Bar Boys: The barkada drama you didn’t expect it to be

Our college years are a hell of a roller coaster ride, mounting us on the woozy loops of independence and responsibility, and director Kip Oebanda presents this ride through a barkada drama while revealing the alarming reality of law school.

Apart from the complexity of adulting, Bar Boys also presents the value of relationships and importance of learning (both inside and outside the classroom) as the Bar Boys giddily handle life, long readings, terror professors, and even Dota.

Mama’s boy Torran (Rocco Nacino), rich kid Chris (Enzo Pineda), hard working Erik (Carlo Aquino), and easy-go-lucky Joshua (Kean Cipriano) are the solid cast completing the typical tropapips—and you’ll probably find yourself relating to them at some points.

Gathering the chemistry of the main actors who do justice to their roles, no doubt it is among one of the underrated films in Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino’s roster. The film narrates the reality of juggling priorities, family affairs, and academic headaches, all while keeping it real as they highlight millennials who are undoubtedly becoming daredevils in their own ways. However, tread carefully, lawyer wannabes, for it might scare the hell out of you as Bar Boys shows the real deal of entering law school—a true survival of the fittest scenario.

Although Bar Boys isn’t like the other PPP films that wooed the crowd with its hidden political agenda or one hundred poems for a certain somebody, Bar Boys still reminds us students not to define ourselves by our failures—may it be one or a one thousand—which is something not all Filipino films have a say on.

It may be a classic fun tropa story that’s a little too corny for its own good, but either way, you’ll definitely see yourself in one of the Bar Boys because you don’t need to be a law student to realize how challenging (read: messed-up) this bumpy life can be.