Its herky-jerky camcorder style, jump-cut editing and sustained takes soon wear out their welcome.

| Jul 27, 2006

... cunning meditation on the birthing grounds of religious extremism ...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 22, 2006

Cavite will go down in history as a classic of no-budget filmmaking, making such ingenious use of bare resources that it's a wonder the movie is an effective, even thoughtful thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 30, 2006

This is by no means a polished film. But it has an energy lacking in thrillers that cost hundreds times more to make.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 16, 2006

Though the film seldom deviates from its thriller format, Gamazon and Dela Llana astutely weave in matters of political, cultural and religious importance, elevating Cavite well above mere genre.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 3, 2006

One of those blistering no-budget thrillers, like Open Water or Detour, in which the film's economy of means is the trigger for its ingenuity.

| Original Score: B+ | May 31, 2006

A microbudget exercise in sensory overload that leaves you sick on all sorts of levels.

Full Review | May 30, 2006

Enhanced by the you-are-there immediacy of a hand-held digital camera, Cavite works up a visceral potency that overleaps the credibility gaps in the omniscient-terrorist device.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 26, 2006

A last act full of reversals would have filled in the holes in Cavite.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 26, 2006

The hand-held camera work gives the film an effective documentary pulse, but it adds up to only half a movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 26, 2006

Cavite was shot on a microbudget, and that turns out to be a plus. After so many overproduced blockbusters this season, it's nice to see a movie that's lean and mean.

| Original Score: B+ | May 25, 2006

Terrorism and cultural identity are only two of the themes wound into a tight knot of fear and bewilderment in Cavite, a gripping no-budget political thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 25, 2006

It might have worked if co-director/star Gamazon had taken an acting class, or if the kidnapper didn't sound like a villainous GPS navigating device.

Full Review | May 25, 2006

A paragon of guerrilla resourcefulness and a model citizen of the global village, Cavite is a more anxious and vivid experience than most movies with budgets literally a thousand times bigger.

Full Review | May 24, 2006

For a guerrilla-style, no-budget Yank indie to even tackle issues of jihad terror and naive Western thinking is noteworthy in itself, but Gamazon and Dela Llana inflame the issues with a gutsy, athletic filmmaking package.

| May 10, 2006

The film suggests Jennifer Connelly's snorri-cam puke scene from Requiem for a Dream stretched out to 80 minutes.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 8, 2006

Guerilla filmmaking at its finest.

Full Review | Jul 7, 2005