Manila in the Claws of Light

"Lino Brocka's devastating ... melodrama opens with several stunning, grainy black-and-white shots of Manila, striking a beautiful balance between on-the-ground verisimilitude and fable-like eeriness."

"The film moves to the alternating beats created by its characters' hopes and their miseries, by their talk of a different kind of future and the crushing reality of their present circumstances."

"For Brocka and his characters, Manila is a libertarian dystopia, where poverty breeds its own predators and victims as the city's poor grasp for the little wealth that hasn't yet been distributed."