Having just finished watching CHEO, I'm reminded how pointless and aggravating cinema can be when it's mishandled by a talentless director. The acting is uniformly functional, but in the hands of a competent filmmaker, the performances could have been so much more, as it's clear that some of its young cast has a bit of acting talent.
The story concept also had potential, but was squandered by a mediocre script (the dialogue is often derivative and cringe-inducingly poor), and the plot is clunky and frustratingly "safe" in its construction.
The story concerns a recent high school student named Cheo (played by the charismatic young Sebastian Salazar, who manages to show some promise despite having some impossibly awful lines to work with), an aspiring DJ who wants to make it big and get out of the barrio. His girlfriend Blue (played by the beautiful and appealing Samantha Laurenti, who also exudes some talent and magnetism amid the mediocrity of the project), supports Cheo's dreams of becoming a big-shot, despite increasingly challenging odds. Unfortunately, Cheo's buddy Eli (Zen Navarro, whose apparent potential is also squandered by the movie's lack of quality), who wishes to rise to stardom alongside Cheo, has other ideas about how to go about finding success, and conflict develops between them. Eli winds up stealing Cheo's music compositions and becomes a star, hurling Cheo into a downward spiral that involves drugs, problems with Blue, involvement with a sad girl (billed as Sad Girl, which reminded me that I should revisit MI VIDA LOCA), and ultimately redemption, in the form of Christian salvation.
I could go on at length about the disappointing elements of the feature, owing entirely to the shortcomings of writer/director Eric W. Santos, but I'll focus on the movie's few bright spots: The cinematography is sporadically decent - & even impressive - in the face of Santos' generally awkward shot design, and there are fleeting moments in which the movie resembles the work of a seasoned director, few as they are. Overall, however, the entire thing feels like a horrible misfire, and I was constantly prompted to ask myself: Why am I continuing to bother with this abomination? Ultimately, it was because CHEO is fascinating as a faux-heartfelt drama, due to the profound lack of genuine passion on the part of writer/director Santos. It's clear that he wanted desperately to convey himself as a filmmaker with a plethora of socio-political messages to share, but any potentially compelling elements are squandered by his apparent lack of real interest in his characters. It would appear that Santos doesn't have any real passion for them, and as such it can be surmised that he has no real interest in people in general. As a connoisseur of emotionally affecting dramatic cinema, I'm often amused by movies like this, as they purport to serve as a vital commentary on urban strife, teen excess and other social ills that should be explored with comparative seriousness, intelligence and maturity. When the movie opted to employ Christianity as the primary means by which Cheo could straighten his life out (at that point in the narrative he was wallowing in drugs and despair over the murder of his girlfriend and the betrayal committed by his best crony), it felt like the ultimate cop-out, and was handled as such. While religion has admittedly aided in correcting the dark path that some have found themselves on, the movie would have you believe that accepting The Lord into your heart is the key means by which to essentially reset the trajectory of a misguided life, and does so with a clumsily constructed resolution wherein most of Cheo's crippling personal issues are magically mended by the power of faith. He even rekindles his friendship with Eli, and they resume their creative partnership. Again, this sort of thing has likely taken place in reality, but in the hands of writer/director Santos, it feels like someone's dim-witted fever dream.
CHEO's few minor charms are due solely to its cast and visual team, who appear to be on the ready for a project deserving of their apparent talents. This is supposedly Eric W. Santos' first feature-length effort, so it's possible that he will ascend creatively if he continues to work in the field, but he'll have to make significant leaps and bounds in terms of storytelling prowess and cinema aesthetics in order to make something that isn't as embarrassing to watch as this. Eric, if you ever read this, it's time to hit your local library and grab some books on screenwriting and film directing, because if you make another feature with the level of non-quality that CHEO exhibits, you'll be contributing to the death of dramatic cinema as a tangible art form, and as a vessel for addressing important social matters. In the end, CHEO felt like an annoying stranger knocking on your door to tell you why you should become a member of his church.
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