.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
That calling-attention-to-the-idea-that-we're-watching-a-movie device is at odds with the realism of the story, but it does a nice job of illustrating the central question of Serbis: Which is going to fall apart first, the Family or the family?
Richard Knight, Windy City Times
Enthralling. A vivid portrait of a family seemingly involved in only their own problems who have been infected by the filth and enervation around them.
Stan Hall, Oregonian
Unflinching, graphic depictions of illicit sex and boil-lancing are memorable, but the family's moral ambiguities and sense of lost prestige are what fascinate the most.
Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics
A unique and artistic treatment of gritty family survival but one that will turn away viewers with its carnal setting and sand-blasted treatment of the human condition.
Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru
Often drags with too many poorly developed characters its convoluted, unfocused plot. If it were more character-driven and had a sharper screenplay, it would have been a much more captivating drama.
Nick Schager, The Screengrab
A scraggly, messy, often aimless, and yet consistently amusing and engaging work of black comedy-cum-social-realism.
Scott Tobias, AV Club
Though [director] Mendoza doesn't care to resolve all of the many subplots he's jugging, the film gives a complete picture of a family, a business, and a city in disarray, and the looming fallout.
David Fear, Time Out New York
Rather than settling into a contemplative groove, Serbis bristles with live-wire intensity; neither the characters nor the camera stay still for long before something new propels the story into the next chapter.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Randy T

I'm not sure what director Brillante Mendoza was thinking. Maybe the intentions were honorable, focusing on graphic realism with an unflinching eye for detail, but the auteuristic style is small compensation for the utter lack of substance and motivation. The setting is a… More
I'm not sure what director Brillante Mendoza was thinking. Maybe the intentions were honorable, focusing on graphic realism with an unflinching eye for detail, but the auteuristic style is small compensation for the utter lack of substance and motivation. The setting is a run-down porn theater in the slums of Angeles (Philippines). <i>Serbis</i> takes us behind the scenes, from one amoral act to the next, exposing the poverty and hopelessness of those involved. Okay, I get it. If you go through the countryside turning over rocks you're bound to see a few creepy-crawly things. What else would one expect? The shortcomings of the characters seem to be the apex of the story. There's little else to latch on to. I found myself wanting the plot to go somewhere but it just doesn't. The technique is sound but, on the whole, the film is little more than tabloid cinema. Given Mendoza's reputation, I was completely disappointed.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"Serbis" is about family which is also the name of the dilapidated adult theater(bathrooms flood, goats invade, etc) in Manila that is owned by Flor(Gina Pareno) who is pursuring legal action against her husband that could net him at least two years in… More
[font=Century Gothic]"Serbis" is about family which is also the name of the dilapidated adult theater(bathrooms flood, goats invade, etc) in Manila that is owned by Flor(Gina Pareno) who is pursuring legal action against her husband that could net him at least two years in jail. Complicating this is her son planning to testify on his behalf . While most of the family helps out in one way or another, her daughter Nayda(Jacklyn Jose) manages the theater and sells tickets while her young son runs loose.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]The theater shows pornography of a heterosexual inclination but almost all of the clientele are gay men who use the darkness to have sex away from a government that at the very least frowns upon such activity. To punctuate this, there is a religious procession towards the end.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]All of which is fine and good. If only there was more of substance, then "Serbis" might have truly had something going. Instead, there are too many shots going up and down staircases and a disturbing subplot about a boil. Next time, stop for a second and catch your breath.[/font]
Ivan D

I have to say that Brillante Mendoza's "Serbis" is slightly better than his more renowned(and at the same time, denounced) "Kinatay". In some ways, "Serbis'" cinematography, acting, and subplots were the collective product of what could be… More
I have to say that Brillante Mendoza's "Serbis" is slightly better than his more renowned(and at the same time, denounced) "Kinatay". In some ways, "Serbis'" cinematography, acting, and subplots were the collective product of what could be Brillante's personal vision of Philippine society and familial relations that has been distributed rationally to his other earlier films: "Tirador's" biting humor, "Kaleldo's" character interactions and mild sepia cinematography, the escalating darkness that his later film "Kinatay" has embarked on, and even "Masahista's" literal sexuality. The ensemble cast was also very impressive in their uncanny degree of suppressing any screen inhibitions, be it about showing their skin, or acting as a credible, functioning family while immersing themselves into the decaying backdrop of a filthy 'bold' theater. It was almost unbelievable for the whole cast to pull off such a film without going as far as the extremities Nagisa Oshima has reached and the cost of what cinematic taboo he had broken to show a sociopolitical allegory. Brillante Mendoza has also able to incorporate his usual fascination of religious traditions; imageries that might have been inserted just for the sake of it, or can also be visual antidotes to the sinful displays on his films. Notable performances were by Gina Pareno as the theater-inhabiting family's matriarch, and Julio Diaz as the awkwardly unknowing husband of Layda(played by Jaclyn Jose). It's just refreshing to see a film that has brought a pitiful place such as a decaying 'bomba' moviehouse into cinematic life(a place whose only common attribution is to "Imbestigador"), put it in the center of a neorealist drama, and let it's pathetic and dissident inhabitants dwell on the establishment's sleazy imperfections; an uncanny likeness to their own lives indeed.