“If life’s a bitch, be a bigger bitch,” croons one character in A Very Good Girl, an inventive and scorching dark comedy-drama that’s bound to turn heads. To that end, “payback,” as they say, is certainly a bitch, too, and director Petersen Vargas’ (2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten, An Inconvenient Love) new film is all the better for it. A Very Good Girl chronicles the ripple effects of a ruthless firing. A frustrated Philo (Kathryn Bernardo) suddenly embarks on a meticulously planned revenge plot against a stylish retail mogul named Mother Molly (Dolly de Leon). Philo is clear about her endgame: She wants to dismantle Molly’s empire and toss the woman aside.

A Very Good Girl was written by Marionne Dominique Mancol, Jumbo A. Albano, and Daniel S. Saniana. In addition to Bernardo and de Leon, it also stars Donna Cariaga, Chie Filomeno, Jake Ejercito, Ana Abad Santos, Gillian Vicencio, Kaori Oinuma, Nour Hooshmand, Althea Ruedas, and Natania Guerro. It’s a stellar leap for an already inventive filmmaker like Petersen Vargas. For starters, Dolly de Leon stole the show in Triangle of Sadness and walked away with a Golden Globe nomination to boot. And Bernardo has been dubbed “the Box Office Queen of Philippine Cinema.”

It all works here, and the director was eager to share more about the film in this exclusive MovieWeb interview.

The Lead Actors Rock

By all accounts, Petersen Vargas has created an invigorating female-led endeavor. It’s one he felt couldn’t have happened without the presence of the delightful Dolly de Leon and Kathryn Bernardo, an actor who lights up the screen.

“I feel most audiences will be surprised by how such of a star-turned role Dolly de Leon has here,” Pertesen Vargas said. “People have seen her in Triangle of Sadness, but this time around they’ll see her in a really different light. But more than that, we’re selling this as a revenge film, but for me, it’s also geared towards this mother-daughter relationship that’s very complex and sticky. Most people are going to be surprised that the revenge plot goes an entirely different direction midway into the film.”

Related: Best Dolly de Leon Performances, Ranked

Those twists are fun to watch, in fact, and the de Leon and Bernardo are electrifying on screen. Vargas went to say that A Very Good Girl expanded his creative reach. He’d worked with predominantly young actors in the past. A good thing, sure, but he relished de Leon’s experience, and he learned a great deal from Kathryn Bernardo as well.

“The way Kathryn wouldn’t just study for her character, she studied the entire film,” Vargas shared. “She would even give me script notes, sharing her thoughts about what we could do better. That was a very infectious creative energy that we kind of just embraced all throughout the process.”

A New Era for Representation
ABS-CBN / Star Cinema

Petersen Vargas said jumping into the project was a “no-brainer.” He felt diving into a dark comedy would help him grow, but he also knew of the two leads, and appreciated that Kathryn Bernardo was one of the most esteemed actresses in the Philippines — one of Asia’s top box office stars, having starred in as The Hows of Us, Hello, Love, Goodbye, and Barcelona: A Love Untold. Then there was the fabulous Dolly de Leon. And yet, there was something else about the film, beyond the two great leads, that captured his attention:

“I felt like it was also an opportunity to kind of excavate something around how I was currently about being Filipino, and about being young and powerless, and how this film could show how this generation is really trying to fight against a large system of social injustice.”

Related: Best Southeast Asian Movies of the 2010s, Ranked

Vargas also felt it would offer an ideal opportunity to diversify what was being put out in Hollywood and world cinema. “I’ve been inspired by how much Southeast Asian representation and Filipino representation has been put around in global content and media,” he noted. “I think we are part of that. Those baby steps in introducing what we could offer the world.

“Because I think content has been so democratized right now,” he added. “People could easily access what kind of content, films or series they can watch.”

It’s time we could tell our stories the way we want to without trying to fit in with certain standards and rules. And yeah, this is one of our first steps, me as a director with Star Cinema.

ABS-CBN / Star Cinema

Vargas was also candid about what he feels Filipino cinema has to offer, in general, quickly noting, in addition to de Leon’s presence, Rubén Ruiz, a Filipino actress, and Leonor Will Never Die, the brilliant 2022 film about retired filmmaker, who falls into a deep coma after a television lands on her head. “That film really introduced a new brand of Filipino cinema. We are having a diverse slate of Filipino cinema being shared around the world, making us known for more than just social political dramas. We can also dabble into fun stuff like dark comedies and revenge plots.”

A Very Good Girl, an ABS-CBN and Star Cinema release, opens in theaters October 6.