The University of the Philippines is having a moment right now—equal parts admiration (their underdog Finals run in the UAAP) and criticism (the administration-led hate against them) so Liza Soberano's UP scholar role in Alone/Together feels very relevant. A lot of the early press focused on the pairing of UP and UST—represented by her ka-loveteam Enrique Gil in case you didn't know-but the movie doesn't actually delve too much into it.
There's not much to nitpick in terms of how they portrayed UP, it's pretty accurate aside from the fact that they never visit Tin's actual college in lieu of the more cinematic spaces on campus. No doubt it'll inspire legions of Sunken Garden selfies but aside from that, it feels like they spend a longer time in New York than UP. So if you're expecting a vicarious look into UP life then you'd feel shortchanged—but not as shortchanged as UST students. Raf is delayed, uniform-wearing, a boor and we don't even get a Paskuhan scene to make up for the negative UST stereotypes on show. In fact, the closest we get to showing UST on-screen at all is a comshop scene. We assume it's there because they love DOTA right?
The plot is more drama than romcom, and is well-written, relatable stuff, with portions of fun, witty dialogue until it starts getting draggy at around the two-third mark when we started feeling tired for Liza's (quite effective) tear glands. Imagine, they had space for two proposal scenes in there. Without spoiling anything, the role-reversal they experience after grad is a nice setup, and they almost stuck the bittersweet Makoto Shinkai-esque ending but they couldn't resist giving the film a "cleaner" resolution with added closure and inspirational speech. The conflict with their significant others being in the way was also not too convincing because 1. Jasmine Curtis-Smith's character was paper thin; and 2. Adrian Alandy was a blatant asshole—they were both just waiting to be broken up with.
Overall though, anyone who's been through a post-college crisis or has a TOTGA can relate and that's why we watch films like these. Alone/Together is not as big an evolutionary step for local films compared to Antoinette Jadaone's earlier work but it's not bad at all.
Other highlights!
1. Liza is thicc, also she looks so good in those car window shots.
2. That dude who picked his nose beside them after their first on-screen kiss was the real MVP.
3. Enrique must have watched a lot of You because he was always at the right place at the right time.