If you ever want to know why I indulge in movies, this is the reason. She’s Dating the Gangster is a bad film. I mean, what can you say about a storyline in which not one, but two teen love interests have secret fatal diseases? And yet, this is positively the most bubbly, enjoyably bad tragicomedy of the year.
Like all good love stories, this one begins with a plane crash. Kenneth (Daniel Padilla) responds to the news of his father’s plane going down by going to the airport, where, apparently, they keep the news. Kelay (Kathryn Bernardo) is there to claim Kenneth’s dad as her dad as well. Well, not really. It’s a long story. And it turns out we have about 105 minutes to tell it. See Kelay’s aunt was the girl The Gangster (Kenneth’s dad) loved. Well, he didn’t
love her at first. It’s complicated. Have we got time? I feel like I’ve done this already.
For teens, there’s a lot of little moments here to enjoy. For the rest of us, I’ll sum up:
80s flashback, Filipino sytle, bitches! Gangster Kenji (also Padilla, doing double duty) is the kind of troubled punk found only in the Shangri-Las “Leader of the Pack.” Hey, wrong decade, pal. He’s in love with Athena #1, which attracts the butterfly-garmented Athena #2 (also Bernardo, lot of repetition in this film, huh?) In a plot borrowed from “Three’s Company,” Kenji dates Athena #2 to win back Athena #1. And he’s horrible, and then he isn’t, and then they fall in love, awwwwwww.
Yes, this film is stupid.
Yes, this film is adorable.
Kathryn Bernardo is the epitome of the girl you want your son to fall in love with. Daniel Padilla is the epitome of boy you want your gay son to fall in love with. No, you can’t take seriously the hidden agendas of secretly dying teens. You can smile when Agatha #2 and Kenji realize they’ve fallen in love and you can get teary eyed when she protests, “this is going to end badly.” We know it will, but we want it to happen anyway.
Courage is … knowing you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway. — Harper 
Lee.
Anybody who sees this should have read that. It fits.
She’s Dating the Gangster is told in an uneven and often curious combination of English, Spanish and Tagalog which, given you have multiple actors playing characters in different timelines combined with the same characters being played by different actors in different timelines and the fact that Athena #1 goes by “Abigail” for most of the film and Athena #2 has her phone and … screw it. Trust me when I say, that if you lose your brain to this one, you’ll understand and enjoy it, ok?
A twisted love triangle from beyond the grave
Between the hot nerd and the cool knave
Mostly for teens
Beware many scenes
Watching foreign silly is a game for the brave
Rated PG, 105 Minutes
D: Cathy Garcia-Molina
W: Carmi Raymundo
Genre: Making it up as we go
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Tween Filipinas
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The impatient
