Serbis (2008)

Director: Brillante Mendoza Cast: Gina Pareño, Jacklyn Jose, Coco Martin, Kristoffer King Country: Philippines

Jewel (Roxanne Jordan) lures the camera like a cloying, musky eau de toilette. Naked with white light framing her silhouette, Jordan cuts an imposing figure. It's beautifully shot if not for the camera's voyeuristic tendency to pan on her nether region. It doesn't take long before Serbis, Brillante Mendoza’s notorious Cannes film, self-destructs and turns into something unpalatable, vile, and shoddy.

There’s too much filth in Serbis that whatever merit the film has is overpowered by its own muck. Loud, grating noise, botched symbolisms, and a displaced, errant goat are just the tip of the iceberg. With gaffes and lapses coming one after the other, viewers are left thinking whether these blunders were intentional or not.

Despite its flaws, Serbis is the film Mendoza will be most remembered for—unfortunately, it’s his worst.