Some Nights I Feel Like Walking is a 2024 independentroaddrama film written and directed Petersen Vargas. It stars Miguel Odron, Jomari Angeles, Argel Saycon, Tommy Alejandrino and Gold Aceron.
The film was based on the director's own youth experience in Manila and his search for identity.[3] In an interview, Vargas mentions that his "rigid household" was a reference for creating the film.[4] Vargas was interested in making a film about a queer boy who moved from the provinces to Manila, and a film based on how Manila shaped his gay identity.[5] He began writing the film in 2017, and thought of violence during the Duterte administration and the influence of Manila on his queer identity.[5] Vargas mentions that film is included in a line of Philippine queer film culture, such as films by Lino Brocka, Mel Chionglo, and Crisaldo Pablo.[5]
The production initially planned to cast street hustlers. However, they shifted to interviewing around 400 young people in Zoom to screen casting due to the pandemic.[5] Composers Aly and Moe Cabral incorporated Regine Velasquez' "Dadalhin" in the film. They also decided to include budots "[to cultivate] the feeling of being in Manila" and for the genre's being "local".[6] The film began shooting in Manila in the end of April 2025. Filming also occurred in Pangasinan.[3]
It was also premiered at Glasgow Film Festival on February February 28, 2025, BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival on March 26, 2025,[11] Macao International Queer Film Festival on June 8, 2025.[12] Its Philippine premiere was at the QCinema RainbowQC Pride Film Festival at Gateway Mall 2 on June 26, 2025. [13] Afterward, it was screened in Isetann Cinerama Recto on August 21. Massage chairs, karaoke machines, free sexual health services, live performances by macho dancers, and ukay-ukay stalls were set up in the screening venue.[4][5][14]Grindr profiles of the film's characters were posted to promote the film and the screening.[14] The film had a limited release nationwide on August 27.[15][16]
Reception
Stephanie Mayo of Daily Tribune gave the film a rating of 2 over 5 and she wrote; Some Nights I Feel Like Walking ultimately feels like an exercise in craft rather than a fully realized work. There’s potential here for something raw, moving, urgent, but the film’s self-conscious stylization diminishes whatever substance it might have had.[17]
Fred Hawson of News.ABS-CBN.com gave the film a rating of 6/10 and wrote; Some Nights felt like two films mashed up together. The sticky and steamy first part was about the decaying underbelly of a big city where desperate boys brazenly plied their skin trade, and something began to develop between two of them.[18]
The film uses "a multi-sensory approach" to deliver its message, Rolling Stone's Don Jaucian argues. Jaucian describes that its cinematography, such as its 20-minute[4] one-take sequence at the end, "puts the audience in its place", and its "atmospheric and electronic" music, and that its sound design captures "what it’s like to walk in Manila at night".[19]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
