Kontrabida Academy Review
Director: Chris Martinez
Date Created: 2025-09-12 01:43
2.5
Kontrabida Academy Review: Many films from the Philippines find an interesting way to blend fantasy, humour, and drama, and one such example is this Netflix movie. Directed and scripted by Chris Martinez, the film features Barbie Forteza as Gigi/Gia along with Eugene Domingo, Jameson Blake, Michael De Mesa, Ysabel Ortega, Xyriel Manabat, Carmina Villaroel, Yasser Marta and others. Gigi is an everyday woman whose rough life takes an odd turn when she is transported into an odd world of a TV soap where she is schooled to be the villain at the supposed “Academy.” The movie, though its offbeat premise makes it sound cool, the execution is a combination of witty humour and disappointing mess.
Kontrabida Academy Review
I was intrigued the first time I heard the premise of the Netflix film Kontrabida Academy. Villain school? That was an odd take on the drama that many families grew up with. Trying to lampoon melodramatic cliches, scheming mums, loves that conspire, over-the-top villains, and overact them for the purposes of humour.
But more than flashes of humour, though, the movie never quite knew what it was at all. Sometimes it was a satiric send-up, sometimes it was a grim family epic, and sometimes an awkward romantic drama. As such, the tone never quite became able to settle, and I never quite knew what I was actually supposed to be doing, giggling, thinking, or sobbing? In short, it didn’t quite achieve the right balance for moods.
Something I did like was the cast members’ dedication. They played their over-the-top characters for all they were worth. Villains were loud, ostentatious, and practically cartoonish and thus indelible. Even where I didn’t really want to like the plot, I couldn’t help but break into guffaws at just how ridiculous some of the speeches and one-liners were.
The character development of Barbie Fortera, from Gigi into the character of “Gia”, really allowed her a lot of leeway and liberty to portray the different facets of her character. I enjoyed the fact that she could portray the struggles of just an everyday woman and the exaggerated acting of a kontrabida. I didn’t like that abrupt love affair between Gigi and Arnaldo; it seemed contrived and underdeveloped. It took away from the focus of the main point of studying what it actually means to be a villain.
Kontrabida Academy shines brightest when it is basking in the glow of goofiness. The classroom sequences at the academy, where one learns the art of gossiping, gaslighting, or posing for life-ruining, were silly but actually hilarious. They reminded one of the over-the-top soap operas that dominate primetime TV.
But whenever the film tried to inject feelings of depth, it seemed forced. Gigi’s family issues and her broken heart, for example, might’ve added interesting layers, but it was hurried or overpowered by the fantasy itself. I felt like the screenwriters were trying too many ideas without giving any of them the development it required.
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Kontrabida Academy of Netflix was clearly striving to be a parody of villains of popular culture, but it went off the rails somewhere along the way. Instead of witty mockery, the story attempted tired moral sermons, forgiveness over revenge is better, there is good within evil persons, and the like. They’re not bad messages, but they were done so overtly and emphatically that they seemed unearned.
The epiphanic moment where Gigi arrives at the realisation that it is kindness and not power felt good on paper, but the journey leading up there was patchy. There were too many sudden jumps, like the ill-fated love and the abrupt rise of the extras, that the conclusion seemed more rushed than conclusive.
Visually, the film was vibrant and flamboyant. The soap-opera format had outrageous attire, flamboyant locations, and stagelighting, and it complemented the humour. At times, though, it was like viewing a stag play rather than a film, because everything was simply too noisy and up-your-nose-down. Some would adore such a camp format, but for me, it became exhausting after a stretch.
The Netflix movie Kontrabida Academy isn’t an unmitigated failure. I enjoyed its offbeat charm, the lighthearted exaggeration of the Filipino soap shtick, and the vigour of the lead actors. Quirky, hilarious at times, and seriously not the cookie-cutter romantic drama we’ve endured one too many times.
Netflix Kontrabida Academy Review: Summing Up
In one word, the Filipino movie Kontrabida Academy was promising but only half successful. As a spectator, I chuckled here and there, rolled my eyes a few times, and walked away not wholly entertained nor wholly impressed. But overall, I could not savour it as intensely as I expected. The tonal inconsistency, underpowered romance track, and clichéd conclusion diluted the impact of the movie.
