As a fan of movie theaters as much as I am a fan of movies, I just had to see Serbis in the theater even though I'd never heard of it until it opened last Friday. Sure, I'm not familiar with the business of porno theaters in the Philippines, but it still satisfied that cinemaphilia that was similarly fulfilled when I saw Goodbye, Dragon Inn in my Asian cinema class last year. Actually there are a lot of things about Serbis that are like Dragon Inn, from the decrepitness of the theater to the gay trysts going on inside. But it's more about the erosion of a family than of the building, and unlike Dragon Inn, it doesn't deal much with reflexivity nor does it focus on or celebrate the glory days of cinema and moviegoing.
As always, I did take special delight in Serbis' few scenes of subtle repetition, including a goat-chasing sequence that mirrors an earlier police chase through an auditorium and a second voyeur scene involving the youngest family member, Jonas. Also, I like the two-sided meaning of the title, which means "Service."
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