A show for lawyers

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A SCENE from Bar Boys: After School

By Joseph L. Garcia, Senior Reporter

Movie Review
Bar Boys: After School
Directed by Kip Oebanda
Produced by 901 Studios
MTRCB Rating: PG

THE 2017 film Bar Boys is becoming quite the beloved franchise, with a 2024 stage adaptation and now with a second movie. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t ride the 2017 hype of the first movie, about friends navigating life and law school. In other words, I did not see it.

What that meant for this review of its sequel was that I had zero emotional investment in the characters (played by Rocco Nacino, Carlo Aquino, and Enzo Pineda). Kean Cipriano attends law school the way his character in the first film did not. (All the actors play the same roles they played in the first film.)

The “boys” are now shown living their lives after passing the bar 10 years ago. Mr. Aquino’s lawyer works for an NGO. Mr. Nacino’s character is a devoted family man, a handsome lawyer in a law firm (and is used only as the face of his firm, much to his dissatisfaction), and a law professor. Mr. Pineda still plays the conflicted rich boy who just can’t have it all; Mr. Cipriano drops his showbiz act from the first film and does the grunt work in law school.

Meanwhile, their beloved law professor, Justice Hernandez (played by veteran Odette Khan), is dying. The boys take turns caring for her. Now, for her, I felt instant love. The boys are good, but any scene that had Ms. Khan in it, frail as she was in wheelchairs and hospital beds, is immediately dominated by her.

However, even Ms. Khan suffered from clunky dialogue, which was probably why I couldn’t immediately love the characters. They don’t sound like real people, or the actors aren’t comfortable with their lines — we note this especially with the newbies in the cast, led by internet sensation Sassa Gurl. In all fairness to her, she levels up her acting skills in the last bits of the film, when she is no longer required to act out classroom recitations. For the rest of the cast, however, their delivery only sounds like a rough idea of how people think lawyers talk. The few times the dialogue does land right (mostly when it’s just the four of the main cast), I’m reminded only of aspiring lawyers I didn’t like (but maybe that’s just me).

The movie is not unwatchable, despite my nitpicking. Perhaps due to Mr. Oebanda’s roots in activism, we’re given side stories related to social issues: Mr. Aquino’s character, for example, becomes a victim of violence related to his profession. Economic issues are highlighted by Mr. Nacino’s character’s students: Therese Malvar’s CJ strives to become a lawyer to save her village from a corrupt quarrying company; Will Ashley’s Arvin struggles through juggling law school and actual work. We commend Mr. Ashley’s acting skills in bringing justice to that specific arc (that his young boss is a benevolent “nepo baby” played by a handsome Emilio Daez is a bonus). The story arcs bouncing away from the problems of the main four give the film a little more oomph and longevity. We also give credit where credit is due: despite the clunky, jargon-filled dialogue, the film shows the tedium of paperwork, meetings, and red tape that more glamorous legal dramas won’t show — and still somehow make it interesting.

The movie isn’t for me: I’m not a lawyer. The subplots, I feel, can be developed into standalone movies; but as for the main plot, I imagine mid-career lawyers getting shivers up their spine while watching some scenes. This is their show, and they should treat themselves to it.