JC Santos Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Quezon,’ starring Jericho Rosales, Karylle, Mon Confiado, Arron Villaflor, Romnick Sarmenta, Cris Villanueva, JC Santos, Iain Glen and Jake Macapagal

November 3, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jericho Rosales in “Quezon” (Photo courtesy of TBA Studios)

Directed by Jerrold Tarog

Tagalog with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Washington, D.C./Maryland area, from 1901 to 1944, the dramatic film “Quezon” (a biopic of former Philippines president Manuel L. Quezon) features a predominantly Filipino cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Quezon built his political career by changing alliances and getting a reputation for being a political chameleon.

Culture Audience: “Quezon” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and Filipino history, but the movie has a muddled and superficial approach to Quezon’s story.

Iain Glen in “Quezon” (Photo courtesy of TBA Studios)

“Quezon” is a somewhat tacky drama that reduces the life and career of former Philippines president Manuel L. Quezon to a series of trite political battles. All the characters have shallow personalities. The dialogue and acting are often cringeworthy.

Directed by Jerrold Tarog (who co-wrote the “Quezon” screenplay with Rody Vera), “Quezon” takes place in the Philippines from 1901 to 1944. Quezon (who was nicknamed MLQ) died of tuberculosis in 1944, when he was 65 years old and 18 days away from his 66th birthday. The movie is presented as a political soap opera, but the narrative is so dry and jumbled, it just becomes a “checklist” biopic instead of being a well-rounded portrait of a controversial politician.

“Quezon” is divided into four chapters that are titled like boxing matches and chronicle the various political fights that Quezon had in his career. Chapter 1, titled “Quezon vs. Joven,” is about Quezon’s turbulent relationship with fictional media mogul Joven Hernando. Chapter 2, titled “Quezon vs. Osmeña,” details Quezon’s longtime feud with politician Sergio Osmeña, who when from being Quezon’s enemy to his vice president running mate. Chapter 3, titled Quezon vs. Wood,” chronicles Quezon’s power struggles with American bureaucrat Leonard Wood, who was governor-general of the Philippines. Chapter 4, titled “Quezon vs. Aguinaldo,” show the vendetta that Quezon had against Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president of the Philippines and the head of the Association of Veterans of the Revolution.

All of these political betrayals, alliances, scheming and campaigning could have made this a very intriguing and fascinating movie. Instead, “Quezon” is much duller than it should have been. Many of the cast members deliver their awkward dialogue stiffly. The movie’s messy timeline jumping also makes it difficult to have a cohesive narrative. By the end of the movie, all you’ll learn is that Quezon was a successful politician who was also vindictive, petty, insecure, ruthless and very dishonest while having an image that he wanted to make the Philippines a very prosperous nation. For the purposes of this review, the real people will be referred to by their last names, while the characters in the movie will be referred to by their first names

In Chapter 1, a young Manuel Quezon played by (Benjamin Alves) is a young major in the Philippines military in 1901, when the U.S. was winning the Philippine-American war, which lasted from 1899 to 1902. Manuel is seen giving a coin to a young Joven Hernando (played by Arron Villaflor) and makes a statement that Manuel will make the Quezon name great. Later, Manuel helps Joven launch Joven’s own newspaper called Alerta.

Joven, his family members and Alerta are all fabricated for this movie. These fabricated characters and fake newspaper are unnecessary, considering Quezon had a lot of major things that happened in his life that are barely mentioned or not mentioned at all in the film. It’s a time-wasting stunt to have an entire chapter in a biopic devoted to characters and situations that didn’t happen in real life. Alerta also becomes a battleground in the feud between Joven and Manuel, who gets revenge by eventually making Alerta go out of business. None of this should be considered spoiler information since it never happened in real life.

Because the timeline in “Quezon” is so messy, Joven is seen in other chapters in the movie. It’s later shown that an older adult Joven (played by Cris Villanueva) and Joven’s daughter Nadia Hernando (played by Therese Malvar) become filmmakers and defy Manuel’s orders to make propaganda movies about Manuel and instead make unflattering movies about him. These silent black-and-white movies are clumsily placed in “Quezon.”

The young version of Manuel is ambitious and bit idealistic. By the time the movie shows Manuel (played by Jericho Rosales) in his mid-30s and older, he’s become a cynical and ruthless manipulator. In real life, Quezon held several political offices. In the movie, he is mainly shown as president of the Philippines Senate (from 1916 to 1935), president of the Nacionalista Party, and president of the Philippines, holding the latter two positions simultaneously from 1935 to 1944.

Manuel has a longtime unfriendly rivalry with Sergio Osmeña (played by Romnick Sarmenta), who was the Philippines’ Speaker of the House of Representatives but also held many of Manuel’s other political positions before Manuel did, such as president of the Nacionalista Party and Secretary of Public Instruction, which is now called Secretary of Education. During their feud, Manuel Quezon mentors a younger legislator named Manuel Roxas (played by JC Santos), whom he hopes will discredit and replace Sergio. Years later, Manuel Quezon convinces Sergio to be Manuel Quezon’s vice presidential running mate, with Manuel Quezon promising that he would be president for only one term. (He broke that promise.)

Manuel Quezon’s conflicts with Leonard Wood (played by Iain Glen) have a lot to do with Wood’s resisting Quezon’s attempts for the Philippines to become independent. Leonard, like a typical colonialist oppressor, doesn’t think the native leaders of the Philippines are capable of governing themselves as an independent nation. Leonard also thinks many of the native Filipino leaders—such as Quezon and Manila mayor Ramón J. Fernández (played by Nor Domingo)—are corrupt.

Manuel Quezon wants Emilio Aguinaldo (played by Mon Confiado) to speak out against Leonard, but Emilio refuses and becomes an ally of Leonard. Manuel Quezon holds a grudge against Emilio for years, and the feeling is mutual. When Manuel Quezon runs for president of the Philippines commonwealth in 1935, former Philippines president Emilio is one of his most outspoken critics and becomes his political opponent (representing the National Socialist Party) in the campaign.

There’s kind of a weird scene where Manuel Quezon and Leonard get drunk together because Manuel Quezon hopes this will weaken Leonard’s animosity toward Leonard. However, this plan backfires because Leonard threatens to expose two scandals from Manuel Quezon’s past: Manuel Quezon went on trial for rape (he was found not guilty), and he is rumored to be a bigamist who never had a divorce or marriage annulment from his first wife.

The movie then never really mentions Leonard having this bombshell information again because Leonard dies (in 1927, at age 66), not long after this drunken conversation. The movie implies that Leonard never did anything with this information, which is a little hard to believe considering how much Leonard despised Manuel Quezon and wanted to ruin his career. Leonard’s death paves the way for Manuel Quezon’s political ascent.

As questionable and disjointed as this movie is in depicting Manuel Quezon’s political career, the movie is downright opaque about his personal life. His second wife Aurora Quezon (played by Karylle) has very little screen time. And when she does, it’s in a scene where she’s putting on makeup and says to her husband that he’s a “chameleon,” and she can’t believe he was engaged to four women before he married her. The movie never explains the rape case against him. The movie also never mentions that Aurora was his first cousin, and they had four children together.

The bigamist allegations are brought up again in a soap-opera-like sequence where Manuel Quezon’s first wife Ana Ricardo (played by Sue Prado), whom he abandoned, is invited to an event where Manuel Quezon will be, in order to humiliate him. The person who invites her is Raymundo Melliza (played by Bodjie Pascua), the vice president running mate of 1935 Philippines presidential candidate Emilio Aguinaldo, who doesn’t want play this type of dirty trick in the campaign. The movie shows the outcome of this set-up.

“Quezon” takes a few too many liberties with the truth and fabricates too many things for it to be taken seriously as a completely accurate historical drama. The movie brings up things about the character of Manuel Quezon (such as how he was accused of mistreating women in his personal life) that needed more exploration, but the movie cowardly backs off from this type exploration, as if to say that’s enough just to drop small hints about these scandals. Although not all of “Quezon” is terrible, the overall quality of this drama isn’t befitting for a former president of a nation but seems better-suited for a less important politician who wanted to be remembered more for his manipulative exploits than any effective policies.

TBA Studios released “Quezon” in select U.S. cinemas on October 31, 2025. The movie was released in the Philippines on October 15, 2025.

Review: ‘Family Matters’ (2022), starring Noel Trinidad, Liza Lorena, Nonie Buencamino, Mylene Dizon, Nikki Valdez and JC Santos

February 9, 2023

by Carla Hay

JC Santos, Agot Isidro, Nonie Buencamino, Noel Trinidad, Liza Lorena, Mylene Dizon, James Blanco and Ian Pangilinan in “Family Matters” (Photo courtesy of Cineko Productions)

“Family Matters” (2022)

Directed by Nuel Naval

Tagalog with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Philippines and briefly in the United States, the dramatic film “Family Matters” features a predominantly Filipino cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Members of a large Filipino family have various squabbles with each other and other people, while the family patriarch is coping with health issues.

Culture Audience: “Family Matters” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching appealing dramas that show the ups and downs of family relationships and how relatives deal with aging family members.

Nikki Valdez, JC Santos, Nonie Buencamino, Mylene Dizon, Liza Lorena and Noel Trinidad in “Family Matters” (Photo courtesy of Cineko Productions)

Despite some flaws, “Family Matters” is a drama with its heart in the right place, featuring good performances from the cast members. The movie drags on a little longer than it should, and some plot developments look forced, but the movie remains watchable. It’s a story that transcends nations and cultures, because there’s probably something relatable to most viewers about the family at the center of this story.

Directed by Nuel Naval and written by Mel Mendoza-del Rosario, “Family Matters” has a sprawling total running time of 134 minutes. Some of the movie tends to ramble and become unfocused, while other aspects of the movie seem too rushed without adequate explanation. It’s the type of movie that has some scenes that look like they’re going to end, but then the scenes keep going with needless repetition.

However, one of the biggest strengths of “Family Matters” (which is about a large family in an unnamed city in the Philippines) is that the adult characters have personalities that make these characters very unique and memorable. One of the biggest pitfalls of movies about large families is when the movie makes it hard to tell the family members apart from each other. “Family Matters” manages to mostly avoid this pitfall, because the family’s adult characters are written and portrayed as fully formed people, not stereotypes. However, the underage children in the family have the most underdeveloped storylines because the movie is really more about how the adults in the family interact with each other.

Here are the members of this large clan:

Francisco Florencio (played by Noel Trinidad), the family strong-willed patriarch, is having some health issues that land him in a hospital and affect him throughout the entire story.
Eleonor Florencio (played by Liza Lorena), the family matriarch, is the kind and loving wife of Francisco. They have four adult children, ranging in ages from mid-50s to mid-30s: son Francisco Jr. (nicknamed Kiko), daughter Fortune, daughter Ellen and son Enrico.
Francisco “Kiko” Jr. (played by Nonie Buencamino), Francisco and Eleonor’s eldest child, works as a building construction engineer. Kiko tends to be bossy and arrogant with his three younger siblings and with his work subordinates.
Odette (played by Agot Isidro), Kiko’s homemaker wife, patiently puts up with Kiko when he loses his temper and becomes difficult. She usually stays out of the family arguments.
Kiko and Odette have three children, ranging in ages from about 13 to about 17. The eldest child is son Francis (played by Ian Pangilinan), followed by daughter Frances (played by Beatriz Teves) and daughter Florence (played by Alessandra Romero).
Fortune (played by Mylene Dizon), Francisco and Eleonor’s second eldest child, is outspoken with her opinions. She gets involved in family arguments, but she is also sometimes a peacemaker. Fortune owns and operates a pet store with her loyal husband Nelson. Fortune and Nelson have three daughters, ranging in ages from about 8 to about 14: Nikki (played by Alexa Macanan), Nina (played by Krystal Mejes) and Nadia (played by Allyana Nicole Goyenechea).
Nelson (played by James Blanco) is a mild-mannered spouse who gets annoyed whenever Kiko acts superior because Kiko has the highest income of the four siblings. Nelson and Fortune, who love taking care of animals, are proud of their pet store business, even though Kiko looks down on this type of work because it doesn’t require a college education.
Ellen (played by Nikki Valdez), the third eldest child of Francisco and Eleonor, helps take care of her aging parents. She’s a never-married bachelorette who is insecure about being the only one of her siblings who hasn’t gotten married and who doesn’t have children. Now in her early 40s, Ellen feels she doesn’t have much time left if she wants to find a life partner and start her own family.
Enrico (played by JC Santos), the youngest child of Francisco and Eleonor, is an entrepreneur who has recently opened his own gym. Enrico grew up being called a “menopause baby” because Eleonor unexpectedly got pregnant and gave birth to Enrico when she was middle-aged. Enrico is a divorced father of a daughter named Ginny (played by Allyson McBride), who’s about 13 or 14 years old. He shares custody of Ginny with his ex-wife Glenda (played by Ina Feleo), who has a tense relationship with Enrico. Enrico also has a daughter named Ivy (played by Kzhoebe Nicole Baker), who is about 6 or 7 years old, with his live-in girlfriend Irene (played by Anna Luna).

“Family Matters” begins with a family emergency: Francisco wakes up in bed with severe chest pains and is unable to breathe. He is rushed to a hospital, while Ellen makes calls to her siblings to tell them about this medical crisis. After all of the siblings and Eleonor have gathered in the hospital and are worried that Francisco might die, the hospital’s Dr. Salvador (played by Gerry O’Hara) tells them that Francisco will be okay. Francisco did not have a heart attack or a stroke, says the doctor. Instead, Francisco has been diagnosed with early onset asthma, so he is prescribed medication and a nebulizer.

Francisco’s health scare motivates the siblings to rethink their lives and start paying more attention to their elderly parents. There is some debate over whether or not Francisco and Eleonor should move to an assisted living retirement home. Francisco and Eleonor adamantly do not want to take that option. Francisco is somewhat in denial about how his medical diagnosis will change his lifestyle, because he would like to think that he will still have the physical strength that he had before the diagnosis.

Meanwhile, Ellen starts to feel more pressure to find her soul mate, because she wants her parents to still be alive if she ever gets married. For the past eight months, Ellen has been talking to a Filipino American named Chris (played by Eren Kereci), who lives in the U.S. and is about the same age as Ellen. Chris is a divorced father who has his own business. Ellen tells her family that Chris is her “boyfriend,” even though she and Chris haven’t met in person yet. Ellen decides to take the plunge and go to the U.S. to visit Chris and see if their relationship will progress.

Ellen’s visit to the U.S. leaves Francisco and Eleonor temporarily without a caretaker, and the siblings don’t want their elderly parents to spend a lot of time alone. And so, the siblings come up with a plan to have Kiko, Fortune and Enrico take turns having Francisco and Eleonor temporarily stay at each of the sibling’s respective homes. The movie shows what happens when this plan is put in motion.

During the course of the movie, the children of Francisco and Eleonor have to come to terms with their insecurities about themselves. Kiko begins to feel guilty because he has let his workaholic ways prevent him from spending better quality time with his family. Fortune also has to re-evaluate how she has been balancing her work life with her personal life. Ellen puts more pressure on herself to find a soul mate. Enrico (who has jumped around from job to job) wants to stop having a reputation for being flaky and change into being a more responsible person.

Meanwhile, Francisco and Eleonor have to face the realities of their own mortality and what type of legacy they want to leave for their family. “Family Matters” shows several occasions where the family members gather for meals. And the inevitable bickering among family members happen, but there is also a lot of love and camaraderie. Enrico has the most turbulence in his personal life, because his ex-wife Glenda doesn’t really trust him and might fight for full custody of Ginny.

Ginny adores her father, but her parents broke up before she was old enough to know what happened. The divorce is something that the family doesn’t really like to talk about. During a family gathering, Ginny asks Irene why Enrico and Glenda split up, and Irene awkwardly says that she’s not the best person to answer that question. Francisco and Eleonor are sitting at the same table. Francisco tactfully says that when Enrico and Glenda were married, Enrico used to be immature. Francisco adds that Enrico and Glenda wanted different things out of life.

“Family Matters” has a lot of “slice of life” scenes that show conversations between the family members. But there are also some scenes that pack in the melodrama. Let’s put it this way: Francisco’s trip to the hospital in the beginning of the movie won’t be the last time that someone in the family ends up in a hospital. The melodrama in the movie looks overly contrived and awkwardly placed. It doesn’t look as convincing and natural as other scenes in “Family Matters.”

With such a large ensemble cast, it’s truly an asset that all of the cast members are very believable as family members. There isn’t any bad acting, which helps make “Family Matters” more enjoyable. Trinidad as Francisco and Lorena and Eleonor have some wonderful moments showing a longtime married couple who are reflecting on their lives and coming to grips with the inevitability of death. Santos as Enrico also stands out for his portrayal of Enrico’s evolution as a parent and as a partner.

“Family Matters” is at its best when it shows the realistic family dynamics within this tight-knit clan. Loyalties and rivalries can stay the same or change over time. A family member’s self-perception can also be very different from what other family members actually think of that person.

For example, in an emotionally moving scene, Ellen (who feels ashamed for being her parents’ only child who hasn’t gotten married or had children) tearfully tells her mother Eleonor that she’s sorry she turned out to be a disappointment. Eleonor lovingly responds that Ellen has always been a blessing. It’s a turning point for Ellen and her self-esteem issues. In another example, Kiko likes to think of himself as a respected alpha male of the family, but certain things happen that make him understand that other family members perceive Kiko to be overbearing and overly judgmental.

The last 30 minutes of “Family Matters” really going into overdrive with sentimentality—but in a way that is endearing, not annoying. The message of the movie is loud and clear: Whatever problems or differences that family members might experience, it’s always best to try to resolve them honestly, and to appreciate loved ones while they are still alive. It’s not an original theme for a family movie, but it’s a timeless and classic theme that “Family Matters” handles in a mostly entertaining way.

Cineko Productions released “Family Matters” in select U.S. cinemas on February 3, 2023. The movie was released in the Philippines on December 25, 2022.