There's a simple emotional acuity at the heart of this 2007 coming-of-age musical. True, at a poverty row budget of $15,000, it has the production values of a direct-to-hotel porn movie, but first-time director Richard Wong and first-time screenwriter, songwriter and co-lead H.P. Mendoza manage to make something substantive from the tired premise of three close friends just out of high school and still reeling from painful romantic breakups and experiencing the social alienation that makes their respective roads to self-discovery bumpy ones. The acting feels stilted and the music rather derivative, but the film somehow makes it to the finish line through its honesty about how life is for social outcasts living in San Francisco's suburban necropolis. It's all the more forgivable for the enthusiastic effort that shows.

Shot on digital video in the real town of Colma, the movie opens with the three leads singing the "Rent"-inspired rave-up, "Colma Stays", which describes the anonymous small town with clever imagery. Lanky Jake Moreno plays Billy, the most inchoate of the trio, an aspiring actor who not only lands a sales job at the mall (Serramonte for all you SF locals) but also a supporting role in a local community theater production. He can't seem to get over his ex-girlfriend much to the chagrin of not only a smitten fellow actress but also close pal Maribel. With a cheery spark masking an uncertain melancholy, the cherubic L.A. Renigen makes party girl Maribel the earthbound glue holding the trio together just barely. Her shining moment comes with "Crash the Party", a dead ringer for Blondie's "Dreamin'", preceded by the film's funniest moment, a frozen-stare purchase of alcohol with fake IDs similar to the liquor store scene in "Superbad".

The most challenged and challenging character is Rodel, played with studied deadpan by Mendoza. Rodel is a gay poet and slacker, closeted from his traditional Filipino father and increasingly jealous of Billy's ability to move on with his life. He provides the film's most painfully realistic moments, as well as the most lacerating lines. Yet, his plaintive rendition of "One Day (Pt. 2)" provides genuine heart to the story's climactic moment. Not everything is wondrous. Moreno's nasal vocals, which make him sound like Bert on "Sesame Street", get wearing for the repetitive monotone. The barroom shanty scene runs too long, especially in ¾ time, and the "Deadwalking" duet between Renigen and Mendoza is marred by the arty Bergmanesque intrusion of ghostly couples dancing in the cemetery. The 2007 DVD offers a few surprising extras given the film's low budget - an infectious and insightful commentary track from Wong and Mendoza and fifteen minutes of deleted and extended scenes that were wisely excised from the final cut. Definitely a worthy first effort.

What would it be like to grow up in a town where the dead outnumber the living by a ratio of more than a-thousand-to-one? That's the case with Colma, a working-class community located just south of San Francisco that is more notable for its vast cemeteries than for anything related to the folk who actually live there. Dubbed The City of the Dead, Colma has a population of around 1500 above ground but over a million-and-a-half below, with roughly 75% of the town's land given over to tombstones and gravesites. That hardly seems the ideal setting for a movie musical, but then "Colma: The Musical" is not your average, run-of-the-mill, afraid-to-take-a-risk movie. Thankfully.

Three of the live people who call Colma home are Billy (Jake Moreno),an aspiring actor who's so straight-arrow he's never even had a drink; Rodel (H.P. Mendoza, who also co-wrote the screenplay),a gay prankster who fears coming out to his traditionalist dad; and Maribel (L.A. Renigen),a fun-loving free spirit, who often has to serve as mediator between the two guys. Recently graduated from high school, these three best buddies suddenly discover themselves on the brink of adulthood, trying to find their way in the world and wondering what the future holds for them.

Like a modern-day "Umbrellas of Cherbourg," "Colma: The Musical" is a cinematic operetta in which the characters define their relationships and express their feelings almost entirely through song. The score by Mendoza is lively and bouncy - if a trifle redundant at times - with lyrics that capture the fears and yearnings of the teenage heart with uncanny accuracy. In addition, this stylish and stylized movie features appealing performances, an endearing sense-of-humor, a hint of surrealism, and an artful use of that rarely employed, but often highly effective, tool of cinematic grammar, the split-screen.

With its youthful exuberance and anything-goes audaciousness, this quirky, independent feature has much of the feel of experimental regional theater about it. And the fact that it's still a trifle rough around the edges only adds to its authenticity and charm.

Filled with amusing and touching insights into this wonderfully complex and exciting thing we call "growing up," the movie understands the paradox that Colma, like all hometowns, serves both as the soil to plant one's roots in and as the place to break away from when the time is right. That's the lesson that these three likable young people learn in the end - just as the countless others, now residing in those graveyards, learned before them.

First-time director Richard Wong and first-time screenwriter, songwriter and co-lead H.P. Mendoza manage to make a great low-budget coming to age musical that is better than a lot of the big Broadway musicals. The movie follows three close friends on their journey from high school to their journey to self-discovery. The movie opens with the song 'Colma Stays', which describes the small town as nowhere ville. It's even funnier when you had live there, like me, but Colma is nowhere like 'small town'. It's pretty much now connected to Daly City, and South San Francisco. It's does change. It's only 20 minutes away from San Francisco, but the filmmakers made it seem like it's Colma is far from nowhere cool and there isn't anything to do. It's no way, cut off from the world. Still, there is more dead people than alive people in Colma. Anybody who is a Bay Area local who live South Bay will appreciate the inside jokes, but the movie is a bit limited due to that reason. The only people that can related to the film is a small group of people that live near or close by of the town of Colma. Billy (Jake Moreno) is the an aspiring actor who can't get over his ex-girlfriend, while not seeing that a fellow actress Tara (Sigrid Sutter) is smitten with him as well as his close pal Maribel. (L.A Renigen). Maribel seems the character that rarely has much going for her, besides partying. She's not that interesting of a character. She's a bit annoying, and snobby. The only highlight of the film was her singing 'Crash the Party' which is awesome non cut one take musical number. Not only is it, a great song that sounds similar to Blondie 'Dreamin', but the way they film it is amazing how they did without one mistake. While, Maribel has barely a character, Rodel (H.P Mendoza) has too much of it. Rodel is a gay slacker, who get beaten by his traditional Filipino father and increasingly jealous of Billy's ability to move on with his life. I love how the camera puts a black line between them in the laundry scene, making two boxes. He always complaining, yelling, making fun or in negative mood. It's makes you wonder why the other people even hang out with him. Seeing how he wrote the screenplay, the story follows way too much of him. Sadly, he can not sing as well. It felt repetitive monotone. Honestly, none of the actors can sing that well, but H.P Mendoza is pretty awful. I do like H.P Mendoza making fun of people that party way too much with the song. "Could We Get Any Older". Thank you, Mendoza. I wish I had the guts to say that to certain people in my life. I love the fact that the characters define their relationships and express their feelings almost entirely through song. Other songs that were pretty good are 'Tara', and "Goodbye Cupid or Goodbye Stupid'. 'Goodbye Cupid' was pretty funny drunk bar song. I do like the Hulk Hogan look a like guy at the bar. It's weird in a way, that everybody there, sounds like a Muppet character there. 'Deadwalking' was a interesting song with people dancing over people's graves. It's a beautiful song, but it's seems kinda disrespectful for those people who were buried there to be filming a musical there. It's does show what Colma is known for. I don't like "One Day' and 'Mature', it's just sounds like any slow normal karaoke song. The acting isn't that good. The characters can be pretty obnoxious and unlikeable. Still, it was funny how mean-spirited they can be. The language can be a bit harsh. Not all the locations in Colma: The Musical were in Colma. The Theater was located in San Francisco Mission Distract. The Cafe scene was on Ingleside neighborhood in SF. The Lincoln Park Market is in Clement St, San Francisco, CA. where they get fake IDS. It's was kinda funny, in a way, because in 2012, the place was busted for lottery fraud. I kinda wish they use more of Colma. Colma: the Musical is a great watch, for fans of musicals, or people that know the area. Even if you're not from Colma, you should give it a try.