Welcome to THE FILMIC AYAHUASCA

 

Hey, everyone! My name is Gerald Waldo Luis. I am a teenager residing in Indonesia, a country you might recognize as Bali but trust me, this whole shit is worse than the beaches.

I've been getting into cinema ever since I was a tween (the early days of adolescence). Over the years, I've really come to appreciate almost all mediums of film as a powerful and resonant audiovisual message, however that message is transmitted. I am currently in the making of a film, a feature-length poetic documentary, with no budget (yeah, wish me luck) which I'll be happy to share here. No film bro attitude here, just an enthralled teen sharing his world.

And so this is my official site, The Filmic Ayahuasca, established the day before this page. Why is the name the way it is, you might ask? Well, because I think films can be like the experience of an ayahuasca ceremony; if a film does it right, it will be immersive even if you are watching it on a (tele)phone. Thus, the ayahuasca becomes filmic.

On this site, my primary goal is to review films that I've watched over the course of my life and new ones. I generally will tend to review films based on the overall evocation, using the most minimal of dissection so that my reviews will be both spoiler-free and an accurate representation of what you feel after watching a film: a feeling.

However, I plan to make this, in the long run, be a room chronicling my film journey, anything about cinema that I can articulate in an article I will try to put here. Perhaps my blogging journey as well. I look forward to what's to behold. Peace XX

Rating system

I use a 0-100 rating system. Now, I'm hearing it. Ratings are flawed! Just tell us if you like the film or not! Well, it's complicated. I can't just recommend a film. I may like it and still not recommend it. So I decided to take things the sophisticated way.

0-9: Extremely poor in quality, definitely not recommended

10-19: Poor in quality, overall experience sucks

20-29: Could've been meh if it is slightly resonant or natural

30-39: Some lifesavers charm, but the overall film fails

40-49: A bit more meh but it still doesn't quite deliver

50-59: Meh. The quality is slightly better, but the bad stuff is also resonant

60-69: Good effort, and didn't regret it, but vast room for improvement

70-79: Satisfactory but still incomplete in some way

80-89: Unforgettable and resonant in themes, imperfect but masterful

90-99: Cinematic masterpiece, its holes easily glued by other elements

100: Flawless, its holes minimal, its flow as soft as the river

Within that (except for 100) is of course a 0-9 second digit. I can't really describe how I deem a film to be what number, but I can feel it when I think it deserves a certain number.