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Amos Lassen wrote on 12/11/2009:

“Serbis” (“Service”)

The Two Sides of Morality
Amos Lassen


The Pineda family runs a seedy movie house which shows sexy double-features. The family also lives in the same building and as they go about their daily routines, we see how they suffer and deal with each other. Nanay Flor is the mother who lives with her daughter, Neyda, her son-in-law, Lando, adopted daughter Jewel who alternates between showing the films and attending to the canteen, nephew Alan, a billboard painter and Ronald, the projectionist.
Nanay gas a case against her ex-husband for bigamy and when the movie opens she is attending a court hearing at which a decision will e handed down. This is the background for the relational, economic and sexual problems of the family.
Alan’s girlfriend who is pregnant is pressuring him to mart her but he feels unprepared for the responsibility of marriage. Neyda married because of tradition and is torn between being true to her husband and her attraction for her cousin, Ronald, Mother Nanay loses her court case and feels betrayed by the judge and by her son who testified in favor of his father.
Everyone has personal demons to be dealt with—so much so that they are unaware that the movie theater is being used by hustlers and the man that pay for their “serbis”.
There seem to be two themes to the film—one dealing with service and the other with family (that happens to be the name of the movie house.) Service refers to the hustlers who sell themselves inside the theater and here morality is questioned. Here is a society that is full of self-pity and poverty and as the family struggles, the hustlers are making good money right under their noses. Interestingly enough the film is based on the truth. The word “serbis” or service refers not only the service provided by the rent boys but the service that is required of family members to each other as well as the service the movie house provides for the people and the service of the populace to each other.
Gina Pareno as Nanay is a domineering matriarch of the Filipino family. This is the traditional role for women in the Philippines; it has a matriarchal society with men in the forefront but behind each man is a powerful woman. As the camera follows each character, we learn about them from their actions. This, in turn, provides different levels of understanding.
This is quite a different approach to family dynamics and as the camera plays the role of the eyes of the director, we get a look at family and culture that we do not often get.
It is easy to see why people might dislike “Serbis”—it is raw and bleak and there are highly sexual scenes but despite that there are images of optimism for the future of the characters and it certainly seems if there will be a change for the better.
The film is one that is not easily explained. It is a different kind of film and has to be seen with a clear mind.