Slingshot

Portrayed entirely without sentiment, everyone here is equally abject, from the crushed victim of a human stampede to the starving baby playing in its own feces. The mood of scrambling desperation can be exhausting, but the filmmaking is never less than exhilarating.

Though one misses cinematographer Oydssey Flores's camerawork that played such an important role on the three subsequent films--at once more chaotic and more expressive than the digital shooting here--Mendoza's look at the illicit activity of a group of marginal Filipinos is no less feverishly absorbing.

Tirador ’s frenetic style and locale will remind many viewers of Fernando Meirelles’ much-admired City of God.

One can maintain the energy and patience for donnybrooks and general insanity only so long.

Supplies no end of shock, but an underdeveloped emotional core keeps the viewer at arm's length.