‘Throwback Today’s’ message to millennials

Carlo Aquino

Don’t be scared to try out new things,” said Carlo Aquino when the Inquirer asked the actor what he would have advised his younger self if he had the chance.

In the sci-fi flick “Throwback Today,” Carlo plays Primo, who is able to communicate with his younger self in an online chat room. “Primo is convinced that he is failing so much today because of what he has done in the past,” he explained. “What he doesn’t understand is that he needs to be man enough in order for everything to be right today.”

The 32-year-old actor added: “There came a point in the past when I felt too afraid to get out of my comfort zone and doubted my capabilities.

“If I meet my younger self [somehow] today, I’d tell him to fight this feeling. I would not convince him to change anything other than that—I’m strong because of all the pain I’ve been through in the past.”

“Throwback Today,” written and directed by Joseph Teoxon, is an official entry in the 2017 Cinema One Originals Film Festival, which is ongoing until Nov. 21 in Metro Manila theaters.

Carlo, who has been doing movies since the early ’90s, said he was used to working with veteran directors, and so he found Teoxon’s approach to filmmaking as “something very fresh.”
He added: “I enjoyed the experience; although I admit that we were both fumbling in the beginning.”

Carlo said he hoped that he was able to portray Primo effectively, “because my last sci-fi film was ‘Kokey’ (2007). I hope I’ve achieved showing how Primo has matured as a person in the different alternate realities that we presented in the film.”

How would millennials be able to relate to the movie?

Joseph Teoxon

To this, Teoxon replied: “While watching, they will recall the times they felt frustrated with their lives after graduating from college; and since millennials are said to have a sense of entitlement, [there’s] the frustration of not getting what they want.”

The director added: “The film simply wants to say, ‘Be patient, let go of your ego and pride, and learn from what life is trying to teach you.’”

“Throwback Today” also features Annicka Dolonius, Empress Shuck and Alan Paule.