MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

marcslope Flawed, certainly, but a bracing and energetic evocation of disaffected youth, and one of the most assured live-action musicals of the decade. This study of three young friends trying to escape dead-end futures in a dispiriting San Francisco suburb tracks along the same themes as, say, the Broadway musicals "Spring Awakening" and "American Idiot," but it's much less monotonous about conveying its theme of oh-I'm-so-young-and-sad-nobody-understands- me. And the soundtrack is varied and clever, the best musical moment being the "Cupid" number, the closest thing we'll get in 2006 to a great production number. Jake Moreno isn't the greatest actor, and the cinematography is muddy, and the idea that these three are living among the dead isn't sufficiently developed--we don't know how literally to take it. But writer-songwriter-actor H.P. Mendoza is clearly a very, very talented young man, and he catches familiar themes of youthful angst in fresh ways. And L.A. Renigen is a completely convincing wonderful-best-friend. All three kids are persuasively made up of good and bad traits, and we keep rooting for them even when they screw up. Made for nothing, it's an invigorating little movie, and at the end, when the credits thank "the town of Colma," you do get the impression that the whole town rallied behind these gifted young people to make their dreams come true. It's a nice feeling.

ironhorse_iv First-time director Richard Wong and first-time screenwriter, songwriter and co-lead H.P. Mendoza manage to make a great low-budget coming to age musical that is better than a lot of the big Broadway musicals. The movie follows three close friends on their journey from high school to their journey to self-discovery. The movie opens with the song 'Colma Stays', which describes the small town as nowhere ville. It's even funnier when you had live there, like me, but Colma is nowhere like 'small town'. It's pretty much now connected to Daly City, and South San Francisco. It's does change. It's only 20 minutes away from San Francisco, but the filmmakers made it seem like it's Colma is far from nowhere cool and there isn't anything to do. It's no way, cut off from the world. Still, there is more dead people than alive people in Colma. Anybody who is a Bay Area local who live South Bay will appreciate the inside jokes, but the movie is a bit limited due to that reason. The only people that can related to the film is a small group of people that live near or close by of the town of Colma. Billy (Jake Moreno) is the an aspiring actor who can't get over his ex-girlfriend, while not seeing that a fellow actress Tara (Sigrid Sutter) is smitten with him as well as his close pal Maribel. (L.A Renigen). Maribel seems the character that rarely has much going for her, besides partying. She's not that interesting of a character. She's a bit annoying, and snobby. The only highlight of the film was her singing 'Crash the Party' which is awesome non cut one take musical number. Not only is it, a great song that sounds similar to Blondie 'Dreamin', but the way they film it is amazing how they did without one mistake. While, Maribel has barely a character, Rodel (H.P Mendoza) has too much of it. Rodel is a gay slacker, who get beaten by his traditional Filipino father and increasingly jealous of Billy's ability to move on with his life. I love how the camera puts a black line between them in the laundry scene, making two boxes. He always complaining, yelling, making fun or in negative mood. It's makes you wonder why the other people even hang out with him. Seeing how he wrote the screenplay, the story follows way too much of him. Sadly, he can not sing as well. It felt repetitive monotone. Honestly, none of the actors can sing that well, but H.P Mendoza is pretty awful. I do like H.P Mendoza making fun of people that party way too much with the song. "Could We Get Any Older". Thank you, Mendoza. I wish I had the guts to say that to certain people in my life. I love the fact that the characters define their relationships and express their feelings almost entirely through song. Other songs that were pretty good are 'Tara', and "Goodbye Cupid or Goodbye Stupid'. 'Goodbye Cupid' was pretty funny drunk bar song. I do like the Hulk Hogan look a like guy at the bar. It's weird in a way, that everybody there, sounds like a Muppet character there. 'Deadwalking' was a interesting song with people dancing over people's graves. It's a beautiful song, but it's seems kinda disrespectful for those people who were buried there to be filming a musical there. It's does show what Colma is known for. I don't like "One Day' and 'Mature', it's just sounds like any slow normal karaoke song. The acting isn't that good. The characters can be pretty obnoxious and unlikeable. Still, it was funny how mean-spirited they can be. The language can be a bit harsh. Not all the locations in Colma: The Musical were in Colma. The Theater was located in San Francisco Mission Distract. The Cafe scene was on Ingleside neighborhood in SF. The Lincoln Park Market is in Clement St, San Francisco, CA. where they get fake IDS. It's was kinda funny, in a way, because in 2012, the place was busted for lottery fraud. I kinda wish they use more of Colma. Colma: the Musical is a great watch, for fans of musicals, or people that know the area. Even if you're not from Colma, you should give it a try.

David OK, as a Bay Area resident (albeit a transplant) and indie film maven, I couldn't stay away from seeing this film. I'm considerably older than the characters and I didn't grow up in the Bay Area so I didn't relate to the story (or maybe it was just the mediocre acting, which was overshadowed by the excellent singing). Still, I thought this movie was a guilty pleasure, kinda like your favorite Mexican restaurant or greasy spoon--you know you shouldn't, but you're glad you did.Part of what makes this film fun is its foray into camp. Some of the musical numbers were just too over the top. Billy's musical declaration of love for "Tara" would have been sweet were it not for the two guys in the background scaling the facades of the buildings and each other. The real topper is where Tara releases the band holding her hair back so the breeze'll catch it--except she's got short hair and it hardly works. It's hard to take this seriously, particularly when you realize that Billy and Tara first met at a party where Tara's operatic "Is someone in the bathroom?" is responded to by Billy's "I'm taking a sh!!!!!!!t." The camp factor is equally present in the songs we see during the performance of "Friend Joseph" (some sorta spin-off of "Pal Joey"?), a show in which Billy performs. It's just "quirky quirky quirky, so damn quirky, quirky quirky...." I guess it's a bit of a cinematic love letter to the area--there's even a shot of Maribel reading a book nearly every San Franciscan will recognize. I was at a screening that was followed by a Q&A with the director and one of the cast--there's a sequel in the offing if this is well-received. For some reason, I can't wait to see it. :-)

cinelex This has to be one of the very best musicals I've ever seen, in terms of sheer entertainment value. It's funny, emotional, and ambitiously produced.The music is a key element. It's intentionally simplistic and, yes, even a tad campy. But it's perfect. I don't even think I would want to hear a fully orchestrated version. The instrumental arrangements, even the occasionally shaky vocal deliveries are spot on. If everything was perfect, it would be a Hollywood musical. But it's not. It's the brilliant indie revelation that is Colma.Jake Morreno is a genius. He's the new Jim Carrey, but with twice the heart. The whole cast deserves major kudos for their performances. And the director has my utmost respect for even daring to do something like this.It takes guts to make a movie like this. Too often do filmmakers fall flat on their face in such an ambitious pursuit. But Colma is a joyous, remarkable, and thoroughly enjoyable film.