This twee teen comedy offers something you don’t see every day
The New York Asian Film Festival ran from June 30 to July 16. For more information about what you missed, click here.
Make no mistake, Saving Sally is the very definition of ‘twee’.
How twee?
The director’s credit officially reads as: Mr. Auld Liongoren 🙂
But there’s a warmth and a sincerity that make it pretty charming despite all its affectations. And, ironically, those same affectations (which I suspect will wind up being very much an acquired taste) are the very thing that elevates this movie from being just another teen romance.
Based on a short story by Charlene Sawit-Esguera (who also co-wrote the script with Mr. Auld:-) and Carlo Ledesma), the story of Saving Sally is as simple as youth itself: Marty (Enzo Marcos) is an aspiring comic book artist who is best friends with Sally (Rhian Ramos), an aspiring inventor with extremely strict parents (Archie Adamos and Shaaine Buencamino, laying on the “suburban menace” with a trowel).
Marty wants to be more than friends, but can never quite bring himself to admit his feelings. When Sally manages to land herself a boyfriend, the lovelorn Marty finds himself playing go-between the couple, which quickly becomes exactly as complicated and emotionally messy as you’d imagine.
So, yes: in terms of story, nothing any light to moderate filmgoer hasn’t seen before. But in terms of execution, the film is something else entirely, due mostly to an important aspect of Marty that I’ve neglected to bring up until now:
Marty imagines that the world is actually full of monsters who walk around in broad daylight, but that only he can see. And sometimes, when he doesn’t like somebody, that person also appears to him as a monster.
Also, the entire world of the film resembles a giant cartoon, with Marty, Sally, and their various friends and family being the only human, live action components.
None of this serves any particular dramatic purpose, mind you, which is what causes it to fall under the category of ‘twee’. It’s a blatant affectation, stylization for stylization’s sake.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing; the production design by Rocketship Studio has a certain charm to it. The art style here is reminiscent of the sort of notebook doodling you’d while away the time with while waiting for your AP Chemistry class to let out. If one either appreciates or is willing to look past the blatant faux Gondry artificiality (and can get past the cutesy, noodle-y score by Pablo Pico, which might drive those made of less stern stuff fleeing to the hills), this is an unexpectedly nuanced version of the same old story. It certainly goes in some considerably darker, more adult directions than anticipated.
In that sense, it’s something of a conundrum: a movie that looks like it’s for kids, but that takes turns playing to teens wise beyond their years as well as their crude, dum-dum inferiors.
In the role of the rival suitor Nick (or, as Marty calls him, Nick The Dick), TJ Trinidad projects an affable himbo charm and is allowed at least a few more layers than these sorts of characters usually get. While the significant age difference between Nick and Sally gives one pause to say the least, he seems genuinely infatuated with her, and treats Marty as a friend and partner in crime, even giving him solid advice on his latest comic project. He’s fleshed out enough so that when the inevitable turn comes, it plays more as the whim of a stunted but not irredeemable man-child instead of the usual Frat Boy sociopath.
Actually, it would probably be best to save time and just declare that the entire cast, while decidedly unpolished, all manage to infuse their characters with a kind of natural charm, the kind that more trained and experienced actors would kill to be able to fake. Peejo Pilar steals all his scenes as the slightly sleazy but oddly endearing one-eyed comic publisher Toto, who offers Marty his dream job; and as Marty’s (respectively) nosy and slot car loving parents, Carme Sanchez and Bodjie Pascua are a delight.
But, obviously, in the end, it all comes down to our young lovers. It should be a mark against them that they never quite muster the kind of romantic chemistry that renders their love a foregone conclusion; they seem so well-matched as friends that adding romance to the mix feels almost wrong.
But in a way, that actually makes it feel just a little bit more real; though it’s not the most technically proficient performance, Rhian Ramos is off-the-charts charismatic. She even manages to sell all of those goofy inventions she’s lugging around. Frankly, it’s little wonder that Marty is so in love with her.
Marty can make moon eyes all he wants, but none of that matters if Sally doesn’t feel the same way, and the movie is clever in the way it plays it close to the vest on that score.
In fact, the eventual reveal of Sally’s feelings towards Marty, and the history thereof, is actually one of the best reveals of the movie, a casual admittance that feels more real than almost any other offhand moment I’ve seen in a teen romance. It was a scenario that happened fairly often with me and people I knew when we were that age, but that, for whatever reason, rarely if ever makes it to the big screen.
If nothing else, they at least got that part right.
Saving Sally is an oddity, to be sure; a wholly artificial lark that somehow manages in spots to feel as real and complicated in its explorations of teenage amour as I’ve ever seen. Like most acts of pure uncut whimsy, this won’t be for everyone. But if you think you can take it, it comes highly recommended.
