I went in there. Inside the dark cinema. On the balcony. And expected nothing.

Or I would say, I expected it to be more of a documentary film. Trivializing how taxing it can become for production people working on this film trailing Senator NoyNoy on his campaign all over the country.

I went in there too a little bit tired from a day's work. So expect me to be sleepy. Closed my eyes, took a breath. Open my eyes again, of course. Haha. The movie will now start.

Then the first rushes of the film came. I was confused at first. It's like watching Blair Witch Project with camera shots too fast and shaky. And there's a lot of noise. It just doesn't make sense. Or so I thought.

Then cut to NoyNoy's campaign trail. After a few rushes, Coco's character Noy, the presidential frontrunner's namesake, entered the scene. So, it was made clear that Noy, this movie is not about NoyNoy Aquino's story. It would be about him. He told us later, what we will see about NoyNoy is true, but not about him. Ironic. So, his story unfolds.

True enough, he made his way as a journalist after faking his credentials. His first job is to cover NoyNoy.

Covering NoyNoy in real-time must be a very difficult task for the entire team. You can see and feel it here. There must be lots of running here, taking shots, getting the best angles, directing the crew, getting the best lighting, checking the emotions required for each shot - all amid the hottest summer season ever experienced in the Philippines. I never saw anything like this before - a real campaign on the backdrop and a movie's plot is concocted against it.

The movie is not pretentious on its shots. The production took time to make it look good. Editing is tight. The lighting took off with its dramatic shots specially on raft rides on those floody streets. Then there's superb performances from the cast against a very disturbing plot and screenplay. So if you would say your Php 150 movie ticket is worth it, technically it is. Until you actually see the movie in its entirety.

"Noy" does not lie about how some people tried to survive. Amid the chaos and disorder of society, "Noy" plainly captures the painstaking battle of people living on the edge. In most scenes, it was shown (that) a family has to struggle to eat decent meals on a regular basis. And rising from those mediocrities to complete the thought of hope in a dream.

One scene that disturbed me though is the fight against two brothers played by Coco and Joem Bascon. There is an intense physical fight between them and they keep cursing "P*tang Ina Mo" while their mother, played by Cherie Pie Picache, is on the side. I mean, what the fudge would this mean! It's like cursing your mother up out her face real-time! How bad can that become? Okay, let's say that this scene was critical for the plot, can the writers just remove those lines and instead replace it with "G*go Ka" or "T*rantado Ka Ba at dinala mo pa itong droga sa bahay?" or something like that. But those P.I.'s are really prevalent in local movies and they just don't seem to care. Tsk. Anyway, it's just one scene that I seem not to forget!

Anyway, so despite that turbulence on how I see it, the movie was a good watch. It's definitely worth your time. It is so real. A gripping drama. And with comedic slews on the side, thanks for the fierce you-still-have-to-learn-how-to-act-onscreen-though Vice Ganda.

And I was not sleeping all throughout the movie. The adrenaline is just too much to even blink. It's reality at its best.

Leaving the cinema gave me this big hope that something good, something bigger will happen. NoyNoy will make this nation great again. This movie just reminded me, it's gonna be.

4/5 stars.