A kid had to face the world in his own animated version and conquer life's biggest monster. ANI (The Harvest) It's as if a child's imagination is a safe haven, a place where the world is a playground for all the possibilities the mind could think of. And even the tight and humble space called home, situated on a busy Metro could not hinder the inquisitive headspace of a young Mithi (played by Zyren Dela Cruz), a boy who accomplishes the day by playing with his colorful toy robots that perform a vital role in his imaginary narrative. With a loving father and a mother that sings him a self-assuring lullaby, Mithi is blissfully unaware of the harsh reality. But life decided to toy with his fate, and Mithi's perfect little world is now showing its cracks, putting his vulnerability to the test and slowly depriving him of his happiness he thought would last forever. And through his eyes, the world suddenly transforms itself into a menacing monster. Set in a lush
"Born Beautiful" Review - As Flaky as a Cheap Make-Up
Still grieving for the loss of her friend, Barbs Cordero must face the world anew and strut her way out of a runway of challenges, like a true beauty queen would.
With 2016's Die Beautiful, directed by Jun Lana, a new benchmark for comedy filmmaking has been born. A masterpiece of its own, Die Beautiful sets up a beautiful but tragic tale of Trisha (Paolo Ballesteros) who won her coveted beauty queen title but later dies of an aneurism. Despite a sorrowful situation, her bestfriend Barbs (Martin Del Rosario, previously played by Christian Bables) must now take the stage on her own in this 2019 sequel, Born Beautiful.
Directed by Perci M. Intalan, the movie opens up with Barbs talking to her friend Trish in a dream state, acting as if she was her moral conscience, discussing a possible path she must take in order to sort her problems out. The sequence, however, ended up with her stabbing herself and waking out of it, like a weird nightmare of some sort.
Later, she was visited by her current boyfriend but decided to cut the ropes with him, receiving a swift beating in return. Fed up with her bewildering conundrum, she then decided to cut her hair clean, put herself in a tight blue shirt, and joined a religious retreat in a belief that she needed a bit of divine intervention to get herself, or rather himself, on a straight path.
From then on, a stack of problems got in her way, as if she was still traversing a winding path with no particular destination to go to.
A Beautiful Disaster
With Christian Bables' brilliant performance in Die Beautiful, and a best-supporting actor award to boot, you would think that no one would do the character better than he did.
Enter Martin Del Rosario, who, after Bables' departure from the titular role, did not disappoint with his acting finesse and strong presence on screen. He looked divine as Barbs, and quite the best replacement on Bables' otherwise big shoes to fill in.
First of, I applaud Del Rosario for his commitment to the role and a quite challenging task he had to undertake. His nuanced performance and vibrant enthusiasm was so authentic and makes you believe in the role and gets you excited with what's to come. If it was just a battle among performances, I'd say Del Rosario was the better act than that of Ballesteros and Bables combined.
However, with Del Rosario's admirable and elegant poise, comes a startling mess of a plot. Some comedic timing missed the mark and came off as forced and bland in execution. It wasn't all bad but the abundace of dry and sometimes flat jest doesn't work well and dragged the film down.
Halfway in, the film was still busy trying to setup a conflict that made everything annoyingly obfuscating anyway. Add to that, a scene that should've been a powerful moment to Barb's arc but instead felt like a weak excuse to shift from one clunky sequence to another. And speaking of character arc, it seems like there was none at all.
The lack of a clear goal and a pile of side plots that didn't go anywhere by the end of it was a big letdown in comparison to its solid prequel. Looks like Intalan's follow up had too much make up on it and ended up looking like a clown as a result.
Overall, it feels like a rushed out sequel, unaware of its own potential, like an unprepared pageant contestant. Sure it's full of hearty humor but at its core was a wasted inner beauty waiting to bloom and to be fully realized.
Let's Be Reel
While it had some desirable qualities, Born Beautiful as a film was an accidental misfire. You'll probably enjoy it for a few giggles but it wasn't the strong sequel that we deserve.
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