Lé Baltar on Muck Rack

Lé Baltar

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(She/Her)
Manila
As seen in: Medium, MSN Philippines, Yahoo Singapore, Substack, VICE, Flipboard, IndieWire, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Rappler, Letterboxd and
Covers:  Culture, arts, cinema, theater, literature, trans/queer stories
Journalist and film critic. Voter at @goldenglobes & @DorianAwards. ✍ @IndieWire @InRO @rapplerdotcom @rollingstoneph @VICE etc 💌: baltarle.substack.com
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How a thesis turned into a film on sexual awakening, ode to dying spaces

How a thesis turned into a film on sexual awakening, ode to dying spaces

Rappler — 'Honey, My Love, So Sweet,' a short film by Filipino filmmaker JT Trinidad set to premiere in Locarno, Switzerland, follows the story of a genderqueer child taking shelter in a decaying cinema
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Fantasia 2025: 'Hold the Fort' Film Review: A Silly Monster Mayhem with a B-movie Charm

Fantasia 2025: 'Hold the Fort' Film Review: A Silly Monster Mayhem with a B-movie Charm

Movies We Texted About — A horror-comedy that perfectly evokes the schlocky charm and madness of B-movies has been a rare sight since the last decade, save of course for Shin'ichirō Ueda's 2017 low-budget film-within-a-film comedy, One Cut of the Dead, the last ingenious and delightfully funny effort I could name and recommend. Something you ...
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REVIEW: 'Materialists' is a faux, wistful rom-com at best

REVIEW: 'Materialists' is a faux, wistful rom-com at best

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — "Materialists" hits local theaters on Aug. 6.
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Rapper Ruby Ibarra reignites Filipino hip-hop on the global stage

Rapper Ruby Ibarra reignites Filipino hip-hop on the global stage

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — The Tacloban-born artist tours the U.S. after winning the 2025 NPR Music Tiny Desk Contest and gears up for her next album.
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The wonder of Pinoy pop culture, as archived by '90s Kabaklaan

The wonder of Pinoy pop culture, as archived by '90s Kabaklaan

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — The anonymous archivist reflects on the online catalog's lore and the importance of preserving cultural memory.
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Cinema of alternative noise

Cinema of alternative noise

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — From online spaces to grassroots communities, Kinoise PH is pumping new life into alternative and independent cinema. 'It's bigger than movies at the end of the day.'
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REVIEW: 'Sunshine' is more than an abortion movie

REVIEW: 'Sunshine' is more than an abortion movie

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — "Sunshine" is the sole Philippine entry in the Centrepiece section of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
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'Food Delivery' Documentary Film Review: Country Underwater

'Food Delivery' Documentary Film Review: Country Underwater

Movies We Texted About — Five minutes into Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea, the latest documentary from Filipino filmmaker Baby Ruth Villarama, we are presented with a patchwork of news headlines, archived footage depicting Filipino and Chinese maritime vessels ramming into each other, and graphics mapping the Philippines' nautical borders. A propulsive ...
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Interview: Baby Ruth Villarama on 'Food Delivery,' the Film That Riled Up China

Interview: Baby Ruth Villarama on 'Food Delivery,' the Film That Riled Up China

Movies We Texted About — Since its production until its world debut, Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea, the documentary that China tried to ban, has been making national headlines. Days after the film had its world premiere at New Zealand's Doc Edge Festival, which later recognized the film with the Tides of ...
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TV Review: 'Squid Game' Season 3's Bloated Gore Depletes its Once-Cutting Satire

TV Review: 'Squid Game' Season 3's Bloated Gore Depletes its Once-Cutting Satire

Movies We Texted About — When Squid Game, the South Korean survival drama series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, debuted in 2021, it took the world by storm, topping Netflix's most-watched list barely two weeks in, and at one point becoming "the most in-demand show in the world, with 79 times as much audience interest as ...
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Jon Santos is far from done

Jon Santos is far from done

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — After the rerun of 'Bawat Bonggang Bagay,' Jon Santos leaps into the local staging of 'Side Show: The Musical.'
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'Adults' TV Review: A Hangout Comedy That Exists Beyond Matching Gen Z's Freak

'Adults' TV Review: A Hangout Comedy That Exists Beyond Matching Gen Z's Freak

Movies We Texted About — Adults, the latest twentysomething hangout comedy offered by FX/Hulu, might just be the television equivalent of TikTok brainrot: chaotic, nearly cringe, and specifically tailored for a Gen Z audience. But it's a series that functions beyond matching Gen Z's freak. Executive produced by comedian Nick Kroll and co-written by Tonight ...
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'How Dark My Love' Film Review: Into the Bizarre Mind of Joe Coleman

'How Dark My Love' Film Review: Into the Bizarre Mind of Joe Coleman

Movies We Texted About — Nearly a decade ago, American alternative artist and provocateur Joe Coleman painted a door-sized, hyper-detailed self-portrait titled "Doorway to Joe," which reflects his personal lore, uninhibited fantasies and fetishes, and penchant for the divine and the profane. Later, he figured that the project called for a seven-foot companion portrait of ...
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10 Movies to Watch Out For at Fantasia 2025

10 Movies to Watch Out For at Fantasia 2025

Movies We Texted About — Running from July 16 through August 3 in Montréal, Canada, the Fantasia International Film Festival is back for its 29th edition, featuring a massive slate of over 125 features and 200 short films, programmed across various sections and accompanied by workshops, exhibitions, artist talks, and more special events. Screenings will ...
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'We Are Pat' Film Review: Tribeca Alum Rowan Haber Reframes A '90s Cult Figure

'We Are Pat' Film Review: Tribeca Alum Rowan Haber Reframes A '90s Cult Figure

Movies We Texted About — Nearly six minutes into We Are Pat, a hybrid documentary from Tribeca alum Rowan Haber, our gaze fixates on a graphic in pink and blue gradient featuring a photograph of the director's toddler self-naked, sporting a cute red eyewear, and waving their hand-juxtaposed with a larger photograph of Pat, the ...
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'Yanuni' Film Review: A Forest of History and Resistance

'Yanuni' Film Review: A Forest of History and Resistance

Movies We Texted About — In Yanuni, the Tribeca closer from Austrian director Richard Ladkani, ecocide and genocide are one and the same. From the vantage point of the occupied, the Ecocidal project is decidedly one of ethnic cleansing-it is only through the forceful killing and erasure of Indigenous peoples defending their homeland that the ...
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'Are You Still Watching?': Don Jaucian on the legacy of 2010s Filipino cinema and TV

'Are You Still Watching?': Don Jaucian on the legacy of 2010s Filipino cinema and TV

Rappler — An afternoon with author Don Jaucian as he talks about publishing, criticism, and his latest essay collection 'Are You Still Watching?: Dispatches and Essays on Filipino Cinema and TV'
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After hiatus, Asia's only silent film festival returns for its 17th edition

After hiatus, Asia's only silent film festival returns for its 17th edition

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — The latest iteration will run from July 11 to 13 at the Red Carpet Cinemas, Shangri-La Plaza, featuring classic and contemporary films from five participating countries.
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The cost of being a trans actor, as told by Serena Magiliw and Zoë de Ocampo

The cost of being a trans actor, as told by Serena Magiliw and Zoë de Ocampo

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — '(We're) not really the ones telling our own story. That was the narrative I wanted to shift, like taking the means of production into our own hands.'
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'The Rose: Come Back to Me' Film Review: Eugene Yi on the Cost of Super Stardom

'The Rose: Come Back to Me' Film Review: Eugene Yi on the Cost of Super Stardom

Movies We Texted About — At times it's best to encounter a movie as a blank slate, even for film critics like me who have never been put off by any ounce of spoilers. If anything, there's a different kind of pleasure that arises from experiencing something for the first time, and it's often ambrosial ...
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REVIEW: REP's revival of Yasmina Reza's 'Art' is astonishingly propelled by its central trio

REVIEW: REP's revival of Yasmina Reza's 'Art' is astonishingly propelled by its central trio

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — The Olivier and Tony Award-winning play ran for eight years in the West End and over a year on Broadway, where it is set to return for the first time this year, beginning in late August through December.
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'The Travel Companion' Film Review: Travis Wood and Alex Mallis' Achingly Moving Debut Feature

'The Travel Companion' Film Review: Travis Wood and Alex Mallis' Achingly Moving Debut Feature

Movies We Texted About — After working on their respective short films and co-directing the documentary short Dollar Pizza Documentary, Brooklyn-based filmmakers Travis Wood and Alex Mallis are upping the ante as their debut feature The Travel Companion is having its world premiere in the US Narrative Competition section of the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.
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'Cuerpo Celeste' Film Review: Nayra Ilic García's Debut Feature is a Poetic Snapshot of post-Pino...

'Cuerpo Celeste' Film Review: Nayra Ilic García's Debut Feature is a Poetic Snapshot of post-Pino...

Movies We Texted About — In Cuerpo Celeste, the symbolically loaded debut feature from Chilean writer-director Nayra Ilic García, the past not only fractures the present and future but actively exists along with it as if they are all one and the same. The film explores that threshold, the possibility to re-encounter even something we ...
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REVIEW: 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 falls into sophomore slump

REVIEW: 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 falls into sophomore slump

The Philippine Star (Philippine ) — Harnessing the original's open-ended finale, the Hulu thriller drama returns for a second installment, this time in the biting winds of the Swiss Alps, even as the Liane Moriarty bestseller it was culled from has ended.
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